Reign of Elements (Reign Of Elements - Celesty)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Reign Of Elements - Celesty
Date:	25/04/08 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Average power metal.

Disadvantages: Average power metal.

Celesty is a Finnish power metal band in the style of pretty much every other European power metal band to emerge in the twenty-first century. Their music has the potential to be heavy and energetic, based in speed metal riffs and incredibly fast drums, but it prefers to focus instead on melody through singing, lead guitars and keyboards that can't help but sound entirely derivative of bands like Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica. Not to mention an obsession with fantasy themes that verges on Rhapsody on occasion, especially when the keyboards are dragged out for irritating solos.

I'm usually a fan of power metal, but only when it stands out from the crowd, as it's one of the metal sub-genres most likely to attract hordes of imitators replicating a style precisely without adding anything new. This is why 'Reign of Elements' is an entirely superfluous album for any power metal fan's collection; it goes through all of the motions from speed metal anthem to inevitable power ballad, the musicians don't impress with anything other than their speed, and at times it's unbearably cheesy without offering anything in the way of a memorable guitar riff as compensation.

If you're desperate for some more power metal, you'll probably appreciate this band's loyalty to the genre. Just don't expect anything you haven't heard before from a Rhapsody album.

1. Intro
2. Charge
3. Revenge
4. Sword of Salvation
5. Reign of Elements
6. Lost in Deliverance
7. The Sword and the Shield
8. Battle of Oblivion
9. Kingdom

Summary: Celesty's first album (2002).