To Mega Therion (album)

To Mega Therion is the second studio albumTemplate:Efn by Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, released in October 1985 through Noise Records.<ref name=allmusic/> The cover artwork is a painting by H. R. Giger titled Satan I.

"To Mega Therion" translates to the great beast in Greek. It is an expression found in the Bible but was also a nickname used by Aleister Crowley.

The album was highly influential on death metal and black metal, and some consider it to be one of the best albums of the 1980s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Music

Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork said To Mega Therion "spread apocalyptic visions over ungodly, vicious thrash metal." He further explained: "As subgenres began to harden into unified aesthetics, this music could not be pinned down: French horns, droning keyboards, and constantly shifting song structures assured that even the most devoted metalheads had never heard anything quite like it."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The album's horn sections have been described as "Wagnerian".<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Reception

Template:Music ratings Ned Raggett in his review for AllMusic wrote, "The bombastic 'Innocence and Wrath' starts To Mega Therion off on just the appropriate note – Wagnerian horn lines, booming drums, and a slow crunch toward apocalypse. ... With that setting the tone, it is into the maddeningly wild and woolly Celtic Frost universe full bore, Warrior roaring out his vocals with glee and a wicked smile while never resorting to self-parodic castrato wails. 'The Usurper' alone is worth the price of admission, an awesome display of Warrior's knack around brute power and unexpectedly memorable riffs." According to Raggett, "other prime cuts" include "Circle of the Tyrants", "Dawn of Megiddo", "Tears in a Prophet's Dream", "Eternal Summer" and "Necromantical Screams". Raggett concludes his review by stating that the album "is and remains death metal at its finest".<ref name=allmusic/>

Legacy

To Mega Therion was named one of "The Best 25 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time" in the book Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, by Ian Christe.<ref>Christe, Ian. Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins, 2003, p. 377.</ref>

The album was a major influence on the then-developing death metal and black metal genres.

Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considers the album "a black metal landmark" and "the most consistent example of early death metal that exists". He remarks how "the band had decided to delve more into the extreme" and praised Tom Warrior's "surprisingly accomplished" lyrics and the mix of death, black and doom metal with a pinch of ambient music.<ref name="martin" />

Decibel magazine ranked To Mega Therion #21 in their "Decibel Thrash Top 50" list. Writer Nick Green praises both its "purer" thrash metal tracks such as "Circle of the Tyrants" and the experimental edge of "Necromantical Screams."<ref name= DecibelTop50>Green 2011, p. 9.</ref>

Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork wrote in 2018: "Whatever response they elicited, Celtic Frost never seemed to care much: After all, they reminded us, we’re all going to the same place anyway."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personnel

Celtic Frost

• Tom G. Warrior – guitars, vocals, effects, co-producer, assistant engineer
• Dominic Steiner – bass, bass effects
• Reed St. Mark – drums, percussion, effects

Additional musicians

• Martin Ain – bass (tracks 2 and 3 on 1999 re-release; songs originally from Tragic Serenades EP)
• Wolf Bender – French horn (tracks 1, 4 and 10)
• Claudia-Maria Mokri – additional vocals (tracks 2, 6 and 10)
• Horst Müller, Urs Sprenger – sound effects (track 9)

Production

• Horst Müller – producer, engineer, mixing
• Rick Lights – assistant engineer
• Karl Walterbach – executive producer

Further reading

• Template:Cite AV media notes
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• Shapiro, Marc (1993). "The Birth of Death: A Speed Demonology". Guitar presents Speed Demons of Metal, 6–9, 23, 110–112.