Can’t argue with death-doom in winter, sorry. Celestial Season earlier this year released Mysterium I (review here) as the first installment of a purported trilogy and just the second outing since 2020’s The Secret Teachings (review here) brought them back from a 20-year studio drought. Nothing like hitting it hard once you hit it. The seven-piece outfit will issue Mysterium II on Dec. 2 as the second chapter in this series with the third and final collection presumably to follow sometime in 2023. How’s June sound? Good?

Preorders are up through Bandcamp if you like to handle these things early, and if you kept up with Celestial Season‘s return to this point, I’m just going to assume that applies to you.

Behold, the PR wire:

Celestial Season – Dutch Doom-Metal Group Announce New Album “Mysterium II”

Reveal New Track “Pictures of Endless Beauty / Copper Sunset”

Preorder: https://celestialseason.bandcamp.com/album/mysterium-ii

Fall 2022 sees Dutch doom-metal pioneers Celestial Season returning with the second release of the Mysterium trilogy, ‘Mysterium II’, which follows the first album ‘Mysterium I’ released earlier this year via Burning World Records.

Set for release on December 2nd once again via Burning World Records, ‘Mysterium II’ dives further into the more funeral and melancholic side of Celestial Season, songs which are reminiscent of their 1994 demo leading up to the ’95 classic ‘Solar Lovers’, with a greater focus on long violin and cello interludes woven in with the signature Celestial Season twin guitar melodies. Pre-orders are now available at this location: https://celestialseason.bandcamp.com/album/mysterium-ii

The leading single “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is now playing along with a cover version of Cathedral’s classic tune “Copper Sunset” from the “Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)” EP.

“Lyrically “Pictures of Endless Beauty” deals with the majestic beauty of the universe, as humanity steps into a more virtual world, oblivious to the infinite beauty that lies in the real world before them. The lyrics also focuses on one of the Hermetic principles of ‘As Above, So Below’.” Says the band about this new track.

“Musically “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is inspired by the true masters of Death/Doom ‘Cathedral’. Celestial Season is often blindly coupled to the Peaceville 3 but for composer Jason Kohnen, “Pictures of Endless Beauty” is an ode to ‘Forest of Equilibrium’ which laid the foundation to a big part of his personal and Celestial’s sound. The Cathedral ‘side B’ track ‘Copper Sunset’, appears at the end of the “Pictures of Endless Beauty” as tribute to Gary Jennings’ amazing songwriting.”

Formed in the early nineties, the Dutch group attained international acclaim with their first two full-length albums, “Forever Scarlet Passion” from 1993 and “Solar Lovers” from 1995, both still regarded as seminal doom-metal releases right next to Anathema’s “Serenades”, Paradise Lost’s “Gothic” and My Dying Bride’s “Turn Loose the Swans”.

A mix of the “Forever Scarlet Passion” line-up and “Solar Lovers” line-up re-grouped to create what they labelled as the ‘Doom Era’ line-up; with Stefan Ruiters back on vocals, Lucas van Slegtenhorst on bass, Olly Smit and Pim van Zanen on guitars, Jason Köhnen on drums and Jiska Ter Bals back on violin and Elianne Anemaat on cello.

Together, they’ve created and recorded “The Secret Teachings”, an hour-long musical journey that perfectly recaptured the magic and splendour of their early years. Now the Mysterium trilogy follows the same path, delivering a poignant and melancholic doom-metal that cements Celestial Season status as one of the best European doom-metal bands.

Tracklist:
1. The Divine Duty Of Servants
2. Tomorrow Mourning
3. Our Nocturnal Love
4. In April Darkness
5. The Sun The Moon And The Truth
6. Pictures Of Endless Beauty – Copper Sunset

Celestial Season:
Stefan Ruiters – vocals
Olly Smit – guitars
Pim van Zanen – guitars
Lucas van Slegtenhorst – bass
Jiska Ter Bals – violins
Elianne Anemaat – cello
Jason Köhnen – drums/various

https://www.facebook.com/CelestialSeason
https://celestialseason.bandcamp.com/

https://www.burningworldrecords.com
https://burningworldrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/burningworldrecords

Celestial Season, Mysterium I (2022)