Mortal Mind Creation

There’s long been an eerie parallel between numbers of Finnish power metal bands that would seem to reek of blanket conformity to some preexisting orthodoxy. Indeed, even when crossing over into the countries various melodeath and black metal adherents, there is a recognizable similarity in atmosphere. The parallels between Celesty and their elders in Sonata Arctica have been of particular note since the entry of Antti Railio into the former’s fold. But this all changed with the releases of “Mortal Mind Creation” and the horrid “Unia”, setting Celesty apart as being the band that sticks to what works while SA went the way of In Flames and began pandering to the hipster contingent. This is a band that knows how real power metal works within the European template, and even goes so far as to one up a number of older German outfits in the process on their 2006 offering.

In relation to other albums under the Celesty name, this one is the most outwardly aggressive and riff happy, playing heavily off the 80s speed/thrash influences heard out of Judas Priest and even pre-1986 Metallica. The melodic content is still very consonant and easy to latch onto, but the guitar sound is nasty and loaded with crunch, avoiding that somewhat processed character that Freedom Call took on after “Eternity” while also being a bit shaper than the murkier sound Helloween started up with in the latter 2000s. The songs are all geared towards the more compact approach of the genre, avoiding the longwinded epics of “Legacy Of Hate” that were an over-repetitious exercise in emulating the longest songs heard on the “Keepers” albums, and the only real liability that said album had. Even Antti’s normally crooning, operatic tenor voice has been dirtied up a little bit to give this album a bit more attitude in the vein of their spectacular debut album, though the parallels to Tony Kakko are still heavily present.

One could almost chalk this album up to Celesty succeeding where Sonata Arctica failed in that it presents the cliché melodic character of their style in a somewhat more groove oriented riffing approach without sacrificing catchiness. The bruising opener “Lord Of Mortals” and the equally fast and stomping “Unreality” contain some riffs that, from a heaviness and simplicity context, somewhat resemble the sound character of Exhorder or “Cowboys From Hell” era Pantera, though the melodic contours and atmospheric keyboards make this mostly a concern for guitar enthusiasts. Barring the choruses of the 1st half of the album which are still standard by Celesty’s previous standards, this album doesn’t quite get into typical power metal territory until the middle of the album with “Empty Room” and the serene acoustic half-ballad “Among The Dreams”, which is like a better version of a Sonata Arctica ballad. But the high point of the whole listen is the full out speed assault “Arrival”, which goes back almost completely to the early 2000s character of the band, yet still maintains that nasty guitar tone and hard chugging goodness during the slower sections.

This is a band that has consistently managed to keep up the mostly fast, mostly triumphant sounding end of the power metal world in Europe without going into campy territory the way Dragonforce had by this juncture. They write songs that contain more measured doses of technical shredding and have among the more reserved keyboardists of a band hailing from the Stratovarius school, and are riff happy enough to rival some of the more prestigious German bands such as Iron Savior and Gamma Ray. “Mortal Mind Creation” is a respectable release that is probably the least geared towards typical 2000s fair in their subgenre, though it’s not a far cry by any stretch. Consistency is this band’s forte, and amongst their offerings it is measured from a range of good to excellent. It’s an enviable disposition, if nothing else.