Album Review: Celestial Scourge – “Observers of the Inevitable” (Technical/Brutal Death Metal)

Written by Kep

I’ll admit it: I slept on this album. I saw “death metal” and a colorful cover with aliens and shit and figured it was some regular old techdeath. Shrugged and figured I’d hear it on release day, y’know? Then one day I was digging through the inbox and figured I’d put it on in the background while browsing, and next thing I knew I wasn’t browsing anymore. My eyes have been opened; I sleep no longer. 

Observers of the Inevitable is no mere forgettable techdeath; no, this is something far more destructive, a world-eating force of violence and blood. It’s fast, complex, and impressively technical, yes, but Celestial Scourge are less interested in the finesse and showmanship of techdeath and far more interested in ripping your fucking face off and force-feeding it to you while blasting through the upper atmosphere at Mach 15. Imagine if Suffocation slammed more, or if recent Deeds of Flesh were bigger and meaner, or if Dying Fetus was less hardcore “I’ll kick your ass, bro” energy and more techdeath “what if aliens disemboweled you”. It’s huge, it’s loud, the production feels like it has a grudge against my speakers. Glorious stuff. 

For what it’s worth, I might have figured out that the album would whip earlier if I’d known Celestial Scourge’s lineup. The project comprises a number of veterans of the Norwegian metal scene, including members of longrunning death metal outfit Blood Red Throne, melodeath quartet Deception, and post-black quintet Glimt. The experience on hand belies the implications of this being a “debut album”; these are known quantities with quality work in evidence already. Add to that the mixing and mastering of the ultra-reliable Stefano Morabito, who’s handled those duties for bands like Fractal Generator, Hideous Divinity, Helslave, and Devangelic, and the planet-crumbling destruction on tap is already obvious. 

As if I needed more proof that this band was made for me personally, I was thrilled to find out that the album’s opening track, “The Advent of Deities”, includes 90 seconds of what is ostensibly an album intro in its runtime, seamlessly connecting a grim yet grandiose opening salvo of cosmic breadth with a visceral, hands-on assault that follows. A real intro of actual substance (+1 Kep point) directly joined to the first real song (+1) under a single title (+1)! And they tie the themes of the intro section into the end of the track! Take notes, other bands: if you’re gonna do an intro, this is how to do it. The track as a whole leaves no doubt what Observers of the Inevitable is going to be about: from its swooping arpeggios, to the whirling spacey keyboard, bludgeoning grooves, inhuman tempo shifts, and hellish vocals, Celestial Scourge is out for blood. 

The songs are tight as hell and wickedly focused, no wasted moments. Only two tracks crack the four minute line—the aforementioned opener and jagged technical powerhouse “Assembling Deformities”—and even those feel shorter than they actually are. The whole package is a lean but dense 30 minutes, which is pretty optimal for the sort of relentless savagery that makes it up. And it’s a true whirlwind of a listen, with no filler, no interludes, and no ambiance; the way a technical/brutal death metal album should be, if you ask me. 

Frontman Eirik Waadeland’s throaty mid-range scream heads the texture, but he utilizes a higher scream and a deeper growl also a la Thomas Szczecina of Orphalis (a band with whose sound Celestial Scourge has many similarities). The tone on Stian Gundersen’s bass is like if you dipped a bullfrog in stainless steel, a thick but nimble metallic burping ribbit that utterly rules. The guitar duo of Sindre Wathne Johnsen and Hans Jakob Bjørheim are an absolute force of cosmic ruination, their fretwork damn well bursting with furiously twisting riffs and high-flying licks, balanced with a healthy dose of chug. Tempo and meter changes are frequent and unpredictable, with drummer Kristoffer Lunden’s crisp but ruthless work on the skins spearheading them. This is an album that seems to skirt a lot of tired techdeath tropes it could have easily fallen into, and Lunden’s ferocious performance in particular feels like it bears a good portion of the credit for that. 

Sometimes the transitions hit with the sudden destruction of a steel chair to the unsuspecting head of pro wrestler, like “Insectoid Evisceration”, while at other times they’ll arrive so smoothly at a skull-demolishing slam that you’ll wonder how they slipped into it so neatly. The turn into devastation that happens about 1:30 into “Vessels”, for example, is so devilishly smooth that your head is half caved in before you’ve barely had a chance to register the blow. The band is whip smart about using those slammy passages, too, crushingly mixing up the pace of breakneck tracks without allowing the heaviest shit to outstay its welcome or dumb things down too far. Songs like “The Optic Chiasm” wouldn’t be nearly as engaging if it weren’t for the massive chuggies that break the track in half, and the ending that time warps a normal riff into a stretched out hellscape is a real songwriting flourish. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

In conclusion: I owe you an apology, Celestial Scourge. I wasn’t really familiar with your game. Now that I’ve give Observers of the Inevitable its deserved time and attention, I’m damn impressed: it’s full-bore destruction from top to bottom, and I’ll be coming back for more for weeks to come.