CELESTE

Release Year: 2022
Artist Origin: FRA
Style: gritty emotional sludge black metal

frontman Johan Girardeau describes this latest full-length as a narrative about toxic relationships between men and women, exploring darker sides and contrasting perspectives, yet refrains from explaining its meaning in detail, leaving room for personal interpretation, while musical direction of eight compositions reflects this ambiguity through bleak atmosphere, emotional drama, and unexpected moments of tenderness - with much of material written during pandemic lockdown, as musicians worked individually using computers and music production software, compositions gained more prominent melodic leads, fewer blast beats, broader dynamics, and stronger sense of melancholy, while the instrumental (A) serves as a significant pause past the halfway point, with the closing Le cœur noir charbon emphasizing the fragility and psychological unease, its pure female vocals contrasting with customary intensity, deliberately expanding an emotional range; deluxe limited German digipak edition comes with twenty page booklet