Catharsis. Musical violence - cascades of riffs that hit like hammer blows and indecipherable vocals - interspersed with quieter sections as tense as the eye of a hurricane. The combination of these two elements seems to be the goal of many modern arstsy sludge/metalcore bands, and Icelandic newcomers Celestine have joined the ranks of these extremely pissed-off dudes with their debut EP At the Borders of Arcadia.

Celestine’s strength is in their ability to exploit the contrast between calm/violent sections in a way that doesn’t become predictable so that each time they explode, it makes my skin tingle at least a little. The 4-minute opener “Despair (And)” shows this perfectly: a brief guitar intro builds into a thunderous semi-chorus, then calms down just a bit before exploding into a choir of screams and Meshuggah-esque riff in the climax that flows right on into the next track “Witness (The)”.

Celestine’s biggest weakness is in the memorability department. Much like The Ocean’s Aeolian, their riffs are almost entirely of the palm-muted “chug-chug-chug-skree”, which are efficient in pounding eardrums but inefficient in inducing the need for repeated listenings. The occasional guitar leads do a good job of making the music sound so much more epic than just five Icelandic dudes going nuts, but, much like Celestine’s riffs, the leads fail to stick in my brain.

At the Borders of Arcadia is a tight debut that does almost everything right (including not overstaying it’s welcome), but also leaves me wondering whether Celestine will be able to step out of the shadow of their predecessors such as Breach, Cult of Luna, Buried Inside, and Converge.

- Jeff Mcquiggan