Celestial Season

Solar Lovers (Metal Blade)
by Joshua Brown

Doom metal fans take note: There’s a relatively new band from the Netherlands who bring a diverse depth that the genre has rarely seen since its inception in the acid rock early ’70s. Celestial Season‘s music can be likened to listening to old Black Sabbath in a flower garden, sipping fine wine. The vocals range from the wounded beast lament of Paradise Lost to the sultry moan featured on Celtic Frost’s Into The Pandemonium. Two violinists, who can be heard throughout every song on Solar Lovers, add a touch of class and pleasant unexpected listenability. While Celestial Season’s approach is especially palatable to someone like me who is not particularly fanatical about most of the modern doom metal that is being churned out, they remain distinctly a genre band. In other words, even though they manage to go down easily, smoothing out the rough edges without leaking power, no significant crossover is likely to occur, except among music students. Anyhow, appreciators of classical music and progression in heavy metal could do a lot worse.