Pagan's Mind - Celestial Entrance (2002)^{Release ID: 8978}

‘Celestial Entrance’ is the second album by Norwegian progressive metal band Pagan’s Mind. Released in 2002, it sees a vast improvement upon the groups 2000 debut, with song-writing, instrumentation and vocals all taking a huge step up in quality.

I first got into Pagan’s Mind by stumbling upon some of their music videos on YouTube, and found myself instantly digging their sound. So when my first album experience of theirs was their debut, 2000’s ‘Infinity Divine’, I was slightly disappointed. I just felt like the music wasn’t very inspired, and that vocalist Nils K. Rue (who is absolutely fantastic, by the way!), maybe hadn’t quite found his niche in the band.

That all changes with ‘Celestial Entrance’.

The band really hit their stride here, with a sound a bit more their own. With some fantastic compositions, excellent musicianship, including some remarkable interplay between the guitars and keyboards, and of course, the aforementioned Nils K. Rue, who’s vocals are incredible, and has really found their place in the music.

While a couple of the tracks are still fairly hit-or-miss, there is plenty to enjoy here. ‘Aegean Shores’, ‘…Of Epic Questions’ and ‘Back to the Magic of Childhood’ are all great tracks that are well worth repeated listens. But the true gems are ‘Approaching/Through Osiris Eyes’ and ‘Dreamscape Lucidity’. Both songs are absolute masterpieces, and the album is worth checking out for these alone. Then there’s the closing track which horribly rips off Dream Theater’s ‘Leaning to Live’, in key, melody, even the lyrics are almost identical. It’s a weirdly hilarious but forgivable way to end the album.

Overall, Pagan’s Mind will go on to release much stronger albums than this, but this is a solid follow-up to their debut, and a highly recommended addition to the collection of any progressive or power metal fan.

The overall sound Pagan's Mind aims for is an ambitious sci-fi blend of power metal and progressive metal. The songs are quite long with a lot of progressive elements, keyboards and complex riffing, but the vocals are of the operatic sort more often heard in power metal.

That said, there is a nice variety incorporated into this blueprint. There are the slower, more melodic songs like "Through Osiris' Eyes" (now one of my favorite power metal songs of all time with its epic chorus) and blazing-fast heavier songs like "The Seven Sacred Promises". Perhaps the most technically impressive sequence in Pagan's Mind's entire career is the two-part Back To The Magic of Childhood instrumental. "Part 2: Exploring Life" in particular is stuffed full of sheer awesomeness and great riffs. It was nice to heard this band just do its thing and shred and make wonderful music without relying on Nils K Rue. 

The album art, lyrics and Stargate theme work and tie everything together as a worthy final product. When this thing is good, it's REALLY GOOD.