After a very successful EP, here’s the Celestial Scourge album.
Still in partnership with Time To Kill Records, the Norwegian band comprising Eirik Waadeland (vocals), Stian Gundersen (bass), Kristoffer Lunden (drums), Hans Jakob Bjørheim (guitar) and Sindre Wathne Johnsen (guitar) took two years to perfect Observers of the Inevitable.
The band kicks off with The Advent of Deities, a first composition that begins with a fairly aggressive, jerky approach that develops the song’s catchiness but gradually moves towards technicality. Keyboards amplify the phenomenon before the arrival of vocal parts and extreme heaviness, but the sound becomes truly destructive with Vessels, which lets its rhythmic pattern set ablaze at a frantic pace. The progression slows down to crush us to the ground and highlight the bass, then a final acceleration takes us to Exterminated where the band applies a more or less similar recipe, the effectiveness of which has already been proven by many of their references. The infernal melodies are not to be outdone, as on Wandering Waste of Oxygen, where they take the form of piercing harmonics in the waves of raw power, slapping us in the face from time to time, particularly towards the end of this short track. Insectoid Evisceration follows without delay, a new track with a savage rhythm that easily slows down to create devastating moshparts on which fans of the band will break their necks, then the musicians move towards an assumed complexity with The Optic Chiasm. The track is undoubtedly one of the most worked and brutal, but it’s perfectly managed by the quintet, who turn it into a real strike force to propel us towards the long and dissonant Assembling Deformities, which skilfully borrows its disturbing tones from Progressive Death. The whirlwind of riffs also gives way to some rougher, more chaotic passages, as when the saturated backing vocals come into play, but the track takes the time to develop every aspect of its violence before giving way to Ancient Forms, where the band once again mixes several influences to weave its final whirlwind of aggression and bring the album to a spirited close.
Celestial Scourge‘s musical identity thrives on rage, but also on complexity, making them a strong new challenger for technical enthusiasts. Observers of The Inevitable is very dense, but above all, very dangerous!
90/100