Table Of ContentFrom Mega Therion to Eden:
A Personal Music Guide
glenn mcdonald
Copyright © 1994, glenn mcdonald
the character of their music. This keeps together artists
Introduction that are, at least to me, similar, making browsing
meaningful, which it doesn’t tend to be when you just
alphabetize things.
Also, and you may have guessed this already, I’ve
written all the reviews myself. While this might seem
What is this book? like a disadvantage, the positive way of looking at it is
that you can calibrate my tastes with your own. The
This is intended to be a personal music guide, by more of my opinions you read, the better you will
which I mean several things. understand which of the things I consider important
Where most other music guides attempt to be you also value, or which things that bother me are
either definitive, comprehensive or both, I am explicitly precisely the things you like best. Of course, this might
attempting to be neither. This book as a whole is not lead to you tossing the book in the trash after a few
intended to tell you what the most important rock music chapters, but there’s not much I can do about that.
is, or what bands are really “alternative”, or what the Finally, I have reviewed every single listed disc
best records are. Instead, I have a very simple criterion individually and (usually) thoroughly, even singles.
for inclusion: these records interested me enough that I You will find no one-liner reviews which, however
went out and bought them. I have excluded a handful clever, are intended more to impress you than to tell
of records that I bought as experiments, listened to once, you about the music they nominally refer to. Note that
and never went back to, but otherwise this book covers I don’t mean that I won’t make irrelevant jokes, but
every record I own. These are not albums some record rather that I will try not to only make irrelevant jokes.
company sent me, or bands I drew as a review
assignment, these are the records I’ve been listening to
for somewhere around 15 years. You will discover that
Who am I?
this makes for what I am sure is the highest density of
positive reviews ever assembled, but that doesn’t An internationally acclaimed music critic, journalist
bother me. I invariably find that it is more interesting and biographer for the last four decades, glenn
to hear why people who like something like it than that mcdonald’s writing has appeared in–
somebody else doesn’t like it. Actually, I’m nobody in particular, and that’s sort
You will also find that there are a huge number of of the point. Asking what my qualifications are for
“important” bands or even whole genres that are writing this book is asking the wrong question. I don’t
simply absent. For example, I don’t like reggae, polka, claim to be doing anything other than explaining my
jazz or rap. This isn’t a value judgment on any of own experiences, opinions and analyses, and I’m
those, but there it is: I don’t buy those records and I certainly the world’s foremost expert in what my own
wouldn’t have anything useful to say about them if I opinions are. If this book is to be interesting to you, it
did. On the other hand, I am reasonably confident that will be interesting because I put in the time and effort
this book has the longest entries for Big Country, Kate necessary to collect all this music and write about it. It
Bush, Game Theory and Marillion that anyone has ever justifies itself, or it doesn’t, and no stack of music
published. degrees, industry connections, prior publication credits
And most importantly, perhaps, you will find that or celebrity endorsements would make the slightest bit
I have written from a somewhat different perspective of difference one way or the other.
than most other music guides adopt. Rather than Although I can’t think exactly why you’d care
concentrating on biographical data, insider information, about these things: I was born in 1967; I grew up in
sales figures, chart position or critical acclaim, all of Dallas; I moved to Cambridge to go to Harvard, where
which I would simply have to read some other guide to I majored in filmmaking and photography, and wrote
get, I have instead cast the book as a directed tour for the Harvard Lampoon; from 9-5 on weekdays I’m an
through my own subjective experience of this music. interface designer for Ziff-Davis Interactive, the online
Given the relative wealth of the former sorts of division of the publishing company that does all those
information in other guides, I hope you’ll find this a two-inch-thick computer magazines; I live with my
worthwhile, or at least interesting, departure. girlfriend Georgia; I have no pets, although I have lots
I’ve taken a few other steps that are intended to of plastic dinosaurs and Georgia has fish. 5’8”, 160.
make this book a useful experience. Instead of 158 on a good day.
organizing these artists alphabetically, I have broken I like to listen to music. I’ve written this book
my view of rock music into 10 areas, and even within about it…
each area I have tried to order the artists I discuss by
4 Introduction
the book, and thus might not be the best places to
So what?
begin.
