Celestial Sword
11/06/20 | J.R.
Black metal’s fascination with vampyric folklore can be traced all the way back to the genre’s roots. But a new USBM solo practitioner of the black arts has ventured to peer deeper beneath the surface of black metal’s fetish for pointy fangs and cobwebbed candelabra. As you’ll read in the interview below, Celestial Sword presents a black metal hero literally addicted to blood.
“This sort of ‘curse’ and ‘cure’ both existing simultaneously within oneself identified strongly with the idea of the lone vampire,” says the anonymous artist on altering the vampire character to fit the project’s concept, “but, while embracing this sort of darkness, becomes transformative, and what becomes of that is an ever-changing sonic landscape, with each song and album building and shifting and growing from its former self while still remaining in its all-encompassing shell.”
“The vampyric elements are a representation of feeling undead,” they continue, “needing and hungering for blood and flesh to feel normal and satiated, this also applies to despair and addiction. The need for something, unyielding hunger always felt, an itch in your veins, the taste of copper on the tip of your tongue.”
Musically, Celestial Sword cuts deep. As one of the rawer examples of the new wave of harsh black metal, musicality still plays an essential role to these compositions, where ethereal melodies occasionally peek out from behind the hiss. Celestial Sword’s musical take on vampirism is as lonely as its themes, a solitary pain from an eternity spent in seclusion and the throes of addiction. This personal level of depth adds much to the typically impersonal raw black metal facade.
Fallen From the Astral Temple is sold out from Death Kvlt Productions, but can still be consumed digitally via the Celestial Sword Bandcamp page.
Celestial Sword seems to have emerged from the aether with a full-length album. What do you attribute to the very sudden birth of this new project?
I owe the creation of this album (and to all of the music I’ve ever made) to the dark and chaotic energies both within or around me. The ones that I’ve always sort of held onto deep or have kept at bay most my life. And as a result of holding onto these powerful and often exhaustive feelings, the sudden urge (or rather need) to have it all realized and let it out had come over me like a tidal wave and I just surrendered to it and let it drown me. Celestial Sword is sort of my soundtrack to that moment. That realization and letting go of oneself to the nature of life and death.
So you could say Celestial Sword was like a necessity?
Absolutely. The project wasn’t necessarily created on purpose but rather a result of letting everything manifest. Now it works as a vessel between my own reality and the universe as a whole.
In your meditations about life and death, what have you learned?
What I’ve learned through these meditations is something that is constantly being deciphered. The self realization and even embrace of the darkness within can actually become beneficial, healing and wholly cathartic. It’s something that can’t be taken lightly or you can easily succumb to it as I have many times. Celestial Sword is the transitive of these decipherments, a sonic representation of my own loss, sorrow, addiction and hunger as means for its transformative ability.
As you achieve your transformation through this project, how do you view these negatives which fuel it?
Before this project, I used to view these negative feelings with a sort of shame which led to even more despair. However now, I attempt to view them as a source of strength and embrace them in a way I didn't know was possible. Channeling it through the lens of black metal, where they explore and grow and in strange new ways creating something almost inhuman to myself.
What led you to using black metal as the catalyst for expression?
I think it was the natural and most ideal channel for it, being raw and primitive while at the same time majestic and beautiful. Anything else (or type of music) I think wouldn't be able to capture the essence that black metal can and does so well. I've explored other avenues in my music between ambient, dungeon synth, and electronic music, but nothing has ever seemed to capture that spirit like black metal has (for me at least).
I’m curious about the project’s name in conjunction with the more vampyric elements which define Celestial Sword. How do these elements play into each other for the project’s overarching concept?
The name comes from an item in the Dungeons and Dragons/Forgotten Realms lore. Typically, the Celestial Sword could only be used by someone chosen worthy enough by the sword. Once chosen, one was granted more abilities and their character became angelic and chaotic good, understood the celestial language of the gods and access to view the ethereal plane. I always believed that this could also be looked at in reverse, instead of angelic but rather demonic and vampyric. Embracing the darkness, understanding the language of the cosmic death around us as a means of transforming oneself with more knowledge and power. The sword was also a sentient being, communicating with emotion to the one wielding it and even making its own sound and resonance.
The vampyric elements are a representation of feeling undead, needing and hungering for blood and flesh to feel normal and satiated, this also applies to despair and addiction. The need for something, unyielding hunger always felt, an itch in your veins, the taste of copper on the tip of your tongue.
So, and stop me if I’m misinterpreting, your character as the Celestial Swordbearer can be seen as addicted to blood rather than simply needing it in the classical vampyric sense?
Yes.
That is a unique take on vampire lore. How did you adapt this monster archetype to fit this new paradigm?
This sort of adaptation of the archetype again was a natural choice. This sort of ‘curse’ and ‘cure’ both existing simultaneously within oneself identified strongly with the idea of the lone vampire, but, while embracing this sort of darkness, becomes transformative, and what becomes of that is an ever-changing sonic landscape, with each song and album building and shifting and growing from its former self while still remaining in its all-encompassing shell.
I’ve seen the artwork which will be used for a future split with raw black metal project Adrasteia. How did this split come to be?
I felt that there's a kinship between the two projects. The two kind of augment each other and complement one another at the same time. While Adrasteia deals with the frozen cold desolation of nature and its majesty, Celestial Sword sort of represents the inner turmoil and cosmic nature of the self in relation to nature and the universe.
When can we expect to hear this split?
Spring 2021.
Is there anything else in the works you would like to share? I noticed you announced a Salem-themed dungeon synth project on social media.
Yes, Ingersoll’s Ordinary’s self-titled demo will be out late November on a new and upcoming label called Black Casket/Ethereal Tower.
Any parting thoughts?
I would like to thank everyone for their support so far for this project. Eternal love and devotion to Labyrinth Tower and Death Kvlt Productions.
