Caelestra – Bastion

Written by on 20-12-2024 at 21:30.

The NeverEnding Story is a 1984 fantasy film inspired by the book Die unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. In the film, the main character finds a book in a shop: you guessed it… The NeverEnding Story. The story in this book takes place in Fantasia, a fantasy world that is threatened by a mysterious force known as ‘the Nothing’. The inhabitants of Fantasia ask the Little Empress, who is ill, for help. She sends the young warrior Atreyu out to find a cure for both her and Fantasia… “Aber das ist eine andere Geschichte und soll ein andermal erzählt werden” (that was a quote for the connoisseurs).

Frank Harper of the Bristol-based one-man project Caelestra found the inspiration to tell his story in this film. “Bastion was inspired by The Neverending Story. It’s an album about a character coming to terms with the fact that he might lose someone he loves to a disease. Which is something I myself have had to come to terms with.”, says Parker. “This is not the end we lived for” Harper sighs in the song Lightbringer. However, the tragic story is not only bitter. It is given a wonderful musical translation.

Are you unfamiliar with Caelestra? In 2020, they independently released the album Black Widow Nebula. Written and recorded during the lockdown periods in 2020 and inspired by acts like Devin Townsend, Gojira and Ihsahn, but also by composer Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Dead Poets Society) and keyboard virtuoso Vangelis (Chariots of Fire, Conquest Of Paradise), the album featured a musical symbiosis of progressive metal and 80s science fiction film music. In songs like Solaris and The Astral Sea, the ethereal sounds of shoegaze were combined with the tremolo picking of black metal. Can we call that blackened dreamgaze? Does it really matter which label we stick on it? The result is much more important. And the result was an entertaining album, reminiscent of those of bands like Astronoid and Kardashev.

Bastion continues the musical direction of the previous album. In the six songs  you will encounter plenty of lush textures, ethereal soundscapes and guitars drenched in reverb. Progressive chords, hypnotic, beautiful melodies, harmonious vocals and subdued passages (Soteria, Finisterre, Eos) drape a swollen mist of rich, atmospheric splendor over the progressive post-black metal. Several layered, slightly playful synthesizer parts (Finisterre, Lightbringer, The Hollow Altar) add a mystical edge to that. Everything flows in an impeccable, natural way (Soteria, Lightbringer, Eos). Nowhere does it feel even slightly artificial. The album has been given an enormously rich, blissful and transcendent ambiance without losing sight of the doggedness. Songs such as Soteria, Finisterre and The Hollow Altar are full of progressive, melodic black metal. The heavy black metal scream and the many tremolo riffs guarantee that. The music is rich, layered, massive and complex, accessible and fierce at the same time. Even after many listens, there is still so much to discover.

Anyone who is open to progressive black metal, that is compelling, melodic, bombastic and emotional, can indulge in this Bastion by Caelestra. Curl up in your favorite chair or corner of the couch with a few pillows and hot chocolate, put on a pair of headphones and let yourself be enchanted by the oh so atmospheric, musical blanket that Caelestra drapes over you on Bastion. Singer Mark Garrett of Kardashev has already listened to it and described the album as “an aural cinema”. Three short words, with which he managed to describe this enchanting album powerfully and aptly. Such beauty. Long live the repeat button…

Score:

86/100

Label:

Self-released, 2024

Tracklisting:

  1. Halcyon
  2. Soteria
  3. Finisterre
  4. Lightbringer
  5. The Hollow Altar
  6. Eos

Line-up:

  • Frank Harper – Vocals, all instruments

Links: