ALBUM REVIEW: Winds Of The Cosmos – Celestial Wizard
Approaching a second album after a debut that delivered potential is a lot like crafting a follow-up campaign as the Dungeon Master who took your friends’ adventures to new realms on your first outing. As genre alchemists CELESTIAL WIZARD follow-up 2017’s debut campaign A Sinister Awakening with Winds Of The Cosmos, can they top their Ravenloft or are they testing their skills too much like Out Of The Abyss does?
The 80s-inspired synths of the interluding intro Andromeda suck you into the world they’re creating like the soundtrack of Stranger Things takes you straight to Hawkins, before the crashing cymbals, tornados of dissonance, and warring power metal pipes and death metal growls collide on opener Revenant. Within minutes you’re suited and booted as the creature clawing its way back into the world to seek revenge against the ones who wronged you.
Whilst this album leans into the sinister side of Swedish melodeath, it plucks mostly from the power metal playbook pioneered by HELLOWEEN and refined by RHAPSODY OF FIRE. The glittering keys that glide like they’ve got the power of flight, the power chords that shred solos faster than Gordon Ramsey chops up ingredients, and lyrics that lead you on quests beyond your wildest dreams are all accounted for – but it’s the melodic death metal interplay, as clean vocals do harmonic battle with the death growls to take their song structures beyond the typical realm of power metal, that makes tracks like Ice Realm and Steel Chrysalis stand out above anything else.
Ice Realm, based on Dungeons & Dragons‘ Plane Of Ice, channels the cheesy pomp of 80s power metal as it commands you to chant “Roll the dice / Will you win, or pay the price?” whilst Steel Chrysalis transports you to the cybernetic warfare of Launa Sorenson’s graphic novels with its hellbent for leather approach to throwing every battering ram drumbeat and power solo in the book at the wall, yet having it all work wonderfully.
Whilst Winds Of The Cosmos is infectiously fun, a sharp reminder that power metal can be as skilfully slick as it is silly, it’s often held back by its own formulas. It’s not long until you realise every song is effectively built the same – there’s the drums drilling into your eardrums, followed by a signature death metal ‘blegh’ and complimented with growls for verses and a mix of cleans and growls for choruses. Powerthrone and Undead Renegade struggle to stand out as quests following highlights like Ice Realm and Steel Chrysalis because they simply sound like carbon-cut copies of the campaigns you’ve played before.
Winds Of The Cosmos isn’t as genre-defining as Ravenloft was for Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s a spellbinding progression of their prototype. CELESTIAL WIZARD have proven that death metal can dance with power metal – because this album is some of the most fun you’ll hear all year – but as they look to roll the dice once again, they must find that special something to take their sound to the next level.
Rating: 7/10
Winds Of The Cosmos is set for release on January 20th via Scarlet Records.
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