It might not be as important to the Celtic Frost/Hellhammer legacy as its immediate predecessors, but To Mega Therion is still a fine work of metal 30 years (and four days) after its release. Many early underground metal recordings are noted for stripping their musical content to a bare minimum of function and simultaneously exploring new methods of arrangement and songwriting. To Mega Therion, on the other hand, takes a step towards refining the new standard, with more elaborate instrumentation, production, and songwriting than the EPs that came before it. It’s still more restrained in its aesthetic exploration than anything else Celtic Frost released, but listeners can easily hear how some of the more obvious experiments here (timpani, occasional female vocals, etc.) anticipate elements that would become fixtures in the band’s later works, and furthermore in the plethora of subgenres to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SgtScsVUg4
Tags: 1985, anniversary, Black Metal, celtic frost, proto-underground, To Mega Therion
I really need to listen to Celtic Frost…
I’ll probably start with this album.
Maybe better to start with the “Morbid Tales / Emperor’s Return” CD (a compilation of the first EPs) to experience Celtic Frost’s best era in its rawest form, then follow it up with the more grandiose “To Mega Therion”.
If you really like “Morbid Tales / Emperor’s Return”, then also check out the Hellhammer “Demon Entrails” compilation.
This album and morbid tales/emperor’s return are the ones to get. Of course, all the hellhammer material is essential. Disregard any Celtic Frost album after to mega therion.
For some reason I thought that this was their first album.
Then I looked up the facts on metal archives. Heh.
I’ll start with Morbid Tales, and then move on to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWNsNd0zBE insert url “Messiah” Tom G. Warrior’s Hellhammer