What, you might well ask, is this book intended to Secondly, I’ve noticed that I place a lot of
accomplish? Here are my four goals: importance on the human voice, and you’ll find almost
1. On the most personal level, this book is an no purely instrumental music in the book. Voices,
exercise for my own benefit in revisiting the however, can be a very subjective thing, and what
considerable body of music that has been significant to makes a voice distinctive to one person may make it
me so far in my life. I am 25 as I begin this book, and unbearable to another. So while I’ll do my best to
most of the music here is considerably younger, so I describe voices along with musical styles, they are far
don’t mean to imply that I am looking back from a more difficult to discuss than whether the drums are
great distance or a position of staggering experience. loud or the guitar solos are fast, so I don’t expect I’ll be
Nonetheless, I am already fast approaching the point completely successful. On a related note, I will also
where if I don’t write this book now I won’t be able to often discuss lyrics, because I find that words can make
write it at all. This may still be a matter of indifference a big difference in whether I think something is great
to you, but it’s early in the book yet. or just good. I can’t think of anything, however, that I
2. On a public level, this book is an attempt to like in spite of the musical style, just because the words
organize a limited but varied set of music into a appeal to me, and I can think of many songs I adore
coherent structure. So much popular music appears so whose lyrics are unremarkable or even offensive to me,
quickly that the sheer bulk of it can easily just wash so I will try never to rely on lyrics in a description.
over you like a stocked trout farm being poured on Thirdly, I have organized the book based on my
your head. If you leave this book feeling that instead of experience of these artists, and this has meant that
a thousand random mediocre Frisbees, these few many artists could plausibly appear in other areas, and
records at least can be understood by relations to each even that a few artists appear in a context that some of
other and as part of some overall patterns, then I will their career doesn’t fit in at all. I could have assigned
have been wildly successful in doing what I set out to. individual albums to genres, instead of whole artists,
3. On the most abstract level, I also hope that but that seemed to produce lots of chaos in the interest
taking this active an interest in the music I love will of “mathematical” accuracy, so I didn’t do it. I also
provide an object lesson and encourage all of you to could have cross-listed artists, but it wasn’t clear to me
lead an examined musical life. Though I have strong that anything good would come of that. So, instead,
doubts whether publishers would feel the same way, I I’ve tried to indicate in descriptions where elements of
think it would be great if lots of people wrote books like other areas are evident to me, and there’s also an index
this. Billboard could publish ’em in place of sales in the back.
charts, and I think the music business would be a lot Lastly, though the book begins with the least-
more interesting. subtle and ends with the most-subtle, it is not a linear
4. Finally, on the most concrete level, I hope that journey. The map on the cover is an attempt at
you find music here that you and I both like, and that visualizing the way the areas fall in relation to each
on pages nearby (or far away for that matter) you other, but it is a vast over-simplification. Quantifying
discover something you don’t know that turns out to be all the parameters that are really involved and plotting
the coolest thing you’ve ever heard. all these records in the resulting multi-dimensional
space, however, is a task probably better left to space
aliens.
Rather than waiting for them, let’s begin.
Now that you’ve decided to read it
The “whys” out of the way, I want to try to
delineate some of my personal prejudices and make
some inevitable disclaimers before we start the tour.
