Celestial Season – Mysterium I, LP (血红)

血红胶。荷兰厄运/死亡金属。

The Dutch depressives in Celestial Season lit up the nascent death/doom scene of the early ’90s with the underground classics Forever Scarlet Passion and Solar Lovers. They went dormant in 2001 after a mid-career flirtation with a more streamlined stoner doom sound, but in 2020, they released The Secret Teachings. The album was a glorious return to the funereal Romanticism of the band’s earliest work, and its follow-up doubles down on that sound. 

Mysterium I is the first in a planned trilogy of albums set for release over the next two years. It walks in the path of early My Dying Bride and Anathema, replete with baroque strings, moaned vocals, and cobwebbed atmosphere.

Today, we’re sharing a new single from Mysterium I—a whisper from the crypt called “The Golden Light of Late Day.” It’s an achingly melancholic heartbreaker of a song, and anyone who’s ever lit a few candles to listen to Turn Loose the Swans should find plenty to love in its crepuscular misery. Read a quote about the song from frontman Stefan Ruiters, and listen to it below.

“Olly [Smit, guitar] composed the music and after hearing it for the first time it gave me this strong connection with our planet, its transcendental vastness, and the longing to be with your loved one when you’re not and the feelings aroused in you when in such a state. So, I wrote about belonging and sense of place.”