Review Summary: A mysterious and creepy trip that never disappoints
Here’s a special question for Halloween: what is my favorite scary music? I’ve already reviewed Drain STH and Omega Lithium, as well as some horror-themed bands on the Metal Archives. Coven’s next albums, and their disciples, would also be a great choice. But I don’t want to celebrate the Horror Holiday with copycats and underwhelming follow-ups. Instead, I’d rather talk about one album that still leaves me unsettled in the best of ways, one of the best written and most gripping, darkest metal albums.
Of course, Celtic Frost’s “Monotheist” is far from the only metal album with dark themes. It’s kind of expected, so in the hands of a lesser artist, it’s not scary. But listening to this album still gives me the same odd, eerie feeling, because one thing it does really well is create a dark, gritty, terrifying atmosphere. From the first distorted, twisted notes of “Progeny” to the evil screams of “Tottengott”, you feel like you’re in a strange and scary world where nothing is certain, everything is potentially dangerous or confusing. Basically, it’s an album that evokes the feeling of a nightmare really well.
“A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” is the main single of the album, its most famous track so to speak, and for a good reason. It’s the song that feels the most like a strange and scary dream where you’re never sure what’s going on but it will always haunt you. It starts like an eerie ballad, and every line, from “All is cold… and cold… is all” to the sudden screams of “I am a dying god coming into human flesh!”, which is repeated many times as the song’s last lyrics, is now stuck in your brain forevermore.
As you could tell from that song’s title, nightmares aren’t really the main theme of this album. Those would be pain and religion. Disgust at everything, wanting to die, wanting to kill whatever deity puts you into this whole mess and then to replace them. “I am the faith to end all faith”, says Tom Warrior over the heavy, almost groovy but still menacing riffs of “Progeny”. But more harrowingly, on “Ground”, he often repeats “Oh God, why have you forsaken me?”, like a grittier Jesus screaming about his disgust for the world while a super-heavy and slightly creepy riff repeats in the background.
On other songs, he sounds like a mad preacher yelling about, well, whatever scary and vaguely mystical thing he’s currently obsessed with. For example, when he yells “I deny my own desire!” and “Os! Abysmi Os!” on “Os Abysmi vel Daath”, over some of the album’s heaviest and most sinister riffs, and some wonderfully gloomy guitar and keyboard effects in the middle. The best example of that kind of strange incantation would be “Ain Elohim”, with its “Te-tra-gram-ma-ton!” chorus, where Tom yells about how he has replaced God.
Of course, the album can also portray some softer moods, in a calm and eerie way. For examples, there are Lisa Middhelhauve’s melancholic vocals on the intro of “Drown in Ashes”, followed by Tom’s litany of sorrows and pains. Or “Obscured”, which is mostly a ballad (well, with a melancholic guitar distortion) with the utterly sad and hopeless chorus of “No, no, no, and I think I’m all alone, I can feel the rain put me down again”, with Martin Ain and Simone Vollenweider’s voices blending together.
“Domain of Decay” is another heavy track, mostly similar to the ones before it. Before we move on to the last parts, I must talk about the bonus tracks, set in the middle of the album in some editions. There’s one in particular that I really wish was on every version of the album, the amazingly sinister a capella track “Incantation Against You”. It’s entirely sung by Simone, and the lyrics seem to be a ritual or prayer meant to protect the singer against an evil spirit. I don’t know if it’s “authentic” in any way, but I love how Simone manages to sound like a Mesopotamian priestess from the Ancient Days.
Then let’s move on to the last 3 tracks, the thrilling conclusion, terrifying climax. “Tottengott” is just a bunch of sinister knocking sounds, that still manages to be one of the creepiest instrumental ever, until the vocals come creeping in. They are some of the scariest raspy shrieks I’ve ever heard, the few screams that still make me jump in fear every time I hear them. “Synagoga Satanae” has similar sounds in the intro, followed by a sinister, slow and repetitive riff and Tom’s demented incantations, the most important one being “In darkness, worship me!”, then followed by sinister whispers and haunted singing, then by “Winter” and its gloomy cellos. It feels like the conclusion of all the ideas developed in the previous tracks. You have destroyed everything that was dragging you down, and you are your own god now.
And all those themes, mixed with that deliciously sinister atmosphere, are what make this album such a fascinating experience. It’s a dark dive into a scary world I love going back to. If you want a really dark, strange, uncompromising album that will unsettle you to your core, it’s a must-hear. It’s also one of my favorite albums, not the only Celtic Frost album I’ve enjoyed, but the first one I fell in love with. And wow, what a great ending it was to the career of such a one-of-a-kind band. Ough! And happy Halloween.
