Funeral Doom. A subgenre that is so beautiful, yet so depressive and painstaking. Few bands have really accomplished the goal of building atmospheres, emotions and landscapes using this style of music. All the others dwell into a mix of slow Death-Alternative-Melodic Metal so “successful” nowadays. After a few in depth listening sessions to CELESTIIAL’s latest offering, “Where Life Springs Eternal”, the goal has been accomplished up to a certain point. The album is based on a meditation concept, I believe. Actually, the running water effect heard throughout the whole album matches the cover and booklet, with waterfall and rain forest images. The intro is an immense onslaught of atonal guitar chords, feedback and nature sounds setting the pace for the epic 30 minute ‘Great Storms Carry My Sadness’. The aesthetics here are not the ones I am used to when it comes down to this style of music. There is a lot of open guitar notes and sounds with a good use of slow percussive attack of Timothy Glenn and a deep, bow-like bass guitar courtesy of Jason Walton. The “running water and birds” background gets exhausting at times, broken only by almost maniacal high shrieks vocals of Tanner Reed Anderson, who also handles the guitar duties. The other pieces add up to the concept, like the neatly placed ‘From Elm Blossoms A Rose’, an acoustic folk passage that puts your mind at ease before the 16 minute ‘Offering In Cedar Smoke’ comes in with the same pounding slo-mo attack. Finally, ‘Songbirds Depart Through the Passing Near The Garden’ is an acoustic / piano driven outro that concludes the listening experience. Certainly, CELESTIIAL dwells into the Funeral Doom realm, but their style is much more experimental, folk influenced at times and based on creating an atmosphere, which appeals to some, but not for me. I’d rather have some more music in it. Interesting album, but not my cup of tea. Contacts: www.bindrunerecordings.com, www.myspace.com/bindrunerecordings