First of all, as I alluded before, my shortest-list of
favorite bands is Big Country, Kate Bush, Game Theory
and Marillion. As you will see, this by no means
covers the entire scope of music that I like, but I think
it’s pretty much impossible to evaluate what anybody
thinks about anything unless you know what they
really like, and those four should at least get you
started. I’d recommend that you read their entries first,
except that those are probably the four longest entries in
The Soundtrack of the Book
Black Sabbath: “The Mob Rules” (Mega Therion)
The Sex Pistols: “Anarchy in the UK” (Underground)
Big Country: “Where the Rose is Sown” (Steeltown)
Richard Thompson: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (The Border)
The Icicle Works: “Understanding Jane” (Hull)
Game Theory: “Throwing the Election” (Boylan Heights)
Modern English: “I Melt With You” (The Suburbs)
Boston: “More Than a Feeling” (The Western Skyline)
Kate Bush: “Running up That Hill” (Earth)
Marillion: “Kayleigh” (Eden)
sympathy, love, regret, peace or calm. Instead, you
Mega Therion will get triumph, exhilaration, courage, invincibility
and perhaps anger, but not so much of the last as you
might expect. Mega Therion is not an exhortation to
from the Celtic Frost album To Mega Therion revolution, but an evocation of a imagined revolution
already underway. Its lyrics are not sung to its fans but
by its fans to the “others”, the enemy. This is, I think,
Soundtrack why heavy metal has come in for proportionally more
societal censure than other genres; no matter what,
Black Sabbath: “The Mob Rules” exactly, “Suicide Solution” says, it sounds like a song a
Slayer: “War Ensemble” suicidal teen would leave behind to torture his
Celtic Frost: “The Heart Beneath” bereaved parents. The fact that Satanism of the sort
Anthrax: “Bring the Noise” practiced in heavy metal circles is almost entirely
Megadeth: “Symphony of Destruction” defiance expressed in the idiom of Western Christianity,
Law and Order: “Plague of Ignorance” largely without original tenets of its own, is usually lost
Blüe Öyster Cult: “The Pact” on everybody but language students.
UFO: “The Writer” Mega Therion is also an overwhelmingly white,
male province. Power, of course, is largely a male
Queensrÿche: “Walk in the Shadows”
construct, emphasizing the hierarchy between people
Living Colour: “Cult of Personality”
rather than their commonality, as Deborah Tannen
would say. The white part I can’t explain except as a
historical artifact (and to be fair, rap-metal crossovers
Introduction are starting to blur the color divisions). I am a white
male myself, as it happens, so perhaps there is a
We begin with the least subtle music available, the
genetic component here, but for whatever reason this is
musical equivalent of stepping on a land mine. Mega
some of my favorite music in the world.
Therion is a collection of music in which power is, if not
the sole aim, at least the central motivating factor.
Much of it would fall under the heading of “heavy
metal”, and in fact this area probably is the closest Slayer
analog to an accepted “genre” of any that I will discuss.
This is both an advantage and a disadvantage, as it Show No Mercy + Haunting the Chapel, 1984 CD
gives me more common understanding to build on, but
it also contains many artists that are different only in When you hear distressed parents complaining
stylistically subtle ways. I’ve also included several that heavy metal is an invasion from Hell, this is
artists here, particularly towards the end of the section, exactly what they’re afraid of. You don’t even have to
that would either be controversial (or ridiculous) listen to this record to know that there’s trouble
inclusions in a straight “heavy metal” list or be involved; a simple trip through the titles will suffice.
plausible additions to other chapters, but which seem Do “Evil Has No Boundaries”, “The Antichrist”, “Die
more important to include here because they seem to by the Sword”, “Face the Slayer”, “Chemical Warfare”
me to share the rest of the section’s emphasis on power. and “Haunting the Chapel” give you an idea? To be
Of the songs listed in this section’s soundtrack, only the fair, the songs are not so much for evil as about it, but it
first five could be heavy metal and nothing else; the takes a reading of the lyric sheet and a certain benefit of
other five, however, are very much a part of the same the doubt to be sure of this distinction.
