Celestial Wizard – Regenesis
Release Date: 11th July 2025
Label: Scarlet Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Power Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Crimson Shadows, Unleash The Archers, Brainstorm, (early) In Flames, Battlecross, Soilwork, Kalmah.
Review By: Rick Farley
Denver, Colorado’s melodic death/power metal gunslingers Celestial Wizard return for album number three Regenesis, releasing via Scarlet Records July 11th, 2025. Chock-full of blazing guitar solos, galloping thrashy rhythms, and some seriously deadly hooks. Saddle up, grab your lever action, we have some outlawing to do.
The combination of power metal and melodic death metal is something that I think works well together. It can be extremely aggressive, but still be accessible enough to those who are sensitive to harsher vocals. Celestial Wizard has its fair share of goblinish rasp but also has an equal amount of ridiculously catchy clean vocals that are very capable of burrowing their earworms into your skull. Pale Horse is the perfect example of this. Metal hooks everywhere, sing along choruses, thrashy, chuggy guitars, gritty vocals and high octane energy, This track seems impossible to not love. The damn thing is still stuck in my head. It’s got a cool little western swagger at the end that encapsulates the albums’ theme.
Fangbearer which follows directly after, brings some Clayman era In Flames vibe at the beginning before morphing into a modern power metal banger. One of the strengths of this album is you’ll pick up little flourishes of influence here and there that just works. Besides the thrashy melo-death/power metal framework you’ll find eighties metal style riffing, Jeff Walker inspired harsh vocals, Scar Symmetry influenced clean singing, Carcass Swansong era guitar melodies, a little Pantera chug and a solo that could be ripped straight from Zakk Wyldes toolbox.
Production wise, Regenesis was done by the band and Nick Nodurft at Rusty Sun Audio. The guitars are crisp and pushed forward in the mix. This is clearly a guitar centric album. Tons of shredding and riffs for days. There’s a low-end presence that adds enough weightiness to the music, which gives the guitars even more jagged sharpness. The clean vocals have good clarity and are booming, while the harsh vocals sound defiantly fierce. Everything sounds as it should, with one minor complaint. Though the drums do sound good, they are missing that powerful punch. A little louder in the mix with some extra oomph and this would be blowing up your speakers. Still, it sounds pretty great. Can’t really complain too much.
The other issue I have is the length of the record. This is a grab some beers, smash your friends and party till you vomit kind of album. A wickedly fun record that works best in the background and at maximum volume. All the drunks in the saloon smashing their mugs over each other’s head while singing their assess off. Which brings me to say, there are a couple tracks that could have been shaved off. Again, not a criticism of the music quality exactly, but track nine Emerald Eyes is kind of that cheesy eighties style power ballad that just doesn’t sit well with me personally. Take away the instrumental as well, and we’re down to 40 minutes of rip-roaring, headbanging fun.
Overall, though, this is a damn fine record to just fucking jam. Celestial Wizard is a band that will rate highly with a particular group of metalheads, but honestly, it’s got a little something for everyone. Regenesis is a highly addictive, fun, cohesive record that fucking jams, and that’s really all we need most of the time.
(3.5 / 5)
