After the Morbid Tales EP and Emperor's Return EP, Celtic Frost finally dropped their first official full-length record, To Mega Therion. Fans found a record with the raw, unfettered approach previous efforts were full of, but also a maturing Frost - one with a great depth of sound and more intricate arrangements - and a true masterwork.
The beautiful and dark cover art and inside gatefold is original artwork by none other than H.R. Giger, whom Tom (Warrior) Gabriel Fisher convinced back in his Hellhammer days to let them use it for one of their future records and its quite an impressive way to present your first LP.
In Are You Morbid - Into The Pandemonium of Celtic Frost, (essentially the biography of Tom and Celtic Frost, long out-of-print), Tom mentions that he wanted to put distance between Celtic Frost and Hellhammer at the bands outset and you can see where with each new release, they take big leaps forward, trying to outrun Hellhammer's reputation. This record is no exception.
There are female vocals on a few tracks, some additional instruments added to the mix to fill out some of the more epic arrangements, like the album opener, 'Innocence and Wrath' and 'Dawn of Meggido' and much more complex song writing like the six-minute and change 'Necromaniacal Screams'.
They still have driving punk-inspired riffs on tracks like what may be my favorite track, 'Jewel Throne' and also brutal, direct tracks like 'The Usurper' making the whole record much more varied and intense.
It's an album that I have loved for years, but it marks for me the transition to the avant-guard sound they became known for on Into The Pandemonium. Where I wanted more dark, punk-influenced thrashy tracks, Frost started putting in more progressive tracks with much more varied songwriting - seemingly moving away from the raw emotion so expertly conferred through their earlier records. And it wasn't due to the influx of capitol that usually accompanies a band breaking out and having a few successful records. In Are You Morbid Tom later talks about how Noise was terrible at giving advances, making royalty payments, financing tours and so forth. Bills were stacking up, getting money together to tour was getting harder and through all that, they put out an emotionally charged, expertly written and brutal record, one that still amazes me so many years after I first heard it.
It is a record that almost defies description - its part thrash, part death metal, part black metal, part punk, part gothic. It's no wonder they got labeled as avant-guard.
