You might wonder why I'm covering a Vancouver based rock and Gothic metal band that has been tagged for fans of Nightwish, Evanessence, Delain,
Kamelot, Within Temptation and others. There's a simple reason for that, which
is mainly that I found the record very catchy and rather enjoyable. Aside from
Larissa Dawn's potent vocal prowess on the microphone, we have the pounding
drums of Adam Todd as well as some notable leads and solos from Eriz Crux.
Ruben Wijga performs the keys here, which add much of the bombastic atmosphere you'll hear on the disc, far different than what you might expect on a regular female fronted rock record. These guys are actually taking the term “metal
band” seriously, which definitely warrants the Kamelot comparison, regardless
of how much the Delain tag fits as well. It's actually not too out of character
to consider Celestial Ruin a more thrash-influenced and bombastic version of
Evanessence, but not Nightwish. There's nothing operatic here, but there are
about ten tons of sing-along choruses to be found on a disc that's surely just
the start of something larger and more commercial. I would just hope that as
Celestial Ruin matures as a band, they won't decide to sand down the metallic
elements here in favor of giving people easier to digest fast food music with
only the pop choruses intact. It's kind of funny that the single for the EP is
“Sense Of Exile” even though “Nevermore” is about ten times more commercially
viable and would make the band stick out far more among casual rock listeners.
Then again, in listening to the two cuts side by side, I've noticed that the
chorus numbers sound nearly identical to each other in tone. But whatever
sells, right? In any case, this act is an absolute goldmine and I'm quite sure
that it doesn't even need a small site like mine to promote it. After all, there
was something of an interview with the frontwoman over at the AXS TV website,
and that's Mark Cuban's channel. He has way more fans than I do here, or than I
could ever dream of here. He's actually making money, and enough of it to sell
me into slavery if he wished. In any case, I actually found this record
extremely catchy and I'll bet my bottom dollar that this isn't the last we'll be
seeing from this act. An EP today, a Grammy tomorrow... but to do that, they'd
have to kill the metal, wouldn't they? Yep. It'll be interesting to see how
much they're willing to sacrifice in the future.
(4 Tracks, 24:00)
8/10
