Celldweller - Chapter 03: Dreams

This is the third entry in Celldweller's End of An Empire series, but this would be the first time I'm checking out this string of releases. Anyway, if you're not too sure as to who Celldweller is by now (because I talk of the band enough here and there through news posts), then just give the guy a quick Google search and you'll find all the information you'll ever want to know about him.

But, nonetheless, the third chapter in this series is titled Dreams, but don't expect any music that will try to put you asleep. Faction 07 is a quick thirty second intro song to the album that has some alien like qualities to it; you can easily imagine a space ship hovering over a field of clouds as creatures from a far off world lay their feet (or tentacles...Or whatever) onto the ground of Earth for the first time. But, that's just my over imaginative mind at work right there.

Good L_ck (Yo_'re F_cked) comes in next playing out a lovely rock'n'roll rhythm during the chorus, but equally slamming in with electronic play during verse. The vocals come in quite as furious as the music, digitally touched as most voices are anymore, but it doesn't matter; the song is good.

But, alas, a softer side of Celldweller is shown with Just Like You. A much more melodic, slow paced rhythm is formed with long winded singing. That electronic rock beat just completely kicks ass, and the occasional screamo flirts with the song. It fit very well.

The come in Faction 08 and Faction 09, both of which are instrumentals, but both of which I highly appreciated more so than the previous songs presented thus far. While 08 gives way to chippy bleeps and bloops with a guitar riff here and there, 09 has some IDM influences involved, and completely breaks the high Heavens with slamming tribal drums near the final minute of the song. It was tremendous.

Ambient/IDM artist Hecq comes along to remix Good L_ck (Yo_'re F_cked). Utilizing his own soothing style to placate the intro and end of the song, the body of it combines Celldweller's knack for crafting riveting segments with some lovely bass intervals and drum'n'bass.

Another gentleman by the name of Tom Player gave a remix of Just Like You, and the orchestral arrangement that he brought was astounding. Though it did appear to me that the vocals came off a little bit on the low end with this remix, the actual music turned the song into a somber song into a moving, and powerful cinematic wonder. The genre crossover was well done.

Combichrist remix of Good L_ck (Yo_'re F_cked) put more of a focus on the drums and gave the guitar a makeover; to say that I enjoyed this version over the original would not be a lie. The final remix came from dubstep/experimental artist Mobthrow. He took the rather slow moving song and sped it up thanks to the wonder of d'n'b, and it was overall a decent remix to get through. Perhaps skippable and my least favorite of the four, but still decent.

Not without its flaws, the third chapter in the End of an Empire series has managed to impress me. I don't have any serious complaints about it, and I praise it more than I criticize it. So, with that said, Celldweller, the music cranking machine he is, has managed to impress me once more. So, good on him, and I look forward to the next chapter in the series (that's if there shall be another one). Mar 16 2015