Album Review: The Wheel and the Fire by Celestial Shadows

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Hey harlots! Here’s the first album review of the year!

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Background

I don’t know what’s with me and solo black metal but Celestial Shadows is a solo project of Benjamin Penfold-Marwick a black metal artist from Perth. The Wheel and the Fire is their 8th studio album. 

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It starts off very ominous with a slow guitar but faster drums to really sell  before fading out. The next track immediately hits you in the face with a much faster tempo and harsh vocals on briefly slowing down. The next track continues much the same going back and forth between fast and slow. At this point I really couldn’t see what was experimental about this experimental black metal. Everything was so painfully standard just second wave black metal with maybe some blackened death thrown in. Now I do love both of those genres but it isn’t anything close to experimental. The only minor exception to this being the fifth track  Glorious Squalor  that lowers the intensity a bit. It’s still black metal but a fair bit more upbeat and includes some synth. Then the album returns to its bland form again for tracks 6,7, and 8 until final track. This song brings back a little bit of the synth from Glourius Squalor and then ends with some fire noises. 

Also just wanted to note the vocals were horrible. They had so much reverb combined with distortion they sounded more like a power tool than harsh vocals. they also had a whispery quality to as if they were in another room. Overall they were the worst vocals I have ever subjected myself to.

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Conclusion

The Wheel and the fire was honestly a really sad way to start the year. It didn’t deliver any sort experimentation and combined with the terrible excuse for vocals it made for a very long 38 minutes. Even if you are the biggest fan of black metal I still can’t recommend this. 

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Thanks for reading ya’ll, Farewell!!

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⋆｡‧₊°♱༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻♱༉‧₊˚.