Celtic Frost, Monotheist

Celtic Frost, Monotheist (Century Media-2006)

Come back albums can be at times pretty horrible. Sometimes a band you love coming back is not really what you may want as the chance is the album may well be crap. Or even worse ok!

But this band really can't be pigeonholed so the album was really an open door. What you do not expect is one of the best albums of 2000s. This band is a first for this blog as it is the second for an artist (previous here). I did try not to do this but the band have moved through so many styles they really can not be pinned down. This album is a real mix of doom metal and Gothic styles. The album has nothing new but it is all done so well. With a big production and all out band sound it really gets you by the throat.

But it is not all just noise the music is so well composed. Track four "Drown in Ashes" has more of an operatic feel to the start of the track, female operatic vocals accompany what is a speech style vocal track. All the time the band playing in the background. It really makes you wonder what is going on.

First track "Progeny" is the classic start to a metal album, really not giving much thought to the listeners possible mistake in having the Hi Fi too loud you may well need to turn it down. As I say there is more to the album so do not be fooled, this is not a run of the mill metal album.

Much of the bands previous output really did change minds and turn heads as they were labeled metal by the people who looked on without listening. Now the band have taken on a sound that can really attract more music fans as the whole alt metal and rock market is now so big. Noise and sludge are all here to a point but done in a way you can never rip off.

"Ground" has the riffs and it is all done very slow, those riffs that you feel moving the fillings. Music that you can feel when it is loud enough. The sound is so hard to describe as you really can't fix a band to it but as I say noise and metal are of very few words we can use. Almost feels like it is a lesson in how to be a sound as the vocals are so strong you wonder if someone is in the room with you live. Bass lines are simple and sound kind of detuned, chugging along, what a great album.

Back in 1999/2000 nu metal was the big thing, baggy trousers and baseball caps and all the kids had a new sound and look. But listening to this I have no idea what to wear! I do not think you can wear anything to this, a Slayer T Shirt would be over dressed.

No fucking about with song titles "A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh" as a title and repeats it in the song over and over. When it is done you feel it was cut short at 5:39.

Talking of track lengths "Synagoga Satanae" comes in at over 14 minutes and again you feel you want it to last a whole cd, how about a triple album. I could bang on about each and every track for pages but this blog is more to get you to listen and enjoy an album you may have missed. In 2006 you may have dismissed this instantly now it is 2014 you need to hear this. If you like heavy music listen to it and if you do not I really mean give it a go. The underground metal press went bonkers for this album but that is as far as it went.

A great new sound and great production mixed with immense song writing makes this one of the best albums in the 2000's for me. The album took four years to make and you can really feel it.

Twitter: 29xthefun

Classic Album review. Celtic Frost, Into the Pandemonium

Celtic Frost, Into the Pandemonium (Noise-1987)

Heavy metal music in the 80s had went through some big changes. With the thrash bands all of a sudden making a fortune and selling records many labels thought they were onto a winner if they signed a thrash band.

Celtic Frost were considered one of the most extreme metal band on the go in 1987 as previous albums were more of a death metal style. They were influenced by the classic metal bands of the 70s mostly Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, with this they added some of the elements of gothic music from the likes of Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees to make a new heaver style of metal.

Not a band to sit still too long album number three was to be made and for some reason they really changed the whole sound of the band and also metal. Most none metal fans will easily point out what makes metal music from the loud distorted guitars to the frantic drumming. The new bands on the go were taking that and upping it all a notch. Faster, heaver, louder and even more metal.

Take all that and throw it out the window. This band at the time were considered pioneers of the death metal and black metal styles. Both very much new and totally underground styles of music that not till the end of the 90s would get any mainstream acknowledgement.

Industrial music had been going for a while and that is a big part of this sound but add in some love songs, classical piece with female vocals and even a cover. This was nothing that had been done in metal.

Album opener is a great start to any album a cover of "Mexican Radio" (by Wall of Voodoo) it is more a classic rock/metal track and sits nicely to help a new lister or someone with unexperienced ears.

"Inner Sanctum" is a nice slice of what was happening in metal with a thrash style riffing that adds in some nice rhythmic elements. "Tristesses de la Lune" is where it all goes wrong (or right) here we have a track made up of operatic vocals sung in French and accompanied by classical instruments. It really should not work but does, I could see people thinking the LP was a miss press of a compilation as the first side has so many different styles on it.

Flip it over and a hip hop/dance track greets you as the second song "One in Their Pride " just under three minutes and has what seems to be radio CB voices as lyrics. It really is as far away from metal as you can get and I bet Ice T would have loved it.

Gothic, industrial and operatic influences all continues in the last three songs. Last song is just under six minutes and is a real eye opener, not so much as new music but it does not follow the traditional metal style of a longer song. It feels more like the soundtrack to an art house film. The normal themes of heavy music are here from daemons to death and destruction but given a real twist as the band have "borrowed" lyrics from other sources.

Progressive or avant-garde metal is where this has been listed in. You only make new genres when you don't know what it is and even this one has to be subbed out to other styles. It has to be heard by all fans of alt music as it just contains some amazing examples of 80s music at its best. Feel free to listen to it and say it is crap and not what you like but a music fan would be curious at the least for a few more listens then the magic happens.

I have not mentioned the vocals, production or musicianship as I just feel that means nothing. Don't be fooled by the cover and list this as a headbanners only album. Many bands now set this album as a pivotal album in changing metal, taking it away from the traditional big band sound and just letting the music flow. Play how you feel and you can tell with this album metal heads fall in love too.

Into the Pandemonium is easily available on Amazon.