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Celtic Frost: Morbid tales
19/03/09 || Smalley
Switzerland’s Celtic Frost had but a brief period of glory back in the mid-80’s (not counting their ’06 comeback “Monotheist”), ultimately crashing-and-burning with the glam metal trappings of 1988’s disastrous “Cold Lake”, but still managing to leave behind a big footprint on the metal world (specifically, the black metal world) nonetheless. “Morbid Tales”, Frost’s debut, was released just a month after they were formed, but still shows a band very much accomplished within their own unique sound, and would provide a dark, daring new vision for the future of heavy metal…
“Human” lets you know right away that Frost isn’t some run-of-the-mill metal group; instead of starting off with proper “music”, “Human” is nothing more than forty straight seconds of unrelenting, demonic screaming, setting up a uniquely dark atmosphere for the record. As “Human” ends, there is an immediate transition to the speedy “Into Crypts of Rays”, a track that familiarizes us with Frost’s musical conventions; the rhythm guitar tone is raw and muddy, the drumming is endlessly energetic, and sounds wonderful with it’s emphatic thudding, the lead solos are some of the most hyperactively twitchy you’ll hear in your life (and is one of the most memorable aspects of “Tales”), and finally, vocalist Tom Warrior sticks with a gruff, grunting style pretty much every time his mouth is open. Overall, “Rays” is a great slice of thrash/proto-black metal, with a bit of sludge and doom metal thrown in for good measure, and it is this sub-genre cocktail that Frost will be using in various quantities for the remainder of “Tales”.
From there, “Visions of Mortality”, “Nocturnal Fear”, “Visual Aggression”, and others continue to deliver the primal, unrelenting punch that “Crypts” started, while still maintaining a nice balance between a sluggish sludge metal tempo and a raw thrash metal speed. And despite the overall rough sound of “Tales”, there remains an underlying sophistication about it, with Frost writing some damn intelligent song compositions, and also giving every instrument it’s own place within the scheme of things, even the bass (which could’ve easily been lost under the sea of aggression going on here).
And I better not neglect to mention the experimental edge Frost shows off on this record either, even if it isn’t as prominent as it would become on later Frost releases. Along with the surprising intro track “Human”, there is the demonic. spoken-word interlude on “Procreation (of the Wicked)”, the eerie female vocalist cameo (courtesy of Hertha Ohling) on “Return To The Eve”, and most memorably, the hellish instrumental “Danse Macabre”, which I would be doing a dishonor to if I tried to describe it with mere words. I’ll just say that “Macabre” is probably the only song to ever have truly scared me as I listened to it, and leave it at that.
Overall, the raw aggression, dark atmosphere, and rough vocal work of “Morbid Tales” (not to mention Celtic Frost’s half-assed corpse paint jobs) would go on to influence an entire generation of black metal in the 90’s, along with Frost’s next two efforts. Not counting the crappy original version of “Circle of the Tyrants” (taken from 1985’s “Emperor’s Return” EP, and put on the re-release of “Tales”, along with two other, much better tracks), every song here has something to offer, and is a worthwhile individual listen. I do admit, the heaviness of “Tales” can become a bit tiresome if you’re listening to it all the way through, so the record isn’t an every-day listen for me, but regardless, “Morbid Tales” is still a pretty ambitious, well-formed debut album, and a very important one in the history of metal as well.
8 constipated-sounding Tom Warrior grunts out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 1984
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Website: www.celticfrost.com
- Celtic Frost
- Thomas Gabriel Warrior: vocals, guitars
- Martin Eric Ain: bass
- Stephen Priestly: drums
- Horst Müller: additional vocals
- Hertha Ohling: additional vocals
- Oswald Spengler: violin
- Tracklist
- 01. Human
- 02. Into the Crypts of Rays
- 03. Visions of Mortality
- 04. Dethroned Emperor
- 05. Morbid Tales
- 06. Procreation (of the Wicked)
- 07. Return to the Eve
- 08. Danse Macabre
- 09. Nocturnal Fear
- 10. Circle of the Tyrants
- 11. Visual Aggression
- 12. Suicidal Winds
