Caelestia
Thanatopsis

Draconian playing time is one impression I had when playing through this album a few times this past week. It is the new album from Greek band Caelestia, their previous album Beneath Abyss wasn’t overly impressive to us, and this is similar when it comes to the artwork that isn’t too exciting this time either. But I think they have taken a step forward when it comes to the musical side and this new album called Thanatopsis is a better album than the previous one.

Right from the early going you hear that this album is a step forward in terms of better and fresher sound, and even a bit better depth and variation compared with the previous album. Stylewise it is quite similar to the predecessor, melodic death metal with symphonic touches, male growls and female vocals. They don’t really offer much in terms of original thinking and the playing time of just about an hour is a bit on the long side as well, they could have easily done away with several of the songs on this album.

After careful consideration I think that this is an overall good album with pretty good songs through the line. I will probably not have the widest range of appeal as there are more interesting choices within the genre but it is too good to classify as bad. Fans of the band’s previous work will most likely find this most appealing and chances are that the same goes for fans of the melodic and symphonic extreme metal genre.

But the album could have been shorter and it could have had more variation, I still think that Caelestia has a way to go before managing to make an exciting album. This album works and I think that it is a rather good album but while it is good it isn’t the most exciting album I have ever heard and if you are not a fan of the band, chances are that you play it and like it, and then you simply forget about it.

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