Celestial Season
Forever Scarlet Passion

Winter is cold, and only a few bands truly know how to warm the heart. Among these are surely the legendary Celestial Season, a group that, together with The Gathering, represented the Dutch response to the gothic sound coming from the land of Albion. That sound, just to be clear, was offered in the '90s by groups like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Anathema.
A band of excellent musicians, inspired by dark and melancholic sentiments. It's a shame that after two albums, they were struck by the love for stoner rock, thus losing their classic trademark. But recent news suggests a return to their primordial genre.
At the beginning of it all, however, the band's music was still unripe and not without its "flaws."
In this "Forever Scarlet Passion," there's a lot of doom, but not the Sabbathian kind or that of groups like Pentagram and Cathedral.
No, here emerges a distinctly gothic and romantic sound.
Ingredients: pachyderm guitars, alternation between growl and clean vocals, and a tear-jerking violin. This latter feature has always brought the Dutch ensemble closer to Aaron Stainthorpe's creation.
Indeed, there's a lot of Bride in this work, but we can't talk about plagiarism.
The songs flow well and demonstrate their own considerable originality. Imagine the aforementioned Bride but less morbid and less verbose.
Certainly, we're not yet at the levels of the subsequent "Solar Lovers" (their masterpiece, according to the writer), but "Forever Scarlet Passion" is an album that is a pleasure to listen to. Especially if you grew up with this genre.
The songs, one must admit, are quite homogeneous, although "Ophelia" has something magical. Worth mentioning, in this regard, are the opening "Cherish My Pain" and the closing "For Eternity."
If the early albums of English doom/death groups are too distressing for your nightly walks, Celestial Season's debut might be for you. Besides, with this climate, a listen cannot be denied.