During a recent Zoom chat, Celtic Frost co-founder/guitarist/vocalist Tom Gabriel Warrior discussed the epic box set, the disbanding of Celtic Frost, his current band Triptykon and his upcoming plans. Extreme metal band Celtic Frost, lead by guitarist Thomas Gabriel Fisher (aka Thomas G Warrior), were formed in the early 80s from the ashes of Hellhammer. So a lot of these cassettes were either taken by friends of ours, or we were giving them to our crew, or we used them at home to work on the lyrics or guitar solely.

It’s a shame to get the repeated tracks, but it does allow the listener to compare songs more closely and get a feel for the way the band were working on their sound. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Celtic Frost would take a more commercial turn with 1988’s Cold Lake, but the recordings that came before it remain legendary. As with the other released on here, this is the original version of the album / EP and not the expanded version.It is intense, blistering, but as you’d expect from such a debut it’s still a little rough’n’ready in places. As well as the unparalleled joy of keeping the publication alive, you'll receive benefits including exclusive editorial, podcasts, and specially-commissioned music by some of our favourite artists. Read more about the condition New: An item that is still in its original shrink wrap from the manufacturer and the original manufacturer’s seal (if applicable) has not been removed.

While the recording quality is top notch with the bass really thumping, it still has that slightly tinny and “recorded live” feel you often get from early releases. Despite Apocalyptic Raids being warmly thought of now by fans of extreme metal, it’s kind of stunning to see how quickly and effectively Celtic Frost managed to alter their entire future course in just a few months. That gag reflex was even stronger in the 1980s, when the spandex was tighter, the upside down crosses more pendulous and the nail enlivened armbands more of a pressing health and safety issue.s Into The Pandemonium is a branch out for the band, more Avant Garde, taking in classic rock, symphonic metal and lyrics from classical sources (Bronte poems and Apollo samples, for example).

It’s not that there aren’t absolutely jaw-breaking riffs on here – there are – it’s just that the most convincing and memorable tracks are the likes of ‘Rex Irae (Requiem: Overture – Fourth Version)’ and ‘Oriental Masquerade’ which only bear a casual similarity to metal of the day, the jumping off point being very adventurous British post punk and the early releases of the 4AD label given a brutal and elegiac makeover. That they did so in the face of adversity at almost every turn makes this story even more incredible. It covers their Noise Records output from 1984’s ‘Morbid Tales’ to 1987’s ‘Into The Pandemonium’, charting an unpredictable course that saw them take in radical stylistic changes from avant-garde extreme metal to thrash metal and doom metal. One of the first bands to follow in the rupturing aftermath of Venom’s first single and two albums, was Swiss metal group Celtic Frost. From the furious opening riff of "Into The Crypts Of Rays" through to the avant-garde experimentation of "Danse Macabre", "Morbid Tales" heralded the arrival of CELTIC FROST as a profoundly unique and uncompromising band.The album’s experimentation is still striking today, challenging how we perceive heavy music and what it means to take music risks. Looking back, it’s tempting to see the Hellhammer of Spring 1984 as dogs who have just had their first beating. Due to personal difficulties, Martin was not in the band at that point, and so bass duties for the recording were carried out by session player Dominic Steiner. The reason why we played Hellhammer music in Celtic Frost at the time was because we had just formed the band and there wasn’t enough material to fill a full rehearsal. The set encompasses their material from 1984 to 1987 and includes the band's classic albums alongside a handful of rarities and goodies, such as some releases back on vinyl for the first time in 30+ years.