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Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost

FORMED IN Switzerland in 1984 from the ashes of frontman Tom G Warrior's previous band Hellhammer, Celtic Frost took extreme metal down a dark path previously untrodden. Their starting points were Venom, Discharge and Motorhead, but rather than simply recreating those bands' chaotic sounds, Warrior and bassist Martin Ain warped them, adding elements such as orchestration and female voices to see what could be done with the metal template when you bent it out of shape. Their first three albums, Morbid Tales, To Mega Therion and Into The Pandemonium are essential for any metal fan. But in 1989, they took a foray into glam rock with the awful Cold Lake, which Warrior has since disowned. Their comeback in 2006 with Monotheist, however, saved Frost's reputation, and saw them once again hailed - rightly - as one of the darkest and occasionally surreal bands in metal history.

Morbid Tales
Name: Morbid Tales Label: NOISE Year: 1984
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Review: The title sounds like a collection of horror author HP Lovecraft's work, which is apt, seeing as Frost share a similarly warped sense of the horror lurking on the edge of light. Aggressive punk fury, thunderous grooves and bile all combine here to create something hailed by pretty much every extreme metal band since as a cornerstone of the genre.

Into the Pandemonium
Name: Into the Pandemonium Label: NOISE Year: 1987
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Review: The Frosties' third album opens with a cover of Wall Of Voodoo's new-0wave hit Mexican Radio, and gets progressively odder from there. Frequently surprising in its choice of instrumentation, structure and disregard for any of metal's rules, Into The Pandemonium didn't just move the goalposts, it rebuilt them in an entirely different shape.

To Mega Therion
Name: To Mega Therion Label: NOISE Year: 1985
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Review: Intelligent as they were, no matter what Celtic Frost tried, it was always carried off with a level of barbarism not seen since the days of Conan. The music may be sharper than on their debut, but Frost's second album was just as sledgehammer blunt.

Monotheist
Name: Monotheist Label: CENTURY MEDIA Year: 2006
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Review: It's not often that a comeback rivals a band's classic era, but Monotheist's ultra heavy, slow-motion vortex of despair is just as essential as any of Celtic Frost's first three records. Time, clearly does not heal all wounds, and on tracks like Ground, Tom G Warrior sounds darker than ever. Unsettling stuff.

Cold Lake
Name: Cold Lake Label: NOISE Year: 1988
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Review: There are albums that suck, and then there are albums that are just plain wrong. Ditching their explorations of metal's unknown void in favor of turning into glam-tarts, Cold Lake is the very worst kind of bandwagon jumping crap. Tom G Warrior today dismisses the album entirely, just like most metal fans.

    Key Celtic Frost Tracks
  • CHERRY ORCHARDS

    One small spark of hope that the Frosties hadn't totally lost it on Cold Lake, this is the single high point on an otherwise woeful record.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Cold Lake', 1988.
  • CIRCLE OF THE TYRANTS

    A guidebook for the death metal scene that would follow, Circle... lays out the plans for heaviness perfectly, and has since been covered by Opeth and Obituary. Heavy, heavy, heavy.,

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'To Mega Therion', 1985.
  • DAWN OF MEGIDDO

    Grimly thrusting open the gates for black metal, at the time only Bathory had come close to touching Dawn's creeping, crawling darkness.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'To Mega Therion', 1985.
  • DETHRONED EMPEROR

    Listen carefully to Dethroned Emperor's sludgy, haunting riffs and menacing vocals, and you can almost hear youthful members of Obituary, Death and Morbid Angel scribbling notes. Awesome.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Morbid Tales', 1984.
  • GROUND

    With it's slow, menacing doom riffs, this is heavy stuff. And them Tom G Warrior wails "Oh God, why have you forsaken me", and it becomes truly harrowing.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Monotheist', 2006.
  • I WON'T DANCE (THE ELDERS ORIENT)

    With slightly funky drumming, this is a prime example of Into The Pandemonium's stonking experiments with what a metal band can do. Still makes most other bands sound weak and un-heavy, mind.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Into The Pandemonium', 1987.
  • INTO THE CRYPTS OF RAYS

    Basically The Ace Of Spades' younger brother messing around with the occult, this opening salvo on Frost's debut is an introduction not to be forgotten easily.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Morbid Tales', 1984.
  • MESMERIZED

    SPARSE, BRITTLE and creepier than a night in a blood-spattered dungeon, this atonal dirge showed yet another side to Celtic Frost's genre-shattering sound.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Into The Pandemonium', 1987.
  • MEXICAN RADIO

    Christ knows what they were thinking covering this, especially as a way of opening their third record, but not only is it great, it was a prime example of Frost sticking two fingers up to everyone. Brilliant.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Into The Pandemonium', 1987.
  • NECROMANTICAL SCREAMS

    If you smashed up your Metallica records and put them back together in the wrong order, you'd get this: a warped, snarling thrashing feast of nastiness.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'To Mega Therion', 1985.
  • OS ABYSMI VEL DAATH

    "I deny my own desire" intones Warrior gravely over a riff the size of the Hadron collider. If music could ever be called tormented, then this is it.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Monotheist', 2006.
  • PROCREATION (OF THE WICKED)

    Sludge groove, rather than outright thrash, here Celtic Frost put their foot on the listener and slowly crush like a bug. Nice.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Morbid Tales', 1984.
  • PROGENY

    The main riff may only contain one note, but it's so heavy you worry for your stereo's wellbeing. A fine way to announce their return.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Monotheist', 2006.
  • THE USURPER

    You can actually imagine Conan The Barbarian really letting someone have it to The Usurper's granite riffs. Unapolagetically heavy, High On Fire also do a pretty mean version of this as well.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'To Mega Therion', 1985.
  • TRIUMPH OF DEATH

    Hellhammer got signed purely on the basis that they were the most extreme band around. No arguments here.

    Find on iTunes Find It: Hellhammer's 'Apocalyptic Raids', 1984.
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