experience for me, and that, after all, is what the Slayer plays lots of notes, but it would be
structure of this book is about. misleading to describe the overall effect here as
In general, Mega Therion is escape music. Where “melody”. Tom Araya’s vocal palette includes a)
punk, for instance, is traditionally confrontational, the screaming and b) shouting, and he does both quite
“typical” heavy metal song is fantasy. The percentage well, but that’s the limit of his range. The instrumental
of heavy metal album covers that look like illustrations palette is similarly streamlined. Guitarists King and
from a Dungeons and Dragons adventure is not an Hanneman play either incredibly fast solos or
illustrators’ conspiracy. Even beyond the art, the distortion-drenched power-chords that move only
names and the lyrics, the music itself is escapist. You slightly slower. Dave Lombardo, on drums, probably
will be hard pressed to find a song in Mega Therion has a few tom-toms, and even hits them occasionally,
that will instill emotions like melancholy, sadness, but the overwhelming impression I am left with is that
Mega Therion 7
he has four kick drums, eight legs, three snares and a single 29-minute document than as 10 separate songs.
forest of cymbals. His playing varies from “slow”, by Several things happen on South of Heaven that begin to
which I mean each individual stick hit is distinctly change my impressions. The most surprising change is
audible, to “faster”, by which I mean that it sounds like that Araya actually starts singing on this album. Now,
he has somehow attached drumsticks to a power-sander, lest you misunderstand, it still sounds like shouting to
or some such similar device. Overall, the effect is very the uninitiated, but when you compare it to the
much like someone getting beaten up. In particular, previous albums, you can clearly discern that he is
you. “Chemical Warfare”, which was the first Slayer actually shouting notes. Intentionally, even. The band
song I ever heard (and which is one of the three tracks has also learned a key lesson that Metallica would learn
on this CD taken from the “Haunting the Chapel” 12” a couple years later, and have managed to slow down
single), is perhaps the best example of the wall-of- occasionally without losing any intensity. They don’t
bullets effect that this album produces. Listening to this do it often, mind you, but there are several points on
affects me, or pummels me at least, and I find the sheer this album where Lombardo manages to get the
intensity interesting, but to say I like it would be a little number of bass-drum hits per measure down to the low
misleading. double-digits.
And the most notable thing that happens on South
Reign in Blood, 1986 CD
of Heaven is that songs begin to sound constructed rather
than just performed. It’s not that Slayer was speaking
My collection skips two Slayer albums before
in tongues on the previous albums, but there is an
picking up with this one. This and the following two
extent to which, for me at least, the experience of being
albums are produced by Rick Rubin, also known for his
inside any of the songs on Show No Mercy or Reign in
early work with Run-DMC, and his presence has
Blood is largely the same. On this album, though, I
noticeable effects. For one, this album is much better
listen to songs and actually feel like I’m at the
produced than Show No Mercy, and the individual
beginning of a song, or the middle, or the end (though
instruments come through much clearer. For another,
not all at once, of course). There is single-note guitar
Slayer seem to me to have focused their music
work that is neither soloing nor minimalist chords, but
considerably. Araya has cut out almost all the
which actually seems to advance the musical progress of
screaming and most of the album’s vocals are either
the song. The negative way to see this, I guess, is that
shouts or machine-gun-speed chants. The guitarists
Slayer has taken the first step on the road to selling out
have shifted the balance heavily away from solos
and getting soft, but I think it would take a particularly
toward chord riffs (at least as the basis of song
intolerant death-metal addict to hold such an extreme
structures), and Lombardo has abandoned “slow”
position. To me, this album is Slayer reaching
completely. While the song titles sound marginally less
maturity.
horrific than on the first album (“Reborn”, “Epidemic”,
“Postmortem”), this is a shallow deception, and the S
easons in the Abyss, 1990 CD
lyrics to this album are as good an argument for
stickering as you’re likely to find. And having reached maturity, Slayer stays there.
