Review Summary: Archon's call to his ancestors, a melodic, atmospheric and aggressive trip to the past.
Celtefog is a one man black metal project hailing from Greece, created by Archon (guitarist of Empathy). Active since 2012, Celtefog has released one LP (Deliverance in 2014), one split with Hocus and three EPs. Sound of The Olden Days was released in February 2016 and was recently released as a digipack (July 2016). A clear influence of Celtefog is Windir’s melodic riffs and songwriting techniques as they are present most of the time in Archon’s songs. Lyrics range from death, ancient stories and nature.
Like its title, this record takes you on a trip to the past with various folkloric instruments. With songs ranging from 6 minutes to 10 minutes, Archon built the songs to blend the old instruments and the black metal. Melodic and raw at the same time, the addition of folkloric instruments creates a dynamic in the speed of the song and lets us calm down before heading back to an aggressive black metal. Opener My Last Sight To the Known Universe sets the tone of a very melodic riff based black metal backed by Archon’s screaming vocals. Halfway through the song, the pace changes into a pagan folkloric rhythms of tambours and string instruments and Archon’s whisper before going back to the atmospheric Black Metal of the song. This alternation is what keeps you listening during the longer songs. The perfect harmony of the two World is one of the best qualities of this record. Call to the Ancient sees Arkon introducing the song with over two minutes of sounds taken from medieval times. The song then slowly blends into a fury driven black metal song before blending again into a calmer atmospheric ending with acoustic guitars and clean vocals.
Celtefog being a one man project, Archon is also the producer of this album. While doing a great job in general, the programmed drum are one of the downside of this album. Acting like a robotic metronome, the computer created drums lacks in dynamics that you can find when played by drummers. This is one of only downside of this album, but it is understandable as Arkon is the only one involved in this project. The record lasting for about fifty minutes, that problem doesn’t affect too much the listening experience. In fact, in some songs it works perfectly as you don’t hear the lack of dynamics in the drums as the songs are filled with other elements such as the keyboard and the folkloric instruments.
A real effort has been put into the songwriting and that’s the main difference you can hear if you’ve listened to its predecessor Deliverance. Songs are longer and have more dynamic than Deliverance had. The highlight of this record is definitely Three Nights In The Mediterranean see, a single that was released as an EP (with a different production and a Windir cover). It shows everything Archon can do best on this record, a headbanging atmospheric and at the same time full of energy black metal song. Another highlight is the closer Nykta which is one the most melodic and at the same time aggressive song. Archon has improved his project a lot, and this release is a great step forward for Celtefog’s future.
