There is a point in every band's evolution when it becomes necessary to strip everything back and ask a simple question: What is it that makes us who we are? For UK death metal force, Celestial Sanctuary, that question became the foundation for 'Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul', a bold and uncompromising new album that sees the band refining their identity by refusing to conform to anyone else's expectations.
“Our intention this time around was to refine what actually this ‘Celestial Sanctuary thing’ is,” the band explains. “Filtering out all the bullshit, ignoring trends and ignoring what people expect us to do, and we’re a way better band for it.”
The answer isn't to abandon death metal, but to look beyond its boundaries. Celestial Sanctuary approached 'Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul', their Metal Blade debut, with an organic understanding of their complete metal DNA, retaining the violence and extremity at the core of the band while allowing a much broader spectrum of influences to shape the songwriting, dynamics and production. The band describes the album as roughly 25% death metal and 75% everything else that makes up their conception of heavy metal.
“The sonic footprint of this album was completely inspired by classic metal and death metal but brought into the 21st century,” they explain. “From the songwriting to the production, we didn’t want to be classed as ‘just another old school death metal band.’”
Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel remain essential touchstones, but the band's ambitions stretched far beyond the traditional death metal canon during the writing of the album. Death's 'Symbolic' and 'Spiritual Healing', Megadeth's 'Rust In Peace', Machine Head's 'Through The Ashes Of Empire' and Slipknot's 'Iowa' were among the records in heavy rotation. Celestial Sanctuary doesn’t sound like any of those bands, however, which is precisely the point. What they took from them was their DNA: the approach to songwriting, dynamics, atmosphere, aggression and creating something that could push beyond the boundaries of its genre.
Across 47 minutes, the album unfolds as a violent and expansive journey through death, folklore and the darkest corners of the band's home territory. The story is a bastardization of the history and legends surrounding Bury St. Edmunds, drawing from centuries of local mythology, atrocities and executions. The piercing and beheading of King Edmund, the spectral Black Shuck, the infamous Red Barn Murders, the Witch Trials, the Sunken Bells of Dunwich, the Lantern Man and the many brutal executions that once took place throughout the region all become raw material for Celestial Sanctuary's twisted narrative.
“We treated every song as if it had its own identity and tone within the concept of the album,” the band explains. “And what that does is give us an expansive album that's a 47-minute throat-cutting, head-smashing, arrow-piercing sonic journey of death metal excess.”
That sense of purpose carries through every aspect of 'Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul'. Produced, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins, the album captures a band intent on pushing forward without losing sight of what makes Celestial Sanctuary unique. Artwork comes courtesy of James Bousema, bringing the album's gruesome historical world to life.
Bold, aggressive and memorable by design, 'Cradle Of The Rotten, Shrine To Those Most Foul' is Celestial Sanctuary stripping away expectation, embracing their full metal DNA and emerging with something unmistakably their own.
CD version
Tracklisting: TBC
