Wish Upon A Blackstar

Celldweller - it's a name that either has a serious impact, or no meaning whatsoever. But you've heard his music. Unless you've been living in a subterranean bunker constructed beneath a Ford Galaxie for the past fifteen years.

Klayton, the man himself, got his start back in the early 1990's, working under a number of different projects, such as Argyle Park, Circle of Dust, AP2, and a few other associations before settling on Celldweller for his major breakthrough album. That debut release in the early 2000's, I still hold, is one of the greatest albums made; it was an incredible mix of rock, electronica, trance, and a few other genres all combined into one fairly groundbreaking project. Two songs of his (Shapeshifter, a single with Styles of Beyond, and an instrumental of One Good Reason) made it into Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Switchback was remixed into one track for the game Enter The Matrix and a trailer for the action horror film, Doom (which frankly was the best part of the whole movie, and after years of watching it I still can't figure out why I like it. I just wish I that version of the song had been released). The Last Firstborn was featured on NCIS in one of its earlier seasons. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

Since then, he's released a few singles, a soundtrack intended for licensing for game/film soundtracks, and even a mashup of two Metallica and Black Sabbath songs with a dash of dubstep thrown into it. The success of his album and singles has allowed him to found his own studio and opened the door for a significant number of electronic artists to become known, through remix contests and also through distribution from his studio, FIXT music. After a while, including what seemed like a series of false starts and endless delays, Celldweller's second album, Wish Upon A Blackstar was finally announced and initially began as a series of two-track releases. After five of these two-track releases, the album was finally released in whole on June 12, 2012.

The album is an entirely different beast than his self-titled debut; while there's still plenty of more rock oriented music, trends have changed over the years, and there's a dubstep influence in a lot of the album. Several tracks are, in fact, more dubstep than anything. Whatever your opinions on that genre are, Klayton has figured out how make dubstep not come across as horribly boring or repetitive, which happens frequently with that style. With all his years of experience in music, he knows a lot about how to make a track enthralling and enrapturing. I mentioned in my review of Ghetto Metal that having an entire album flow together is good thing, but is rare; Klayton does that here to phenomenal effect, and while his individual tracks are quite good, the best way to listen to Wish Upon A Blackstar is from start to finish. It almost sounds like one song that lasts for over an entire hour, which is a rare and good thing.

Several tracks do stand out from the rest though, in a good way. Eon is possibly my favorite track on the album. It's definitely the most rock/metal influenced track, but with the electronics backing it up and its powerful lyrics, it's easily one of the most epic tracks Klayton has done, being poetic but not whiny or perhaps stereotypical, aggressive but not illegible and simultaneously ethereal at points without being trippy or outlandish. The track is a perfect synthesis of styles, musics, sounds, and vocals, the likes of which are only seen once a decade. Another that stands out personally to me is It Makes No Difference Who We Are, which is a beautiful track, slow and haunting with lyrics that flow and rhyme with a very powerful harmony. What got me about the song though, is its opening riff. It reminds me very heavily of some of the music in Donkey Kong Country 3, one of my favorite video games on the Super Nintendo (old school, I know) and definitely one of my ten favorite games ever. As soon as I heard that I was hooked.

As a whole, the album is somewhat lighter and more relaxed than Celldweller was; the best way to describe it I think is that it comes across more as a jam session than a rock session. Like he was concerned about making good, quality music, but it feels like he was having more fun making this one than his previous efforts.  It's still unmistakably Celldwller/Klayton, but I liken it to the difference between Soundgarden and Audioslave - same guy (Chris Cornell), same genre, but Soungarden comes across as more relaxed than Audioslave. This isn't to say Wish Upon A Blackstar is a slow album with no kick; Eon and I Can't Wait for example are pretty hard hitting songs, but as a whole the album is easier-going than was Celldweller.

In closing, I very highly recommend giving the album a listen. It's extremely well constructed, the songs and lyrics are very well composed, and even after being in the business for over 20 years now he still has a clear and deep passion for what he's doing. So (and this is the only time i'll tell you this) stop reading my blog and go check it out! Now! Go! Seriously. Stop reading already.