The result of these changes is, to me, distinctly Stylistically, this album is little different from the
positive. Where I’m afraid Show No Mercy leaves me previous one. Don’t for a moment, though, take that as
feeling basically buffeted, Reign in Blood pulls me in a criticism. If every album had to strike a different
and involves me. On the earlier record, tempo changes direction than the last one, the more things would stay
come and I say “Ah, the tempo changed again”, where the same. Instead of breaking new musical ground,
on this one the tempo changes make me feel like I’m on Seasons in the Abyss delivers 10 songs of which at least 8
a train that has just been derailed only to land on have me running around the apartment when Georgia
another track going another direction without ever is not here, crashing into walls, jumping around,
braking. I readily admit, however, that I started shouting along, and generally enjoying myself in a
buying Slayer records with Seasons in the Abyss, and vastly therapeutic aggression-releasing way. There are
worked backwards, so purists and since-the-beginning some distinctly new elements, particularly the blood-
Slayer fans may prefer the rawness of their first records. curdling child’s pleading on “Dead Skin Mask”, so you
shouldn’t be bored, and listening to Slayer quietly is
South of Heaven, 1988 CD sti
ll like a Nerf root-canal.
Lyrically, it would be wrong to say that Slayer’s
While I like Reign in Blood a lot, South of Heaven is
sentiments are now fit for PTA luncheon banter, but
the album where I begin to experience individual
there are moments (especially “Expendable Youth”,
Slayer songs. There is some of that with the previous
which I’m pretty sure is about the effect of gang-life and
album, but Reign in Blood still affects me more as a
8 Mega Therion
street drug-culture on young people) amidst the gore live, but this album feels like it captures the experience.
that you can hold up and say “here, these aren’t such That is, it seems to capture an experience that I imagine
bad ideas for impressionable 14-year-old boys to hear”. is similar to that of being at a Slayer concert. Provided,
War imagery has always been prevalent in Slayer of course, that you turn it up to 11 and cram your head
lyrics, but “War Ensemble” and “Blood Red” both seem inside a speaker.
to be identifiably anti-war. Mind you, there’s still My feelings about this album, given my feelings
“Dead Skin Mask”, which is about exactly what it says, about the early and late studio albums, are predictably
and “Spirit in Black” and the title track, which are as mixed. It’s a fascinating thing in itself (yes, they really
demonic as anything they’ve written, but the effect of do play that fast), but my urges to hear Slayer are more
even the most grisly topics is very different when heard often satisfied with one of the other albums.
over 1990 Slayer music than when heard over 1984
Slayer music. It is almost as if the Slayer of Show No
Mercy is evil crammed sloppily into a band, and the Celtic Frost
Slayer of Seasons in the Abyss is a band with a lyrical
obsession with evil. That is exaggerating the
progression, but improved production, songwriting, Morbid Tales/Emperor’s Return, 1984/1985 CD
arranging and playing definitely change the impact of
High on my list of eternal mysteries is why it is
the lyrics, making them part of a song rather than its
that Slayer have become superstars, while Celtic Frost is
primary motivation.
basically a footnote in everybody’s record guides but
Decade of Aggression, 1991 CD mine. The careers of the two bands are, at least in time,
parallel, and at least initially, Celtic Frost’s appeal
And to tie together the Slayer œuvre, here is a 2 seems similar to Slayer’s.
CD live recording taken from shows in Lakeland, The difference, though, is visible in a way just in
Florida; San Bernadino, California and London. At the names. Where Slayer draws upon heavy metal’s
around the same time as this package was released, splatter-horror-movie aesthetic, Celtic Frost pull from
Mötley Crüe released a greatest-hits album called mythology and the occult. While the lack of lyric sheets
Decade of Decadence, and the contrast between decadence in all but Vanity/Nemesis’ package makes it difficult to
and aggression captures nicely what makes the two be absolutely sure, the impression I get from Morbid
bands (and by extension, two factions of heavy metal) Tales titles and what lyrics I can make out is that Evil, to
different. Celtic Frost, is more a realm of dreaded legendary
The selection here covers Hell Awaits with “Hell monsters and strange midnight rituals (“Into the Crypt
Awaits”; Show No Mercy/Haunting the Chapel with “The of Rays”, “Danse Macabre”, “Nocturnal Fear”) than one
Anti-Christ”, “Die by the Sword”, “Black Magic”, of cannibalistic mass-murderers and eternities of
“Captor of Sin” and “Chemical Warfare”; Reign in Blood torment.
