French post-metal band Celeste in Tokyo
France’s blackened sludge/post-hardcore outfit Celeste made a triumphant return to Japan.
Celeste, Heaven in Her Arms and Seek at Earthdom, Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan on 30th November 2024
Those of us who follow French blackened sludge, post-hardcore outfit Celeste will be aware of the group of fans of a different “Celeste” who made headlines by travelling 100 miles from Liverpool to Birmingham, England last month, only to realise they were at the wrong show. For those not in the know, there is an acclaimed British soul singer who performs under the same name.
Upon confirming I was indeed at the right show at Shin-Okubo’s Earthdom venue, I briefly met the band. During this short chat, vocalist/bassist Johan Girardeau suggested I could simply call upon AI to construct this entire gig review on my behalf. So, while I obviously don’t look like I can string an unassisted sentence together despite more than a decade’s experience doing so, I’m prepared to give it a go. Here goes nothin’!
Japan’s own Seek was the opening act. Like the headliners, this band’s tunes may be described using terms like “blackened sludge”, “post-hardcore” or “post-metal”. However you want to classify their music, it translates as abrasive, intriguing and powerful. One or two remarked post-opening set that Seek may have been let down just a little by sound quality – drums in particular. And while this may have been the case to some degree, there’s something about the way they perform that allowed triumph regardless. Whether it’s the strength in the execution of well-written songs, the intense conviction of vocalist Suguru Inomoto or a little of both, Seek tore the listeners a new arse in the best way possible.
As on last year’s full-length album, “故郷で死ぬ男”, the highlight of the live set was “黒い雨”. This seven-minute epic swirled and slammed, opening with clean vocals and an ominous set-up before the payoff arrived with blast-driven black metal and a doomy back end. It’s also probably the best example of why I’m looking forward to seeing them play again and what they come up with on future releases. There’s far more to Seek than the labels “blackened sludge” and “post-hardcore” can describe.
Having supported Celeste on a previous visit to Japan, Tokyo favourites, Heaven in Her Arms, played Earthdom, but not the Osaka or second Tokyo shows on this Japan tour. Whispers bouncing off the walls between sets made it obvious that some had paid their admission just to see the second support act. It was my first time hearing them and I had now begun to expect great things.
Perhaps more so than the other two bands in the line-up, Heaven in Her Arms relied upon atmosphere to create a winning sound, offsetting dissonance with gorgeous melody. Part post-hardcore, part ambient with a dash of melodic black metal, this band effortlessly delivered the catharsis so many of their peers aim for and fall shy. Having had so little previous experience, I won’t pretend to know any of the song titles in their set, but I will next time, that much is for certain.
It appeared the crowd was still growing ahead of the main act. Unless I completely misunderstood an accidental eavesdropping, there was a Tinder date (or whatever people use now) going down a few short metres from the stage. He rocked up “right on time” as he apparently “always” does, quickly went for earplugs at the desk and never came back it seemed. I have no idea why. This dude passed up two smoke shows that evening – the first one subjective and figurative, the second one on stage. Celeste’s set opened with “(A)” from the French post-hardcore, blackened-sludge band’s most recent full-length album, 2022’s “Assassine(s)”. Used as a mid-album respite from the oppressive bleakness of their signature sound, “(A)” also worked perfectly as a set opener with its wordless and epic four minutes of machine click into doom and then melodic black instrumental. Sure, the two support bands were good but Celeste sounded great!
(Johan, if you’re reading, for the record, the only time I attempted to enlist the help of AI was to see if I had your setlist even remotely correct and unfortunately, our soon-to-be machine overlords couldn’t help with that.)
“Des tes yeux bleus perlés”, “Des torrents de coups”, “Il a tant rêvé d’elles” and “Nonchalantes de beauté” provided an “Assassine(s)”-heavy opening run to Celeste’s evening. If this album is, generally speaking, slightly more melodic than previous releases, on stage its tracks served to provide a sense of continuity, slowly gravitating towards more abrasive crowd favourites. Running through a bunch of French song titles in an English gig review might seem superfluous, but while we’re here speaking of fan favs, the night eventually ended with a second song encore of “Ces belles de rêve aux verres embués” from 2010’s “Morte(s) Née(s)” – quite simply a great extreme metal track. This, and everything before it, was executed with the professionalism of a band nearing their two-decade anniversary but with the enthusiasm of a much younger band.
Celeste’s moods are dark, not just in the way a band might whack in their promo to sound evil but authentically so, like whatever those French lyrics are about, they mean it. Their songs juxtapose post-metal elements and black metal meanness, and although it’s achieved in an entirely different way, like Heaven in Her Arms, they have a knack for affording their audience genuine catharsis. Johan’s vocals are anguished and convincing. The band’s music is experimental, scary, dissonant and heavy as fuck.
I was a fan of this band before going to see them live. Now, even more so. Darkness, monolith-heavy tunes and red cyclopean headlamps – a night with Celeste is up there with the grandest fun a Saturday evening in Tokyo can offer (unless you’re that one dude who went for earplugs and never returned. Shame on you). Go see Celeste if they come to your town!
Words and photos by Nathan Eden.
https://www.facebook.com/celesteband
