| Fall 2022 sees Dutch doom-metal pioneers Celestial Season returning with the second release of the Mysterium trilogy, ‘Mysterium II’, which follows the first album ‘Mysterium I’ released earlier this year via Burning World Records.
Set for release on December 2nd once again via Burning World Records, ‘Mysterium II’ dives further into the more funeral and melancholic side of Celestial Season, songs which are reminiscent of their 1994 demo leading up to the ’95 classic ‘Solar Lovers’, with a greater focus on long violin and cello interludes woven in with the signature Celestial Season twin guitar melodies. Pre-orders are now available at this location.
The leading single “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is now playing at Invisible Oranges along with a cover version of Cathedral‘s classic tune “Copper Sunset” from the “Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)” EP.
“Mysterium II highlights how careful orchestration and composition can elevate doom metal like anything else, fusing strings and guitars into crystalline suspensions of delicate might and punctuating them with just enough drums and growled vocals to keep heads nodding and hands clenched through the tears.” States Invisible Oranges editor Ted Nubel about this new effort.Listen to “Pictures of Endless Beauty/Copper Sunset” here.
“Lyrically “Pictures of Endless Beauty” deals with the majestic beauty of the universe, as humanity steps into a more virtual world, oblivious to the infinite beauty that lies in the real world before them. The lyrics also focuses on one of the Hermetic principles of ‘As Above, So Below’.” Says the band about this new track.
“Musically “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is inspired by the true masters of Death/Doom ‘Cathedral’. Celestial Season is often blindly coupled to the Peaceville 3 but for composer Jason Kohnen, “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is an ode to ‘Forest of Equilibrium’ which laid the foundation to a big part of his personal and Celestial’s sound. The Cathedral ‘side B’ track ‘Copper Sunset’, appears at the end of the “Pictures of Endless Beauty” as tribute to Gary Jennings’ amazing songwriting.”
Formed in the early nineties, the Dutch group attained international acclaim with their first two full-length albums, “Forever Scarlet Passion” from 1993 and “Solar Lovers” from 1995, both still regarded as seminal doom-metal releases right next to Anathema’s “Serenades”, Paradise Lost’s “Gothic” and My Dying Bride’s “Turn Loose the Swans”.
A mix of the “Forever Scarlet Passion” line-up and “Solar Lovers” line-up re-grouped to create what they labelled as the ‘Doom Era’ line-up; with Stefan Ruiters back on vocals, Lucas van Slegtenhorst on bass, Olly Smit and Pim van Zanen on guitars, Jason Köhnen on drums and Jiska Ter Bals back on violin and Elianne Anemaat on cello.
Together, they’ve created and recorded “The Secret Teachings”, an hour-long musical journey that perfectly recaptured the magic and splendour of their early years. Now the Mysterium trilogy follows the same path, delivering a poignant and melancholic doom-metal that cements Celestial Season status as one of the best European doom-metal bands. |