with “Raining Blood”, “Altar of Sacrifice”, “Jesus Musically, Morbid Tales has much in common with
Saves”, “Angel of Death” and “Postmortem”; South of early Slayer. As a vocalist, Thomas Gabriel Warrior
Heaven with “South of Heaven” and “Mandatory (who, with a name like that, virtually had to grow up to
Suicide”; and Seasons in the A b y s s with “War play in a heavy metal band) relies here on hoarse
Ensemble”, “Dead Skin Mask”, “Seasons in the Abyss”, croaking and the occasional heartfelt grunt, but the
“Hallowed Point”, “Blood Red”, “Born of Fire”, “Spirit effect is similar to Araya’s shouting in Slayer. With
in Black” and “Expendable Youth”. The manic drumming, blisteringly fast guitar and rumbling
underrepresentation of South of Heaven is somewhat bass to tie it all together, Celtic Frost here is probably a
puzzling, especially given that eight of ten Seasons in step more sophisticated than Slayer was at the outset,
the Abyss tracks make it into the set, but these last two but it’s another route to the same target. There are
albums are similar enough that the ten songs taken signs here, though, that more weirdness lurks behind
together do a fine job of representing both. the speed-metal veneer. “Dance Macabre”, in
The album not only features songs from all phases particular, sounds like an excerpt from an Expressionist
of Slayer’s career, but it even sounds like Slayer’s career nightmare transcribed by Stephen King. Over an
as a whole. While the playing is clearly late Slayer, unnerving nursery-rhymish bell tune, strange and
and versions here of songs from the first two albums sinister noises drift in and out. It’s not much of a song,
show clear signs of the band growing around them, the but its inclusion on an otherwise straight-ahead metal
less-produced live sound returns some of rawness of record sets the stage for more experimentation to come.
early Slayer to the later songs, so things average out Also boding interestingly for the future, three of
somewhere in them middle. I’ve never seen Slayer the songs on the CD version of this record are from the
Mega Therion 9
1985 EP Emperor’s Return, and feature Reed St. Mark on angry about it then, well, an angry heavy metal fan
drums instead of Stephen Priestly. While St. Mark can isn’t particularly unusual to begin with.
certainly keep up with Priestly’s jack-hammer-attached- Personally, I love to see tire marks on genre-
to-bass-pedal speed, he also shows signs of what seems border lines. “Babylon Fell”, the fifth song, is back to
to me to be a slightly subtler sense of rhythm, and this normal, though, making me wonder if I hallucinated
shows the potential for becoming another detail “Tristesses”. “Normal” at this point is a lurching,
distinguishing Celtic Frost from the mass of death-metal demented beast, lovable enough in its own right, but
bands. after “Tristesses” I’m primed for the really strange. It
comes a couple songs later, with “One In Their Pride
To Mega Therion, 1986 CD (P
orthole Mix)”. It is unclear to me what there is
“porthole” about this, though it is readily apparent why
Weirdness would have to wait, however, as the
the version later on the album is labeled the “extended
next album just gets heavier. Warrior’s vocals are a tad
mix”. Featuring samples from what sounds like
less hoarse here, but they are also pushed back a bit in
Houston-to-space radio conversation, played over
the mix, and the net effect is still cryptic. There’s little
programmed drums and sequenced bass, this song
or no slowing down here, though, and listening to the
might convince you that “Tristesses” wasn’t a
playing is likely to give you sympathetic carpal-tunnel
momentary lapse of sanity on your part. Their part,
syndrome. Breakneck tempo-changes abound. Where
however, is another matter.
