Graf von Feigur recorded drum tracks for the album, but Noktu did not use the recordings because he was not satisfied with them.
Beautiful, this is simply beautiful. This magnificent album is courtesy of the black metal band Celestia. Well, together with the Greeks, the French are also getting good at creating metal opuses especially black metal ones. Let’s talk about this great black metal release named “Archanae Perfectii”.
First, let’s talk about the riffs. Although the riffs have nothing much new in them, they were performed damn right, since numerous melodies here sound outright minimalist, and, of course, melancholic (though not necessarily depressive). Meanwhile, you won’t hear much blast beats in this album, but fast drum work is more or less a staple here. Another thing here is the vocal work, which is another thing that fits to the melancholic music that surrounds this album. Lastly, we have here the production, while most black metal bands nowadays focus on making the drums loud on every song to add power, Celestia doesn’t. What the band does is making the beats and the riffs blend each other without dominating one another (though the bass isn’t that audible). Besides, we don’t have here a “bedroom-made” type of production.
Though the album has loads of melancholic moments like “Dogmatii Duality” & “Perfectio Ketter Katharos”, this album also has some raging black metal moments like those that of “Demhiurgic Deity (Devilution)”, some calm moments like “Grandiohsia Obverturae”, and the instrumental “ArcheArcanae Des Parfaits”. If the album would have a problem, it would be the length and only the length. The album is too short for its own good (with “Grandiohsia Obverturae” as the longest song, which spans for over 6 minutes. Besides that, the album totally will blow your mind off. Though DSBM fans will really like the mood that this album sets (from my own perspective), black metal fans in general will enjoy this magnificent art. Therefore, if you want to spend your money wisely, you better snag this record and listen to this!
My one-time association with this here CELESTIA horde came from an interview I read where they came off as total prissy and holier-than-thou (or, in the eyes of the more cynically cynical of us, “typically French”) dinks who have this delusion about gaining a real existence by way of minimalism and “purity”. Well, whatever works for ya, pal…just remember that when you enter the musical world you should let the MUSIC speak for you rather than any kind of personal politics. That seemed like a concept lost on these goons, which left a rather bitter taste in my mouth…and I hadn’t even heard any of their material yet!
That changed today when I was able to check out their latest album…
I can’t say I’ve been an avid collector of ambient black metal, and therefore don’t have as thorough an understanding of it. But when it comes to this album, I may be missing more than I originally perceived. This new album, “Archaenae Perfectii L’Arche Arcane de Parfaits”, is black metal in more ways than its musical sense, but instead of chaotic and uncontrolled violence, a sense of longing and desperation is present in the music, coupled with a performance that has that French sense of sophistication you wouldn’t find in the plentiful American or Norse groups permeating in the wicked underground. The album’s sound also comes off as a bit schizophrenic, as if the music itself can’t control its changes in tempo, time signature, and overall approach, and instead changes face with almost every riff and chord progression. Far more desolate than the lamentable suicidal BM bands, CELESTIA is able to portray an impure agony and rage that darkens the most sunny of skies, as brutal electric and acoustic guitars, pulsing bass, pounding percussion and bitterly acidic shrieks strangle every bit of life from the listener’s very soul. Examples like “Phoenemenae of Creation”, “Dominus Crux Spiritus”, and “Perfectii Ketter Katharos” showcase that angst-ridden darkness in as deep a shade as humanly possible.
So in the end I was very surprised by this album. Definitely worth it despite their prissy outlook, CELESTIA is able to continue pumping new, creative blood into the currently festering black metal world. Truly a work of art.
Sample:
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