Celldweller |Position Music, 2003|

-----, Switchback, Stay With Me (Unlikely), The Last Firstborn, Under My Feet, I Believe You, Frozen, Symbiont, Afraid This Time, Fadeaway, -----, So Sorry To Stay, One Little World, Unlikely (Stay With Me), One Good Reason, The Stairs Of Orion, -----, Welcome To The End

I'm glad to have the CD and be able to review it, because its content is just a piece of super hard work. Who's not familiar with Celldweller yet? Check out www.celldweller.com or www.myspace.com/celldweller, and get back to the review when you listen to a few songs ;)

A big book could be written about Klayton and I guess such a publication could be released within the next few years. I wasn't convinced to Celldwellet thanx to Klayton's muscles, nor skirts nor a bit manga or comic-esque musicians' image. The feature which I'm totally respective for is Klayton's hard work and the fact he was in two genius bands in the 90's - Argyle Park and Circle of Dust. Te second attractive thing is that he has a good voice, he can sing what doesn't happen that often in industrial-metal music, where computers and effects play the main role so you can get easy any kind of a tone for your voice. Next adventage is Klayton's passion and dynamics he's been running his project with, moreover production of both music and videos is a high quality one. Finally he's well learnt about other styles of music and can grab the best and most typical of them to mix together, experiment with the sound blend it into a harmonious whole.
The debut Celldweller's CD is an exploration of such mixtures, altho the general view I had after auditioning was "very interesting!".

Switchback song was chosen by the band for a promotional track and was followed by a stunning video released on Switchback DVD. Stay With Me is a very well-rounded song to be noticed by the media, especially the radio stations. The Last Firstborn is a surprise, because includes .. goa-trance vibes characteristic for let's say Astral Projection, but kind of a pleasure for someone who doesn't have to get a CD filled up with humdrum songs. Under My Feet begins with almost unplugged kind of tunes and alternative-like guitars supported by catchy refrain. I Believe You reminds me Limp Bizkit's or Orgy's songs but when the track is over you can still have in your mind these words: "That's all right, that's all right"...

The album is shared in three by nice sound intersections, and as you can remember Chemlab was using this kind of thing on its album as "sutures". Frozen impressed me the least because I heard such songs many times before, too fashionable to be called 'original' altho the album was released in 2003 and I believe such songs brought an exposure to Celldweller that time. Symbiont song is built on heavy guitar riffs and distorted Klayton's voice, but there are moments of calming down somewhere in the middle of the song what gives a really charming result. The same tempting tunes has another album called Afraid This Time, altho after too many listenings it can sound boring. Fadeaway it's probably the best known Celldweller's song except Switchback, formed in a shape of a fashionable track (see a note about Frozen above). I really love Sorry To Say and it's kind of a song you'll remember long after turning your CD player off.

Other than that I'm not a fan of Own Little World but Unlikely (Stay With Me) thanks to basslines made me feeling good again ;) One Good Reason it's the heaviest song on Celldweller's debut CD, almost grindcore and very dynamical. Finally the two songs, one of them reminds me drum'n'bass style (The Stars of Orion) and the other (Welcome To The End) ends the album in a very mysterious way thanks to a variety of sound backgrounds.

If we have a look at Celldweller concidering its image, artworks design, music, songs structures so we can say aloud Celldweller succeeded just because of cohesion working out hard and something what is called a 'company identity' in a dictionary of marketing. Passion and realistic approach to creativity speak for Celldweller. I dare state the band is remarkable in this decade of electronic-rock music and will be elaborated in a new wave of industrial rock style of music context within the next 10 years.

Klayton can say "I'm Celldweller" (sorry to the other musicians, you did great job together!) because he worked out that success in a devoted way. This album mingles yin and yang and thanks to that presents a very balanced content.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below.)
The Beta Cessions |Position Music, 2004|

CD #1
1.Goodbye, 2.Switchback [2001], 3.Switchback (Elevation and Kenneth Thomas Remix), 4.Stay With Me (Unlikely) [Detroit 2000], 5.Under My Feet [Detroit 2000], 6.Switchback [Detroit 2000], 7.So Sorry To Stay [Detroit 2000], 8.Stay With Me (Unlikely) [Scott Humphrey Frank Gryner Mix], 9.Afraid This Time [Detroit 2000], 10.Under My Feet [Original Demo], 11.Klayton .Beginning Of The End, 12.Klayton – Kemikal, 13.Switchback [2001] (Instrumental), 14.Goodbye (Instrumental), 15.Switchback [Detroit 2000] (Instrumental)

CD #2
1.Switchback (Instrumental), 2.Stay With Me (Unlikely) (Instrumental), 3.The Last Firstborn (Instrumental), 4.Under My Feet (Instrumental), 6.I Believe You Instrumental), 7.Symbiont (Instrumental), 8.Afraid This Time (Instrumental), 9.Fadeaway (Instrumental), 10.So Sorry To Stay (Instrumental), 11.One Little World (Instrumental), 12.Unlikely (Stay With Me) (Instrumental), 13.One Good Reason (Instrumental), 14.The Stairs Of Orion (Instrumental),
15.Welcome To The End (Instrumental)

These are two CDs with a different content. CD 1 includes original demos, remixes, and alternative album mixes (by Grant Mohrman, Ben Grosse, Scott Humphrey & Frank Gryner), of the tracks from the first Celldweller's self-titled album. The other CD is a collection of instrumental versions of the songs released on the self-titled Celdweller album with an additional song by Circle of Dust. It's an interesting album for all Klayton's fans but it's not a CD standing for a turning point in Celldweller's career. I'm once again in love with Symbiont track no matter in what version it is released. Very cool packaging by Klayton and a Klayborg CD face illustration by Dark One.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below.)

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