Around The Fire - Celestial Keepers

 

 

Around the Fire - Celestial Keepers
Self released - January 2021
World, doom, sludge, stoner
Rated: ****

Greece's Around The Fire return with their anticipated sophomore album, "Celestial Keepers", and once again raise the bar in their visionary melding of Greek, Egyptian, and Asian sounds with doom and sludge. Thundering riffs growl hand in hand with throat singing and eastern melodies, creating a sinisterly groovy and cryptic masterpiece. A prominent element that gives Around The Fire this unique sound is the kemenje, a fiddle from the Pontus region of Turkey. Reedy and manic, when played alongside the traditional guitar and bass it creates a striking contrast between the crushing low end and its spidery, keening strings. This dynamic is immediately put on display in opener "Kau Ano Meha", with foreboding fiddle leading to a sudden slam of cutting, crushingly low stoner riffs. Then the throat singing enters, and all bets are off. Guttural and bone-shaking, the vocals are another heavy instrument in their own right, holding their own against the strings and bashing drums to hair-raising effect. The immense weight of all this instrumentation is felt across the six tracks of "Celestial Keepers", particularly in the standout "Awakening". Menacing drums march into kemenje and ritualistic throat singing, creating a dirge that builds and builds without ever quite letting the other shoe drop. Without giving more away, every track is a hit, rife with inventive sounds and a culturally diverse range of music. No small feat, Around The Fire has fused this melting pot of influences into a massively heavy and mesmerizing album.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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