tiistai 18. maaliskuuta 2014

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo 1995


Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo I 1995
1) Crossing the Lands of Shadows
2) Distant Valleys
3) Whispering Souls
4) Secrets of the Mystified Dreams
5) Under the Sun

Zippy / Media

Here's a "real" post again and this one was dubbed to me by Grev, to replace my shitty nth generation version, thanks bro! He sent me scans of the covers too so this time we've got that bit covered. I should mention the covers don't look as dark as what you see above, I was editing the image and playing with the settings while that came up and I thought it looked cool enough to use as an image for the post here on blog.

I suppose I should talk about the demo and the band too. Celestial Empire was one of those numerous bands that appeared in the mid-90s, did a tape or two (they did two) and disappeared. Music on this debut demo was melodic death metal, the Metal Archives entry says death/black metal but I'm not picking up any black metal here, I can agree to dark metal if I must. Perhaps the vocalist's style (harsh half-scream half-roar, which really is more typical of melodic death in my opinion) might have mislead the contributor, or the track titles? Whatever, this is a pretty typical demo of the style, with a good sound (Tico-Tico studio), reasonable performance and ok songwriting. It's not just very memorable or remarkable, but if you like dark metal, 90's Finnish metal and/or melodeath you should give this a listen.

8 kommenttia:

kingpossum kirjoitti...

I'm hearing some thrash elements here, like the lead guitar in Track 2 and some of the skittering riffs and tempo shifts. Recalls for me some U.S. east coast thrash bands whose names elude me at the moment.

The production is a bit too tame or clean or something, it seems to restrain the music a bit. Listenable enough unremarkable as you say.

Thank you GREV and host.

Velkaarn kirjoitti...

@kingpossum:

You are probably right about the US thrash elements, I've never really listened to much US thrash besides Slayer, Death Angel and Dark Angel so can't really drop names for you.

The demo was recorded in the Tico-Tico studios which were pretty well-known in the 90's (ImpNaz, Sentenced and many others used the place) and you're right, it's too clean for a demo. Too easy to hear them stumble even for me.

GREV kirjoitti...

You're welcome Velkaarn & Kingpossum!

kingpossum kirjoitti...

Much prefer your modified cover art to the original too, Velkaarn.

Velkaarn kirjoitti...

Thanks, a little bit darkness brought the simple drawing more depth I think!

GREV kirjoitti...

Argh.. I forget to say thanks for the reworked cover sleeves! So thanks!

Anonyymi kirjoitti...

Instrumental Black/Doom/Noise from Canada. The only release that isn't instrumental is "H".

http://varituuk.bandcamp.com

The discography is free (pay what you want, $0 or more), so feel free to share it with your readers or friends.

Reviews appreciated, but not expected.

GREV kirjoitti...

@Anonymous

Thanks for information. I'll need to check this band out