Celliacus - Celliacus

 

Released: March 6

On their debut album, Barcelona-based quartet Celliacus blends improvisational jazz with metal and punk influences and touches of ambient noise to create seven tracks that refuse any kind of genre categorization.  It’s a mostly noisy affair with these brief moments throughout that come together into something recognizable, only to subvert that familiarity almost immediately. The driving force behind most of the album comes from the erratic guitars and drums, but assisted and accompanied by electronic noises ranging from wild trashing to dark and foreboding tones. “La doctrina d la conservación” takes the latter route, defined by dark overtones that envelope most of the track as those unpredictable drums come in at moments to punctuate the foggy electronics. This one stands out on the album as one of the more ambient leaning tracks while still infusing jazz sentiments periodically. 

Of the more jazz-inflected tracks, there’s the slow and meandering “Pornophony” that features a scale-spanning guitar that drives the track forward while rough electronic tones play out alongside it in sparse fashion. The drums here play as the accompaniment with seemingly random fills that somehow keep up with the guitar in the loosest way without feeling out of place. With “Inner emigration,” the punk and metal influences start to shine as we are thrust into a noise rock assembly of sounds that slowly become more and more cacophonous, coming to a head with heavy and fully defined blast beat style of drumming. What begins as a disorganized mess comes together into a trash format by the end, shortly before fading away. “His-Purnijke net” keeps that metal vibes going for most of its runtime with some skillfully placed breakdowns peppered throughout. 

Cellicus is a wild ride, to put it mildly. The improvisational nature of it makes those moments where it comes together into something that feels scripted for setup and subversion. It feels like it’s about to become something that can be easily defined and then abandons the motif in favor of a new idea. Sometimes that new idea is developed further and sometimes it is discarded shortly. But that’s where the fun of this album is. It won’t let you predict it next move and it drags you along for the ride.