Celestial Sanctuary – Soul Diminished – Album Review
Embrace insanity! Take comfort in pain!
THE NEW WAVE OF BRITISH DEATH METAL HAS ARRIVED. Or so UK death metal upstarts Celestial Sanctuary would have you believe. And hey, we’re not one’s to grumble about a good ol- fashioned UK death metal revival and, as it turns out, Celestial Sanctuary are exactly the band to lead it!
Why? Because from headless torso to severed toe, debut album Soul Diminished delivers….and delivers BIG! Big riffs. A big vocal performance. Big fuckin’ balls wrapped in big fuckin’ big-boy death metal under-fuckin’-pants! That BIG enough for ya?!
With the aural sting of prime Bolt Thrower, Carcass & Benediction ringing in our ears, it’s clear that Celestial Sanctuary have embraced a 90’s groove and mid-tempo stomp that means this is the heaviest thing you’ll hear this side of an obese elephant using your ear-drum as a trampoline.
With more than a little of Obituary‘s nastiness also informing much of their work, this really is a 90s nostalgia-fest performed by a band who have managed to make this recognisable sound, still sound like their own.
You’d better believe that this is the start of a UK death metal renaissance because Celestial Sanctuary are convincing enough to make it so! 7/10
Celestial Sanctuary‘s Soul Diminished was released on March 26th 2021 via Redefining Darkness Records.
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