Artist: Celestial Decay
Album: Quantum X
Genre: Melodic Metal
Release Date: 1st April 2014
Label: The Music Alliance
Album Review
After nearly four years of silence, the Swedish two man collaboration CELESTIAL DECAY between Hobbe Houshmand and Freddy Olofsson present another story to fruition. The interesting thing about these guys is one is never going to hear the same album twice. By keeping the band down to two members and collaborating with many other artists, this refined melodic metal act has endless potential at their fingertips for each album they create. Of course, finding collaborators takes time and effort so it expected that these four year delays or more between albums are going to be a common thing. The real question is can CELESTIAL DECAY prevent itself from becoming a one trick pony? Many times on the second album is where a band starts to falter if they try to repeat too many of the same kinds of songs or themes that they did on the first album.
From first glance it may bring skepticism to fans when regarding the overall concept of ‘Quantum X.’ Like its predecessor ‘Contradictum’ the album continues the band’s focused theme on how the more society abuses life and the earth, the faster it will decay and prevent humanity from sustaining itself. There are only so many ways to tell the same story. Thankfully, CELESTIAL DECAY bring in a whole new lineup to create a symphonic opera that isn’t quite as cliché to follow groups like EPICA but definitely stands on par with projects like XYSTUS. The band does follow the tradition of using lots of symphonic backdrops amongst the aggressive, yet melodic guitar passages while trading male and female vocals off each other to create a dramatic atmosphere. The album opens with the atmosphere of someone emerging after a huge earthquake and seeing the ruins of their house that they thought was infallible and the spoken words of Lisa Bortner - who seems to provide most of the female vocals on this session. One things fans will notice is that ‘Quantum X’ does not go very heavy on the female vocals or growls. Most of them are led by the harmonic voice of Andi Kravljaca whose powerful voice has been part of acts like AEON ZEN. The growls- which are used sparingly - don’t quite measure up as being carried out Andy Solvestrom from AMARANTHE due to being mixed a bit too much into the background. At the same time, they are not overused to the point of making CELESTIAL DECAY cheesy.
The musicianship is excellent on the album. While Houshmand and Oloffson lead the guitar work which can be aggressive and metal pounding on a track like ‘Final Warning’ versus soft and melodic such as on ‘Power Of Will’ which features more acoustic sections. The bass duties are shared between Anders Janfalk and Tomas Reinerson; for the most part, the bass parts of the album are lost in the chaos of the music but sometimes on a track like ‘Blinded’ they are a bit clearer. The drums are solid all the way through and have that epic touch to them with the deeper pounding on the slower tracks such as ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’. Handled by both William Seidi - who seems to be making his debut with CELESTIAL DECAY- and Christian Wirtl formerly of DRAGONFORCE (one might be able to pick up his drumming on the faster tracks), they keep with the guitar speeds when they need to.
One things fans will definitely notice about ‘Quantum X’ is it is much more tightly knit than CELESTIAL DECAY’s previous work. Tracks flow right into each other so this isn’t really an album one can skip around on or they miss out on huge chunks of story. Like a good theatrical production there is the occasional interlude inserted to give a bit of a break from the exhausting speed or depth that this album tries to reach. It is not one’s typical metal album- especially when the final track pushes for 12 minutes- something CELESTIAL DECAY hasn’t tried yet. Thankfully, most fans who enjoy this stuff are used to tracks that tend to drag on a bit. While some fans might have been a bit confused by the debut, ‘Quantum X’ is a straight shot from beginning to end that definitely presents a strong argument to make listeners really stop and think about what they’re doing with the world around them. It may be a bit overdramatic at times- almost seeming to border on QUEEN styled vocal pitches mixed with grand keyboard flourishes- but it is definitely beautiful and enjoyable to listen to. Hopefully the overall result of ‘Quantum X’ is not only awareness raising but also a fun musical journey that is very accessible to most metal fans in general who are looking for something that is artistic but not too out there and tells a great story to boot.
Tracklist
01. Aftermath - (1:05)
02. Blinded - (4:45)
03. Enlightened - (6:32)
04. Paradise - (4:55)
05. Fallen - (4:59)
06. Ashes Of Decay - (5:08)
07. Power Of Will - (6:31)
08. Goodbye Forever - (5:36)
08. Inferno - (5:39)
09. Final Warning - (4:44)
10. Dying Breed - (0:48)
11. Life & Death - (4:28)
12. Savior - (6:54)
13. Total Eclipse Of The Heart - (6:40)
14. Final Symphony - (12:50)
Line-up
Hobbe Houshmand- Guitars, producer, composer, manager
Freddy Olofsson- Guitars, composer, art director
Andi Kravljaca- Vocals
Anders Janfalk- Bass
William Seidl- Drums
Tomas Reinerson- Bass
Christian Wirtl- Drums
Jurgis Rodin- Bass
Andreas "Andy" Solveström- Growl
Lisa Börtner- Female Speech
Website
www.celestialdecay.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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