improved production gave Slayer more clarity,
Synthesis of a sort arrives with the next song, “I
increased reverb here gives Celtic Frost more of a
Won’t Dance”, which unites soulful female backing
“rampaging ancient giants crashing through the fog-
vocals with full-speed Celtic Frost terror, an effect that
shrouded forest” feel. The overall effect is very
makes one wonder whether Heaven and Hell aren’t
Germanic, whatever that means.
without shouting distance of each other, after all, with
On the second-to-last song, though, “Tears in a
clandestine duets like this floating across Limbo in the
Prophet’s Dream”, we get a sequel to “Danse
early hours of afterlife mornings. (This would certainly
Macabre”: 2:30 of strange processed noises whose title is
keep Limbo from becoming boring.) Synthetic strings
as apt as anything, I suppose. In itself it isn’t much, but
and the occasional spirit’s visitation punctuate the rest of
with it fresh in your mind the album’s epic final song,
the album as well. The effect of these alien (to speed-
“Necromantical Screams”, then features some ghostly
metal) elements is chilling and unique, but with it
female backing vocals, eerie gongs, strange echoes, and
Celtic Frost begins to drift towards a stylistic nether
what sounds like a druidic war council in the
region where they are too heavy for anyone but metal
background. There’s no mistaking this stuff for
fans, and too strange for them. If the tastes of potential
anything other than heavy metal yet, but there are
music fans were evenly distributed about the whole
strange flickering shadows of shapes of things to come.
rock style-space, this would probably be “art-speed-
metal”, which is as plausible-sounding a sub-genre as
Into the Pandemonium, 1987 CD
anything else, a priori, but the reality is that the style-
space is badly warped, and many styles that should be
The third Celtic Frost album opens with a bizarre
possible, like dance-opera, Gregorian Chant-a-billy,
cover of Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio”, a song that
ambient-folk and rap-fugue, are simply not to be found.
would end up appearing in different versions on three
Celtic Frost has fallen into just one of these voids, and if
of Celtic Frost’s six CDs. A couple reasonably normal
you can muster the courage (or foolhardiness) to follow
Celtic Frost songs follow. The fourth song, “Tristesses
them, you’ll find that they’ve discovered some
de la Lune”, a haunting minor-key string piece with a
interesting things living there.
strange female voice speaking French over a backing
chorus and distantly audible guitar, is a drastic
Cold Lake, 1988 CD
departure, though. The instrumental interludes on the
first two albums had some historical precedent in Black
Entering the next album a year later, it looks
Sabbath, but this song is just plain odd. The notes to
momentarily as if we might find out what would
Parched Am I mention that it was “originally deleted”
become of the warring influences on Into the
from the album on the grounds that heavy metal
Pandemonium. The album begins with a 1:06 drum-
audiences wouldn’t stand for it, and while I don’t
programmed instrumental called “Human”. Looking
exactly think the label was wrong to think that, there’s a
over the album cover while the intro runs, however, I
good argument to be made that heavy metal fans ought
discover that between albums Reed St. Mark and long
to be exposed to the bizarre every once in a while, just
time bass player Martin Ain have apparently departed,
to remind them of the wider world, and that if they get
Stephen Priestly is back, and there are two new
10 Mega Therion
members, Oliver Ambert and Curt Victor Bryant. Also, guitar (which isn’t nearly as common an intro
the band’s back cover photo makes them look like instrument in thrash as it is in mainstream metal).
Poison, there are songs called “Seduce Me Tonight”, Though this is not the fastest Celtic Frost album, I
“Dance Sleazy” and “Tease Me”, and there’s a new find it the most propulsive. That is, the overall feeling of
more radio-friendly version of Mexican Radio complete tempo is more intense, even if individual instruments
with probably-faked crowd noise and sing-along on the aren’t playing faster. The band makes good use of the
chorus. This all adds up to a strong first impression that extra guitarist, veering into wild guitar solos in parallel
somebody has been reading too many stories about how with pounding rhythm guitar lines. This CD is also the
much money Bon Jovi is making. The later first album package of theirs that includes notes and
compilation’s notes allude to the band’s “post- lyrics, and having a lyric sheet to look at while
Pandemonium shock”, but I have no clearer idea than listening to these songs is quite an experience.
