Archaenae Perfectii - L'arche arcane des parfaits

The French neo-romantic black metal pioneers Celestia are back with a follow-up to 2008′s excellent Frigidiis Apotheosia: Abstinencia Genesiis. Their gothic take on what would otherwise have been a fine example of raw black metal has since been refined even further, clearing the air for more melancholy by candlelight.

While Celestia definitely isn't music for a hot day at the beach, they are not at home in the typical winterscapes of many contemporaries either. Instead, like their countrymen Peste Noire, this is music for those chilly autumn days when rotting colored leaves cover the cemeteries, and air turns to smoke as soon as it leaves the lungs. This sombre atmosphere is accentuated by Celestia’s generous use of acoustic guitars, and their signature strangely upbeat riffs contrasted with mournful lamentations. Mainman Noktu’s raspy growl can admittedly take some time adjusting to, but after prolonged exposure it feels like the natural antithesis to the otherwise tender music (for a black metal band). It’s hauntingly depressing, at times oddly catchy, and of course morbidly romantic.

While Frigidiis Apotheosia… might have been their masterpiece, Archaenae Perfectii… is a solid follow-up, continuing precisely where they left us. The melodies are a bit less memorable and the barely 30 minutes running time is a bit short, but otherwise this is a pleasant release for the coming cold months.


Written for The Metal Observer

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!

Originally made for http://mystifymyserie.blogspot.com

According to Mr. Varg Vikernes of Burzum, black metal was never meant to last beyond the Norwegian movement of the early 90s. All of the bands strived to have a different sound, a different image, and a different purpose. As with any burgeoning genre though, a string of copycats arose playing this Norwegian style to death. Nearly twenty years later, we stand amongst a sea of black metal bands, knowing that the vast majority will be uninspired copies of some classic artist.

With their newest release, Archaenae Perfectii, Celestia toes the line separating “been there, done that” and something fresh and interesting. Celestia borrows heavily from the typical black metal sound, featuring an abundance of tremolo-picked, dissonant guitars on every track. At times, this sound can become grating on my ears for the very reason that I’ve heard it done many times before. The bass is mostly inaudible (other than the final track), the drums merely do their job, and the vocals are standard-fare, high pitch screams.

With those gripes out of the way, Archaenae Perfectii actually has a lot going for it. Each track contains moments of beauty, ranging from the addition of a subtle atmospheric keyboard in the background to the various acoustic guitar melodies. Never sounding out of place or over-used despite their frequency throughout the album, the use of acoustic guitars prove to be welcome diversions from the otherwise entirely metallic sound. Though I find their dissonant black metal moments to be mediocre, Celestia crafts some damn fine melodies! The acoustic melody played in the backdrop of “Dogmatii Duality / Au Crepuscule Sous Les Larmes” breathes life into a track that would have otherwise been entirely average. The high point of the album is probably “Dominus Crux Spiritus” which contains a blissful acoustic interlude, coupled with ethereal keyboards that pave the way to a graceful conclusion. However, the finale “Nuit Qui Brille Comme Soleil” provides some competition, being undoubtedly the heaviest track on the album. It contains some surprisingly dynamic percussion that had me air-drumming and headbanging like some sort of freak. In fact, it’s probably the only track on the album to which one can head bang. Hey, that’s fine with me. In general, I find black metal to be more of an experience that envelops the listener in the overall atmosphere rather than music to pump your fists to. In small and tasteful doses though, as on this album, some high energy moments can prove to be exciting and unexpected!

I can foresee Archaenae Perfectii being an album that will sneak onto various top ten lists for 2010, and I wouldn’t have beef with that. Celestia has crafted a fine album that transcends its various moments of mediocrity by wisely inserting a sublime melody here and there or switching to the acoustic guitar for a quick breather. It does just enough to separate itself from the festering carrion that is the black metal genre. Not quite the reinvention or evolution that needs to occur for black metal to stay alive, but eclectic enough to be applauded.

Originally written for Pantheon E-Zine: http://grampspantheon.wordpress.com/

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.

Though I'm familiar with their previous work, Celestia is not an artist that I've found a particular resonance with. They've always performed a rather straight shot of melancholic black metal, and a 15 year career has certainly thrown their name into many a hat, but I've always leaned towards the unorthodox transformations of Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega when craving my French fix. However, that may soon change, because Archaenae Perfectii, the band's third full-length offering, is a study in subtle contrasts which is likely to snare anyone with an appreciation for the softer side of this genre.

By 'soft', I don't mean to imply that the band have lost an edge. Their music is quite effective at reflecting an emptiness of spirit, but theirs is not the path of the errant, endless blasting or hollow pentagram that so many of their occult chasing peers distribute through the ether. Instead, Celestia's music is like the gentle sloshing of the tides, or the rolling of the wooded, gray hills to the limits of your view. Carefully scripted, glimmering streams of agony are woven through a pretty steadily intense rhythm section, and he record certainly dabbles in enough of a folkish atmosphere that it could appeal to not only fans of that sub-strata, but fans of flowing folk at large. I would even dub the music 'pleasant', but only through its aural presence, as the lyrics and aesthetic belie a more sinister current.

The clean guitar segments of this album are breathtaking, as in the better part of "Grandiohsia Obverturae/Vue Du Ciel" or the tranquil interlude "ArcheArcanae des Parfaits", and they segue strongly into an environment of ably produced aggressive clarity. Much of this is delivered at a digestible, moderate tempo, like the haunting march of "Nuit Qui Brille Comme Soleil" or the bleak, burrowing melody of "Demhiurghic Deity (Devilution)". But the band does often pick up the pace a notch, charging through landfills of sorrow like "Phoenemenae of Creation" and "Perfectii Ketter Katharos" just as eagerly as an emotional raptor sensing its next psychic kill. In fact, one of the strongest aspects of Archaenae Perfectii is just how well balanced its pacing is, and the modest length. 33 minutes for a black metal album of this nature is almost unheard of. Others performing in a comparable sphere would likely indulge and therefor gorge themselves fully under some misconceived notion that a longer album provides a more empty, engrossing experience.

Not Celestia. They've had their fill with you in just over a half hour's time, laying your drained husk very gently to the Earth, in tatters like a shed serpent's skin, while the phantasms drift off to their next feast. It's a wonderful thing, and really there are few if any faults to this record. The band may not be the most brazen or memorable when it comes to composing individual melodies, but this is not really the effect they seek. Instead, their work is subtler. Eating away at the fiber of your being with a slight shift in chords here. Sliding into a somewhat unexpected note there at the end of the passage over there. Like many of the best black metal efforts, Archaenae Perfectii is a soul-leeching duress. It grows further enchanting and succinct with successive spins. To date, I can't think of any Celestia album I've enjoyed to the extent of this, so its worth hunting for if you enjoy the calmer moments of a Blut Aus Nord, or perhaps earlier Agalloch before they became hipster-guzzled snowdrops.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com