Celestial Sanctuary have managed to further distill their already grim demeanour into a high proof death metal liquor, ripe for consumption, if you can stomach the disgusting nature of it.
There’s a lot going on in the death metal scene in the UK at the moment, and no one represents this more than Celestial Sanctuary. Hot off the press is the Visions of Stagnant Blood EP, a little surprise for all the gnarly crusty metal heads out there who like their death metal grindy with a helping of nasty hardcore inspired riffing.
Visions… continues in the vein of Insatiable Thirst For Torment, the bands much applauded full length from last year. It’s riff o’clock in the Celestial Sanctuary household, and we’re all just here for the ride. The EP opens with the title track, blistering, crushing, replete with riffs, soaring leads and an atmosphere of darkness and sludge that is more at the forefront than ever before. ‘Puddles of You Reflect The Filth Within’ then comes stomping through the chaos portal, trudging like a 5000 tonne behemoth, smashing all in it’s path amidst five and a half minutes of utter desolation.
“There’s more than enough opportunities to pull your best gurner face and get down.”
Photo Credit: Celestial Sanctuary
The last track ‘Gavage of The Vile’, speeds up proceedings a little, before that evil-at-high-noon reverby lead comes back into play, accentuating the tank track like main riff and precise yet weighty drumming. Celestial Sanctuary can do no wrong, and they have truly graced us with 20 minutes of surprisingly fresh work so quickly after releasing one of last years top albums.
These aren’t b-sides, or leftovers from last years recording sessions, this is a band that is firing on all cylinders (if you’ve been to any extreme metal gigs in the past couple of years you’ll have seen these folks more than once), far from burning out or capitulating over their success, they’re keeping their noses to grindstone and producing yet more high quality death metal that the UK underground scene so desperately craves. They’re also about to make their debut (much deservedly) at Download festival this year, and for the love of all that is satanic and heavy make sure you go check their set out, they kill it every single time they play live, they’re tight, aggressive, fun and more than anything heavy as balls. There’s more than enough opportunities to pull your best gurner face and get down.