Celtic Tales

The majority of my Celtic Frost collection has been pulled from Tim, so it only made sense to pick up the first record, Morbid Tales, from him as well.

Celtic Frost were never really a big band for me while growing up. I liked them, but they were a bit too raw and rough for my thrash tastes and it seems that I rarely reached for them. Listing to Morbid Tales this week as I was thinking about writing this blog post, and I have to say that I appreciate this band much more today.

The black and white photos decked out in bullet belts and studded armbands, the touch of red lettering and the text style makes this back cover especially cool. Such a good look.

While this copy doesn't include the poster that is mentioned on the front cover, it does however include a promo sheet and photo card that has the band's signatures on the back. I'm not sure what the story is on this. I don't know if Tim picked it up this way, or if he saw the band and had them sign the card himself, but either way it is cool to own.

Frost Return

While I was very excited to raid Tim's collection and get my hands on Into The Pandemonium, the real Celtic Frost highlight was a couple of early EPs.

I think that the Tragic Serenades EP was my introduction to Celtic Frost. I bought it on cassette back in the day because the cover art was so rad... I don't know, there is something about the stark black with the skull in the center that just looked so cool to me... plus there were only three songs here, so it was cheap enough for me to take the chance on it. I don't think that Celtic Frost made much of an impression on me at the time. I mean, all I owned was this EP and Into The Pandemonium, and that album was too much for my teenage brain, so I think it just some some extra time for me to fully appreciate this band.

Sure these songs appear on other Frost records, but these new versions are cool enough to check out... plus that skull cover still looks fucking cool.

I've had the Emperor's Return EP from Celtic Frost on my wantlist for a long time, mainly because I'm basically still a 16 year old kid, and I thought the cover art was so great. I've been holding out for an original German Noise pressing, but with the Metal Blade version in my hands, it was impossible to say no. Plus, I still have a soft spot for those original Metal Blade axe labels.

I'm very excited to add to my Celtic Frost collection. Maybe I'll get one more before I finish with Tim's collection.

Celtic Pandemonium

I was excited when Jeff sent me the latest list of records that he'd picked up from Tim's collection. I knew that Tim had a number of metal records in there, and I was looking forward to seeing what I would be able to pick up. I was expecting to pick up some classic thrash albums, but what surprised me was rediscovering and really enjoying a record that I was sure that I didn't like.

I really like the early Celtic Frost records, and while I owned the cassette of their 1987 album, Into The Pandemonium, as a kid, at some point over the years I decided that I really didn't like it. It was all too weird and experimental for my brain that just wanted straight forward crushing metal and I haven't listened to it in well over 20 years. When I saw that the record was available from Tim's collection, I figured that I'd give it a quick spin on Spotify... you know, just to make sure that I didn't like it and I could let Jeff know that I wan't interested in it.

Well shocking, because I fucking loved all of the Into The Pandemonium oddness. From the strange cover song choice of Mexican Radio to start the album, to the symphonic sounds and french poetry of Tristesses de la Lune, the strange electronic pounding drum of One In Their Pride, or the dirge march of Rex Irae... it is all so odd for a "metal" record, and yet listening to it now I see it as absolute genius. It feels like it shouldn't work, and I can understand why I felt like I didn't like it at one point, but right now I can't get enough of this album.

Combat Frost

I'd spent a lot of time and money with a bunch of newer releases the past couple of months, and it felt like it had been a while since I'd bothered chasing a big target classic record. New releases are cool and fun to pick up, but man, there is no thrill like buying a record that is over 30 years old.

I've got Emperor's Return from Celtic Frost on my Top Wants list for this year, and that's the one that I should have been targeting, but when I saw the green Combat Records labels for To Mega Therion, I couldn't walk away. They don't show up on Discogs very often, and when one popped up where the seller wasn't asking a ridiculous price for it, I fired off a quick message to ask if he could email me a few photos...mostly because I wanted to confirm it didn't have the Combat camo labels, but I also wanted to make sure it was in good condition. Everything worked out, and I quickly added it to my cart.

From the H.R. Giger artwork, to the insanely heavy songs within, this album absolutely crushes. A definite classic, and one that I'm happy to finally own.