Celestiial

Celestiial
Place of origin	Minnesota
Genres	doom metal

For other uses of "Celestial" (with one "i"), see Celestial (disambiguation).

Celestiial
Origin	Minnesota, United States
Genres	Funeral doom metal
Years active	2004 — present
Labels	Bindrune
Members	Tanner Reed Anderson Jason William Walton Timothy Glenn
Website	Bindrune Recordings: Celestiial

Celestiial is a funeral doom metal band from Minnesota. Initially consisting only of Tanner R. Anderson (vocals, harp, guitars), the band was later joined by Jason William Walton (bass) and Timothy Glenn (percussion). Celestiial is known for using numerous instruments in its music, combining traditional folk instruments with those more typically used in metal music, as well as sampling the sounds of the natural world. Celestiial's music is intended to evoke images of the natural world.

After producing a demo, Ashen (2004), Celestiial was signed to Bindrune Recordings. Through Bindrune, Celestiial released Desolate North (2006, rereleased by Handmade Birds in 2011) and Where Life Springs Eternal (2010), as well as a split album, Celestiial / Blood of the Black Owl (2008).

History

Celestiial

Marty Rytkonen, of Bindrune Recordings, was one of the "maybe six or so" people to receive a copy of Celestiial's demo Ashen, but he was the only person associated with a label. However, the album had not been recorded in a studio. Five of the songs — the five that composed Ashen — had been recorded one evening in the corner of the Azrael rehearsal space, and the three additional songs on Desolate North were recorded later. One of them was in early 2005, and was recorded in the same place as the first five, but the other two, the songs featuring the harps, were recorded at Anderson's home, with his microphone literally tucked under his chin.

In early 2006, following the release of Desolate North, Tim Glenn joined the band as a drummer. In 2008, Jason Walton joined the band on bass and the line-up has remained the same to the current day. Bindrune is due to release Celestiial's second album in summer 2007. The music was also used on May 24, 25 and 26, 2008 as part of the newest Ballet Deviare production, Memento Mori. Ballet Deviare's performances to Celestiial's music have also appeared on the MTV Two show Headbangers Ball.

In 2008, it was announced that Celestiial was releasing a split album with Blood of the Black Owl on Bindrune Recordings. The final mastering was done by Mel Detmer, and the release (titled only as Celestiial / Blood of the Black Owl Split 12"LP) is limited to only 500 copies.

Other projects

Outside of Celestiial, Anderson is a member of Obsequiae, and he is a former member of a black metal band, Azrael, and Autumnal Winds. Anderson is currently involved with several other projects. He is part of "an obscure death metal band" Additionally, Jason Walton and Tim Glenn are both involved in several other projects. Walton is a member of the band Agalloch as well as Sculptured, Nothing and Subterranean Masquerade. Glenn is a founding member of the experimental/black metal band Heatdeath, who are signed to Conspiracy Records.

Anonymity

Despite the fact that other bands signed to Bindrune Recordings have MySpace profiles or websites,

Celestiial is a funeral doom metal band. However, Desolate North has been described as taking the genre in new directions with comparisons to ambient, goth, experimental and dark folk music being made.

Anderson admits that there may be death metal influences in the vocals, but says that it was not a conscious design, and that the music does not have any other similarities to death metal. He claims that there are no black metal influences. He says that describing Celestiial's music as folk is a bad idea, as folk is such a broad, vague description as to make it meaningless. He says that what he is creating is neither folk, nor traditional, and even the harp songs are not traditional works, though they are influenced by the traditional music of the United Kingdom and traditional Irish music. Anderson responded to this by claiming that he doesn't know why people compare his music to black metal; hypothesising that it is simply the raw production of the music, or the double 'i' in the band name. He has instead described the double 'i' as being present in the name "to give it character."