Celeste (band)
| Celeste | |
|---|---|
 Celeste, live Berlin 2015 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Lyon , France |
| Genre (s) | Black metal , sludge , post-hardcore |
| founding | 2005 |
| Current occupation | |
| Johan | |
| Guillaume | |
| Sébastien | |
| Royer | |
Celeste is a French band from Lyon . The band, founded in 2005, combines very different styles such as sludge , black metal and post-hardcore . She has released five albums since its inception.
history
Celeste was founded in 2005 on the Lyon hardcore punk scene. The band has played unchanged since its formation. For a short time it overlapped with the Screamo band Mihai Edrisch , which split up in 2006 into Celeste and the Daïtro , which had also been in existence for a long time .
In 2006 Celeste made her EP debut with a small French label, but since their first album in 2008 they have been based at the German label Denovali Records , where they released an album annually until 2010. Of these, Morte (s) Nee (s) , published in 2010, met with the greatest response from audiences and critics. The band's release policy is unusual: all albums are available for free download as MP3 files on the label's website when they are released.
style
The band plays a mixture of sludge , black metal and post-hardcore , some authors also heard elements of hardcore, doomcore , doom metal and death metal . The style combination is considered “original”, so comparisons with other bands are only drawn here and there. The band explicitly rejects the question of other bands as influences, as well as knowledge of Black Metal before the formation of the band, which is why the band particularly rejects the assignment to Black Metal.
Guitarist Guillaume creates the riffs and additional ideas, which are then discussed with the group in order to then add the other instruments. The group also sees this way of working as a guarantor of the homogeneity of their style.
It was noted that, musically, Celeste was "getting heavier and heavier, but never changed her direction". During the first releases in particular, this caused criticism that they were not very musically variable and always did the same thing. In Morte (s) Nee (s) was then summed up that the band had, however, changed significantly, particularly through greater integration was black metal technical development ( "influences found The riffs are sometimes quite rapidly, the drumming is more complex and the song structures are clearer. ”,“ more double bass ”) as well as the willingness to conduct formal experiments (instrumental pieces, sampling, classical instruments such as piano and cello).
The band's defined goal is to “become even darker and more extreme” from record to record. The lyrics and the aesthetics of the band are based on this goal. The texts are written in French by Johan, he sees them as “something special” and a means that “can help the listener to enter our world”. They are "dark and brutal, sometimes really ugly" and deal with "topics such as rape, pedophilia, incest, war, religions, contemporary life and so on". An increasingly central motif of the band were negative experiences from the world of women, from the gender pay gap to sexual violence.
aesthetics
The aesthetic of the band is coordinated by singer Johan, they often use recurring elements as trademarks, for example in the titles of the releases before Morte (s) Nee (s) , which always personalized negative attitudes: Pessimiste (s), Nihiliste (s ), Misanthrope (s) . The bracketed "s" and inverted crosses found in all titles of the releases were also included, but the band emphasizes that this - as well as other religious elements - is just a game, a reference to the metal influences in the band. In addition to CD editions, all of the sound carriers mostly contain different, elaborately manufactured vinyl editions limited to a few 100 copies.
The band plays live with an extremely economical lighting concept: they wear red headlamps on their heads, plus a stroboscope and a smoke machine. The very dark room should make the appearance “much more intense and brutal”. The concerts are always very short with a length of around half an hour, otherwise they would be too exhausting. Nevertheless, the band plays a lot live and has toured in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Asia and the USA.
reception
Christoph Schulz wrote in Ox "Celeste are terrifying." And attested to them a "brute, marrow and bone pervasive music", they succeeded in "inspiring again and again with their poetry of the black hole". Vampster, on the other hand, wrote of Celeste as a “phenomenon” that has achieved “an exceptional position in recent years with its mixture of black metal, hardcore and sludge” and has recorded “a number of fascinating albums”.
Originally, Celeste were mainly received by a hardcore audience, according to their background. At the beginning of 2009, at the time of the release of Misanthrope (s) , singer Johan stated that the band was not really known in the metal scene . In an interview in October 2010, however, he described that the audience has changed significantly since then and now comes from all kinds of groups, "Hardcore, Metal, Screamo, Black".
Despite the reputation they have earned, the band members are not professional musicians, and professionalization is not intended. Nihiliste (s) had been downloaded around 8,000 times by April 2010 and Morte (s) Née (s) almost 2,000 times within the first 48 hours after publication. No information is available on sales of sound carriers.
Discography
- 2006: Pessimiste (s) (EP, Matrix)
- 2008: Nihiliste (s) (Denovali Records)
- 2009: Misanthrope (s) (Denovali Records)
- 2010: Morte (s) Nee (s) (Denovali Records)
- 2013: Animale (s) (Denovali Records)
- 2017: Infidèle (s) (Denovali Records)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Celeste: Bad guys (interview) . vampster.com webzine; Retrieved October 13, 2011
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Christoph Schulz: Interview: Celeste . ox-fanzine.de; Retrieved October 13, 2011
- ↑ a b c d e f Interview with Celeste: French aggression from the dark . Bloodchamber.de; Retrieved October 14, 2011
- ↑ CD review: Celeste - Misanthrope (s) . metalnews.de; Retrieved October 14, 2011
- ↑ a b c Why Black Metal Isn't Our Cup Of Tea: Celeste Interviewed . thequietus.com; accessed on February 10, 2019
- ↑ a b c Interview: Celeste - Johan & Antoine . metalnews.de, April 24, 2010; Retrieved October 14, 2011
- ↑ Celeste Interviews . Metal1.info; accessed on February 10, 2019
- ↑ Interview: Celeste - Johan . metalnews.de, February 15, 2009, February 15, 2009; Retrieved October 14, 2011