Band:	Celesty
Album:	Reign Of Elements
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2002
Guest review by:	Lanfawn

01. Intro
02. Charge
03. Revenge
04. Sword Of Salvation
05. Reign Of Elements
06. Lost In Deliverance
07. The Sword And The Shield
08. Battle Of Oblivion
09. Kingdom
10. The Journey [Japanese bonus]
11. Power Of The Stones [Korean & American bonus]

When people say that a metal band is from Finland, 3 differents reactions appear.

They are:

The newbie metal-head:
1) FINLAND! THAT'S WHERE NIGHTWISH IS FROM! OMG! METAL!

The "I want to die" metal-head:
2) OMG! FINLAND! HIM! AND 15 OTHER GOTH METAL BANDS WHICH SOUNDS JUST LIKE THEM! HEAVEN! *Jumps from a cliff*

And finally, the ones who are in love with melodic power metal of the Finnish school:
3) STRATOVARIUS! SONATA ARCTICA! etc

This review if my gift from you to people of the third school, the rest can back off unless of course you enjoy this kind of metal! Then stay! (Though that might be hard if you are of the second school since you just jumped off a cliff... ANYWAY!)

The point I've been trying to make is that Celesty is a melodic power metal band from Finland. This automatically means that they grew up listening to Stratovarius; fruitlessly trying to perform Kiss of Judas in the basement of the drummer's father, while the neighbours screamed: "BLACK DIAMOND WAS BETTER THAN KISS OF JUDAS, DAMNIT!". And no, this is not a bad thing since Stratovarius rules (ruled?) and have been providing lots of influence. If you ask me, I usually split up Finnish melodic power metal in 2 tiers; tier 1 being "the fathers" (i.e Stratovarius) and tier 2 "the rest", the most prominent one being Sonata Arctica. As you can probably figure out, Celesty belongs to tier 2.


Enough comparisons to other bands, let's move on to the tracks. If you take a look at the track list you'll notice that unlike their ilk Sonata Arctica, they don't sing about emotions. They sing about swords, magic & black horses named Rosaline! And a witch here and there. Oh and shields. Don't forget the shields.

The album begins with a typical introduction which is short and basically unnecessary. It does however set the mood for Charge which is the "WELCOME TO OUR NEW ALBUM, WE KICK ASS!" track. And it's no doubt good, the first thing you will think is "What? Is Sonata Arctica's new album already out?"; that's how similar they sound. I'm a sucker for medieval sounds used in power metal so Charge is definitely a good track.

Next we have Revenge; it has a very nice piano intro (too short though!) which creates a melody that sticks through the song. Other than that we have more glorious epic Hollywood metal lyrics (as Rhapsody would put it), no big things to complain about here either. Sword of Salvation has an awesome intro too, notice how Celesty really knows their intros. It then flows into great guitars and amazing drums which I have a hard time not to fall in love with. Excellent track.

The title track which follows, Reign of Elements, begins with a nice scream and more of those medieval sounds that I can't resist. Unfortunately I'll have to say that as the sounds disappeared the song got a bit boring. It also has a weird narrator in it, which they could have removed.

Both the two next tracks, Lost in Deliverance & The Sword and the Shield, follow the same vein. Some medieval sounds, and lots of fast guitars and drumming. Some catchy choruses. The prior is better than the latter however. We're now nearing the end of the album & Celesty knows it. So in Battle of Oblivion they release all they have to create the heaviest track of the album, and I like it. A lot, actually.

What did I just say? The ending is getting near? And no ballad?! Don't worry! Here it comes! Track number 9, Kingdom, is the tearjerker of the album and unfortunately it left no impression on me at all. Too bad.


As you can see I don't have many things to complain about. This is a solid first release by a band that will probably be really big one day. But while I don't complain much, I don't scream "HALLELUJAH!" a lot either. Because this is not a bad album at all, but nor is it excellent. This is GOOD. No more. No less. As Celesty grows, they will probably pass well, but as it stands now; that is what it is. Solid! A must for all fans of Sonata Arctica and similar bands.