Today in artist spotlight we have a recurring guest, Celina who already featured before with a fantastic album here
and she is back with another full featured one.
According to the added info, Celina has arrived to a city full of chaos. The songs tell the story about the fights through her journey to achieve her rightful role as the Cyberqueen. Will she succeed? Let’s find out.
The first track Quadrant starts with some nice pads and synth solo and some foreshadowing effects on the drums. It seems a bit peaceful but then a sawtooth synth cuts it in half. It’s still on the peaceful side until it all dies down. A menacing kick and bass synth comes in with some distant samples and reverbed background. Then the lead and drums intensify to bring in another strong lead. Bridges usually quiet, it’s the same story here, however the bridge has a nice lead. A sweeping effect takes us to the next verse, again with massive reverbs. Then we get all of them together: the lead, effects, background bass and powerful drums.
The next one Ultragear starts with ticking. The drums and bass is just distant until a much closer guitar track starts to creep in with some distorted speech.The upcoming drums are still muffled while more and more synths are added to the mix layer by layer. By now we’re in the middle of it, with the lead being just a background. The quiet bridge just features the pads and the distant bass accompanied by the - otherwise pleasant - but disrupting drums. It follows the earlier recipe, slowy pulling in the tracks from the background until they’re not just backing but leading. Second verse is putting it all together. The song ends abduptly, echoing the last notes.
Quantum Zero already starts with the lead and quickly joins the drums. Another lead drops in from the top and we get something we don’t usually hear: broken rythm! Following the quick disruption things get more peaceful until another sudden BPM trickery. The bridge is way more eerie as before. It does not pull any punches (or backing tracks into front) but just slams all to the front again with some dubstep-y bass and nice sawtooth leads. The only gently thing about this track is when the lead slowly pulled from the background for a few bars - then another lead takes it away. It is not as abrupt at the end as the above, but just barely.
The track Blast does start with slow, almost like threatening. Then it delivers on the promise. Massive drums, huge distorted dubstep bass drives the point home. A highly echoed and reverbed bell is trying to make it through as well. The bridge is super quiet again for a few seconds but then we’re back where we came from. The backing sequence is kind of tiny and fragile compared to the other tracks. It also cut in half by a sawtooth. Oh this time we do get a lead-out! The tiny sequence is back.
‘Kick It’ just simply states the fact by saying “kick it!” right at the start - that is before it kicks the door in. The distorted bass is still here and to feel the company we get a few more next to it. The bridge features a dizzying panning effect just before it gets quiet. The second verse spins up quite fast and we’re repeately reminded to kick it. The last part takes a bit higher note feels like serving as the lead-out and indeed it is.
‘Kernel Panic’ doesn’t sound like one. It’s actually calm. It even has a peaceful, simpler drum and a few background synths and bass. Even the lead does not feel panicky. Either that or it assumes that things are FUBAR now, there is no need to deliver it by force. That is, until we reach the bridge end. Then it’s nothing but peaceful - that’s more like it! I just wonder: was the first verse the exception handler and the second is the actual panic? Seems so.
The track ‘Strong’ starts with a strong drum. Everything else is just backing: the bass, the sequences. The first verse is also strong on clapped drums and distorted bass. The bridge is not quiet here. We just lose the bass for a while. A lead comes in and we get back all with a heavy hithat added. Another quiet period serves as a pseudo-bridge to spin things up then the song goes all in again.
When the Dark comes it all starts from the background. The sequences, the bass and the backing synths. An even stronger drum makes a heavy appearance to pull in a distorted bass, reverse hithats until a spinning down bridge. It gets dark for a moment then the drum does that it did best before: spinning things up. The lead doesn’t sound too dark but at this point the listener just got used to it. It feels like seeing things in the dark after the eyes adjusted.
Finally, Ancension starts with a gently lead, backing bass (less gentle) and reverbed backing synth then the drums beings everything to front. The leads and the backing synth emphasizes the theme more and more. Things are happening here without any strong notions, almost like by themselves. A sweeping reverted hithat helps to drive it higher. This is no doubt the victory after all the fights. It ends on a high note, slowly decaying into the void.
So the question is, did the Cyberqueen succeed? My answer is a definite yes.
The album is packed with tons of powerful beats and bursts, delivering the story with a lot of energy.
It is highly recommended even if cyberpunk is not someone’s cup of tea. The storyline is fun to follow even if listened to on a proper equipment it could bring a few walls down.
Available on Bandcamp, Youtube , Spotify .