CELTIC FROST — To Mega Therion (review)

CELTIC FROST — To Mega Therion album cover

Album · 1985 · Thrash Metal

4/5 · 2011-06-25
topofsm

After a bit of NWOBHM and heavy metal popularity, and after proto-thrash like Venom gained a large audience, metal became more extreme and the thrash movement started branching into heavier death and black styles. There may be nowhere better to start than with Celtic Frost's debut album To Mega Therion, where metal started getting a leg up on heaviness.

To Mega Therion may be a difficult listen the first few times through. It was at the time (and still is to an extent) a VERY heavy thrash album. There's a lot of doomy Sabbath styled plodding riffs that give an impression of an epic scope, and the occasional horns in the background serve to amplify that feeling. The guitar tone is very murky, which further evokes the mysterious evil imagery, but also may annoy the listener because sometimes it's difficult to distinguish notes and when the guitar is playing them. Overall though, it shouldn't be too much for any listener who hasn't caught themselves up in the overproduced sound that's all too common today.

In any event, it opens up in a heavy march, "Innocence & Wrath", which sounds very "Mars, Bringer of War" influence where the smashing drums and heavy guitar tones are backed up by a malevolent horn section. After that it bursts into "The Usurper" where the overall album's sound is introduced. Lots of heavy and aggressive riffs with twisting chords and pounding drums (drummer Reed St. Mark was known to break drum heads on a daily basis for hitting them so hard).

This loud, malevolent sound continues on for several songs, the highlight of the following may be "Eternal Summer", where the chords go up and down and roar at an energetic pace throughout the song, where even a short sludgy break can't loosen the energy up before the solo. Another thing about this album is the solos, which are of course a staple of thrash, but these don't seem to dwell on technical proficiency and speed, even though a lot of notes are playing. Rather, there's a lot of tremolo and bending at a rapid speed, really evoking a thrashing beast that's on an unstoppable rampage.

Little needs to be said about the following song, "Circle of the Tyrants", which is such a staple in black metal that it's become almost an anthem for it. Again, the songs continue in this blackened doom thrash mood, stopping maybe a bit for the haunting noises of "Tears in a Prophet's dream", to the rather epic outro track "Necromantical Screams", where a sludgy intro begins it, and high singing notes pierce the distorted atmosphere, until it bursts into more thrashing and ends on another energetic drive.

Overall, this may be one of the earliest albums to be a classic for extreme metal, especially black and thrash. While the songs aren't varied too much, they don't have to be, as they all evoke the giant, malevolent mood so well. Highly recommended for thrash and black fans, especially those looking for the roots of their favorite genre.