Celestine
At The Borders Of Arcadia
7.5
At the Borders of Arcadia is a 24 minute, six song, post-metal EP, and Celestine’s debut work. There are obvious stylistic similarities to genre heavyweights Neurosis/Isis, though with less engrossing atmosphere and more angry vitriol. Despite the genre, I found Celestine’s work to be immediately accessible. Throughout the EP the guitars seamlessly transition from chugging, crunchy riffs with melodic hooks overlaid to light, atmospheric, acoustic passages. Vocals are barked and yelled throughout, though the vocalist delivers them in a manner that is noticeably more powerful and conveys more emotion than his contemporaries. The constant buildup and crescendo of the music instills an exaggerated feeling of power into every song; in a way, the well-orchestrated layering of the music makes Celestine greater than the sum of its parts (closing track "Me", for example). Part of this apt construction is the effortless evolution of one song into another. The 24 minutes feel more like one song than they do six, and such a flowing, cohesive feel not only aids the post-metal style, but makes the entire experience very easy to listen to.
It might be worth noting, for some of you, that the song titles of the EP, when strung together, make: “Despair and witness the ruin of god and me." Maybe this is an indication that something conceptual or lyrically deep is going on, maybe not. I wouldn’t know, because the lyrics are presented in an entirely unintelligible manner by the vocalist, and I’m certainly not going to peruse supplementary reading material to make up for it. If you’ve got an enlightening message, the best form of delivery is certainly not the aural equivalent of a squirrel perpetually in the process of being strangled.
At the Borders of Arcadia is surprising in its quality, and, if tracks “Me” and “God (And)” are any indication, this EP will have a lot to offer fans of post-metal. Celestine is a band to watch.
