You don’t often see Power and Death metal in the same sentence but CELESTIAL WIZARD are one of the latest bands to include this fusion. There are battle cries coming from the mountains of Colorado through their latest release Winds Of Cosmos. It’s one of the more interesting releases I have come across and I will explain why.
It opens with the instrumental track Andromeda. The thing about opening tracks is that they can give your very first taste of a band if you haven’t heard previous singles. This was my first experience of them, and it reminded me of power metal warriors VICTORIUS in a video game.
When listening to this record, I was intrigued by what this band have to offer and it’s very clear each musician in the group is talented. They also managed to fuse power and death metal very well as demonstrated in some of these examples I came across along the way.
The abrupt transition from Andromeda to the first full length track Revenant grabs the listener by the ankles and drags them along whether they are ready for it or not. If ORDEN OGAN and CRADLE OF FILTH did a collaboration, this should give you a rough idea of what that would sound like. Expect to be punching the air and practicing your air guitar for this track.
Ready to conquer that boss level that you have been stuck on for ages and need that motivational music? Powerthrone is that track. It somehow gets the balance of desperation to defeat the enemy and hope for a better future once it’s been accomplished just right through the growls and sombre melody. The melody is similar to GLASYA’s track First Taste Of Freedom, no complaints here as it’s a great melody.
Cyberhawk grabbed my attention quite quickly; it came after a set of tracks that I felt were a bit safe and started to sound too similar to each other. Cyberhawk woke me up with a pounding riff and thunderous rhythm that wouldn’t be out of place on a SOIL track. It also contained a punchy piano melody, majestic choirs and a grand orchestra. For these reasons alone, this is my personal favourite track.
It ends on the title track. The first thing I noticed was the link back to Andromeda; that was a great touch. As you experience this triumphant closer, it becomes very clear that this isn’t your average closing track. I won’t say much else here other than it’s a cliff-hanger closer that will make you wonder what is be bestowed upon us in future releases.
Despite a few of the tracks playing it safe and not keeping my attention, Winds Of The Cosmos definitely has a lot of moments that piqued my curiosity on what this band have to offer up. With more experimentation, CELESTIAL WIZARD have the potential to grow further and have some more galactic warriors join their clan. The talent is most definitely there so it will be interesting to see what else they have in store.
Rating: 7/10
Words: Lotty Whittingham
Wind Of The Cosmos is out now.
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