that about what happened between albums. Warrior’s accent is very heavy, and his phrasing
The good news, however, is that as soon I get over extremely strange, and it is quite a revelation to find
wanting this album to be the resolution of tensions set that a line like “Heaven, cherry schnapps, rolled
up on Into the Pandemonium, it stands on its own quite beneath the wheat” is really “Heaven carries not, what
well. Non-mythological titles notwithstanding, there the soul would reap”. I would guess that he is singing
are several songs on this album that I like a lot, in phonetically, except that the lyrics have a distinct poetic
particular “Cherry Orchards” and “Juices Like Wine”. style to them that I wouldn’t expect from a non-English-
The music is undeniably more commercial than any speaker. “Unleashed, with hands that cannot reach, /
previous Celtic Frost, with less thrash-like drumming The screams of Heaven and shores, / The sleep–sound
and “better” vocals, but the hairspray factor is nowhere of a shadowed search– / Foresee the wings of solitude”,
near as pervasive as the cover photo might lead you to for example.
expect, and like Rick Rubin’s influence on Slayer, the After two albums in a row with “Mexican Radio”,
addition of co-producer Tony Platt doesn’t have an Vanity/Nemesis levels the average by including two
entirely ill effect on the band’s sound quality. covers. “This Island Earth” is attributed to “Ferry”, and
I’m sure I would have had a different reaction to I’m guessing that it is Brian Ferry, and that the song
this album had I been into Celtic Frost at the time of its was originally by Roxy Music. Not knowing the song,
release. Having come to Celtic Frost entirely in but knowing Roxy Music, I imagine that this version is,
retrospect, though, this seems like an understandable ah, shall we say, substantially different, if indeed my
departure, and as such has its place. guess about its origin is correct. The album-closing
track is a brutal version of Bowie & Eno’s “Heroes”,
Vanity/Nemesis, 1990 CD
whose chorus, at least, is recognizable, if little else.
Both songs mesh with the album’s overall style nicely,
The “main” trail of Celtic Frost progression,
and if you didn’t know they weren’t Celtic Frost
however, reemerges here on the next album. The first
originals you probably wouldn’t guess. There are both,
sign is the return of Martin Ain. Interestingly, though
also, much more “serious” choices for covers than
the liner photos are of Warrior, Bryant, Priestly and
“Mexican Radio”, where almost all the appeal in both
Ain, Ain actually appears only as a backing vocalist on
the original and the cover, at least for me, is novelty.
four songs, and bassist on one. He is credited as co-
author of two of these and three others, however, so in
Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying, 1992 CD
the end he is involved in 7 of the CD’s 11 songs. Ron
Marks, on the other hand, who contributes guitar on all Quite apart from the fact that this is a Celtic Frost
but two songs, appears nowhere else in the notes. album, it is one of my favorite examples of what I want
Personnel changes aside, though, this is a powerful from a compilation. Not many compilations do a good
album that feels to me like the first time Celtic Frost has job both of providing an overview of a band’s career,
been completely comfortable with themselves. There and including enough new or different material to stay
are no songs here as wholly strange as “Tristesses de la interesting even after you’ve gone back and bought all
Lune”, but the effect of Uta Günther’s background the individual albums. This one gets the balance as
chorus vocals soaring behind Warrior’s guttural rasp on close to right as anything does.
“Wings of Solitude”, “The Restless Seas”, “Vanity” and The Morbid Tales/Emperor’s Return/To Mega
“Nemesis” is harrowing, and it seems like an Therion period is represented here by “Circle of the
appropriate integration of the stray siren cries from the Tyrants”, redone versions of “Return to the Eve” and
first three albums. The long closing track, “Nemesis”, “The Usurper”, and “Journey into Fear”, which was
also features an extended intro on, of all things, acoustic originally slated to be the fourth song on Emperor’s
