Artist: Celestial Call
Country: Unknown
Label: Mercury Chalice
Formats: Cassette EP
Year: 2024
Celestial Call is a completely anonymous act with absolutely zero information to work on, not even their origin is known at this point, but it did manage to release a debut EP on cassette tape through Mercury Chalice, a German label that is new to me as well. With this EP being basically as untitled as all the tracks that have only been given Roman numerals, we might just dive right into this band’s take on the Raw Black Metal genre.
No gossip to discuss, but the music of this illustrious entity behind Celestial Call is definitely of very interesting nature. The EP lasts less than twenty minutes, but feels like a full album. Not because it drags on, on the contrary. The music “tell” you a captivating story through raw-ish yet very atmospheric Black Metal, like a near-perfect collision between two styles of Black Metal. Dreamy on the one hand, but harsh and gnarly at the other. The rough edges are attributable to the production process, that harkens back to the same sort of approach of the rawer kind of Black Metal from the late 90’s and early-to-mid 00’s. While that in itself is nothing unique, the novelty of this debut EP is found in the humming and moody keyboards. Almost as if the band (or person) behind Celestial Call wrote and recorded two EP’s, one Black Metal and one Dungeon Synth, and plays it simultaneously.
On paper that might sound a bit messy, but this whole mash-up works remarkably well. The sandpaper vocals and the almost Forgotten Tomb-like strumming melodies feed the slow meandering keyboards with a good dose of melancholy. Consequently, this is a first short-player is a rather impressive start and fodder for those who are into eerie, sombre and downright mournful Black Metal.
