Review Summary: Very similar to DragonForce's "Inhuman Rampage", but considerably weaker in almost every aspect.
Man, i've never been so addicted to power metal before! I've expanded my pallet of power metal bands to an extrordinary level within the past 2 or 3 months. The band that got me into the power metal scene was DragonForce way back in 2003 with their first album "Valley of the Damned". I still listen to it, even with all the other power metal bands I listen to, Elvenking and Kamelot to name a few. While there are a good amount of extrordinary power metal albums i've listen too, there are a couple of "dud" bands and albums I run across. Celesty's
Reign of Elements is one of them.
Celesty at this point is:
Kimmo Perämäki (Vocals)
J-P Alanen (Lead Guitar)
Tapani Kangas (Rhythm Guitar)
Ari Katajamäki (Bass)
Juha Mäenpää (Keyboards)
Jere Luokkamäki (Drums)
The three northern scandinavian countries -- Norway, Finland, and Sweden -- generally outputs a majority of good metal bands. Then we got Celesty (earlier material). Probably the most cliche power metal i've heard. This album sounds almost exactly like DragonForce. They both use the same song structure and epicness in their songs. But a couple of differences from DragonForce makes them so bad; weak vocals, weak lead guitar parts and repetetive keyboarding and drumming.
There really isn't anything good to say about most of the songs.
Intro and
Reign Of Elements have that weird, epic low voice which aren't in any of the other songs, and that's pretty cool. However, catchiness seems to save the album from being total crap.
Charge is a very good song if you can get over that annoying keyboard.
Lost In Deliverance has a really cool intro and pretty good keyboard solo.
Now the *gasp* bad. The drumming is very similar to the DragonForce-style drums, except without the fills that Mackintosh adds in DF's songs, which makes it even worse. The keyboards are annoying as he
el. They must've gone through all the effects, picked the worst sounding ones and used those (besides the one that sounds like a trumpet, which doesn't sound too bad). Additionally, whlie the guitars are decent...well, they're decent at best. The lead guitarist is probably is as good as James Hetfield as far as lead guitar parts go.
That last and biggest thing about this album is
repetition. These guys make DragonForce look like all their songs are different! Every song is nearly identical, and I'm not joking either. As an example, the intros of
Lost In Deliverance and
The Sword And The Shield was pretty much copied and pasted, then the keyboard sound was changed a bit. Last time I checked, I don't buy albums for one song (unless it's Fantomas's
Delirium Cordia, which is very good from what I heard). Another very repititious thing in this album is the keyboards. It probably playes the same riff 50 times or so in each song, which can drive a grown man crazy.
Kinda like
Inhuman Rampage, all the fast songs are at the begining. The thing about that album is that there's a great, emotional ballad at the end. Now, what really irks me is that this album is ended (not counting the bonus track) with quite possibly the worst ballad i've ever heard.
Kingdom, to summarize it, is just rediculously simple guitar and drum beats mashed together to create a slow song. Kinda like a sub-standard hair metal ballad. Cliche and boring, yes?
Pros:
[+]Catchy
[+]The trumpet-like keyboard effect is cool
[+]Nice, epic feel
Cons:
[-]Super Repetetive
[-]No real talent shown anywhere except a little in the lead guitar
[-]No letting up the fast songs until the weak ballad at the end
[-]Most keyboard effects are annoying
In a nutshell, this album is just average power metal with no standout traits worth mentioning. Just avoid this if you can. However, their new material is different and much better. Go to their myspace and you'll see what I mean. The music is much less repetetive and has more focus on heavy guitar parts. The material on "Legacy Of Hate" sounds like a transition album to their new sound, and the material on "Mortal Mind Creation" sounds like it was made from a different (much better) band.
Recommended Songs: Charge, Lost In Deliverance, Battle Of Oblivion
Final Score: 2
