CELTIC FROST — Into the Pandemonium (review)

CELTIC FROST — Into the Pandemonium album cover Album · 1987 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
An avant-thrash curiosity from the ever inventive Celtic Frost, Into the Pandemonium sees the band - on the more conventional tracks - moving in a vaguely thrash metal direction as opposed to the proto-death/black metal of To Mega Therion. But then again, when said "conventional" tracks include a metal cover of Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio, you know you're in for one strange trip indeed. On some of the tracks the emotionally overwrought vocals bring to mind then-current trends in goth rock, whilst pieces such as the French poetry recital of Tristesses de la Lune or the NASA-occult dance music of One in Their Pride exist even further outside of the metal mainstream.

Take Mexican Radio out of context and you might be fooled into seeing Into the Pandemonium as the start of the drift into commercial territory which led to the hair metal horrors of Cold Lake, but take the album as a whole and it's clear that it's a much, much stranger proposition than that. It's grown a lot on me over the years, and whilst I wouldn't say it's their best work - the musical styles involves are so incredibly diverse that it's nigh-certain there'll be at least a few tracks that just don't appeal to you unless you have incredibly broad musical tastes - it's certainly one of their more important ones.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us