Style: Early extreme metal, proto-death metal, 1st wave black metal
Primary emotions: anger, aggression, introspection, grunts
Thoughts: In terms of early 80's extreme metal there is nothing better than Celtic Frost. Between this album and Morbid Tales, the band put out some of the most vicious and aggressive music the metal world had ever seen. They were years ahead of the pack this is about as extreme as you can get at the time within the genre (I would argue hardcore punk and noise were more extreme than metal at this point).
This is all about the riffs, and Celtic Frost never disappoint on that front. They absolutely demolish anything that stands in their way. Throughout To Mega Therion there is a theme of the riffs will have a "galloping" sound exclusively on the low end of the fret board. There is no melody, just a rhythmic bulldozer. Sometimes it comes at you as slow as a glacier, other times it speeds at you with the force of an avalanche.
The guitars and drums are in perfect sync. The two instruments are in rhythmic equilibrium, and it's glorious. The bass drum will follow the down stroke of the rhythm guitars while accenting with the snare and symbols - almost every note is matched perfectly between the two. This symbiosis is what makes the album for me.
On top of all this you got Tom's gruff vocals and grunts. Before I even got into the band I had heard the legends of the Celtic Frost grunt. The first song I ever heard from the band was Circle of Tyrants and after my exposure to "Circle of the tyrants ugh!" I knew what everyone was talking about. It's synonymous with this album and To Mega Therion would not be the same without it.
I love early Celtic Frost. I love the experimentation they do with the orchestral arrangements to start and finish the album. I love the ambient noise track towards the end, and of course I love the metal. This is one of the most important albums for extreme metal's evolution and one of the finest albums created in the 80's.
No comments:
Post a Comment