Rating: 8.1

Country: Iceland

Release Date: 2008

Record Label: Milkweed Records

Track list:
1.Despair (and)
2.Witness (the)
3.Ruin (of)
4.God (and)
5.--
6.Me

Total playing time 24:17

Band Website: Celestine

Celestine - At the Borders of Arcadia

Axel - vocals
Joseph - guitar
Omar - guitar
Gretar - bass
Oli - drums

Celestine; remember the name folks. Six songs running for a smidgen over 24 minutes, each packing enough wallop to demolish a 3-storey building. Being the stylistic cognate of Cult of Luna, Pelican and like-minded acts, their music belongs to that selective niche of outfits that manage to pour their genuine psychological undertide of anger and tumultuous introspection into throbbing, effervescent compositions. Songs off the EP exhibit a prime distillation of that vintage melodicism – now I've picked my words carefully here, "distil" is a far cry from "plagiarise". Nevertheless, their song development is more concise comparatively; they might lack the post-rockish, dynamic crescendos of mid-late Isis or even Cult of Luna but what with their continuously energising content that simply writhes with waves of engaging melodies, they make for an emotionally seething musical output indeed.

Immediately striking is the tight grasp the band has over its intended style and form. Musical dynamics don't ebb and flow carelessly according to some contrived, generic template but with confident control by means of an over- arching structural plan. An emergent quality of this sort of discipline is something I perhaps value more than anything in a metal record: organic fluidity - and this band has it in spades. The vocals are harsh like the kind where you think the guy's throat lining must be made out of sand-paper. They generally remain on par with the overall quality of this musical delivery - piercing and appropriately angst-ridden. What's even more delightfully promising is that if this cherry-popping entrant is their base, then extrapolated over the course of their compositional evolution..well, the sky's the limit. Such is the nature of the aesthetical fabric out of which this musical tapestry is intricately woven that any convolutions it might be subdued to can only add to its essence.

The layered juxtaposition of harmonic counterpoint and complex time signatures (the usual 4/4 format is often eschewed herein) pretty much guarantee that this particular musical experience will be a demanding and stimulating one. Indeed, it's not easily digestible matter for the passer-by, non-cognoscenti that might decide to give it a try so you might need to clench your teeth firmly on this one before it 'grows' on you.

Celestine as a band is quite stressing, if not down-right impossible to pigeon-hole; their music simply refuses to be shackled by some trite categorisation. There’s one epithet I’d go for though: crushing. Definitely an outfit I don’t expect to settle down with just being 'yet another band' and I wouldn't be too surprised if Hydra Head snatches up them up for their debut either - now there's a little something to look out for in the time to come, surely.

July 25th, 2008