Celtic Frost Album: “Into the Pandemonium”

1987 was a good year for extreme metal, with Slayer and Anthrax both releasing classic thrash records. In Florida, Death had released the prototype Death Metal opus 'Scream Bloody Gore' and Napalm Death had recorded the benchmark Grindcore classic that was 'Scum.' But perhaps the finest achievemant of that year was the Avant Garde, Death/Thrash album 'Into The pandemonium' by Swiss metal pioneers Celtic Frost.

The first two Celtic Frost records, 'Morbid Tales' and 'To Mega Therion' had already earned them a place in the elite of extreme metal and had already influenced bands such as Anthrax, Napalm Death and a whole host of Floridian Death Metal bands. However it was on 'Into the pandemonium' that that the true Celtic Frost sound was engineered.

How do you describe it? Not a very easy job. Songs like 'Inner Sanctum,' 'Babylon Fell' and 'I Won't Dance (The Elders Orient)' are true Death/Thrash classics that are natural emancipations from the previous two albums. However it is at track four that the album goes beyond experimental.

Remember at this time Metallica were considered experimental for using Folk acoustic guitar on 'Ride The Lightning' and 'Master of Puppets.' But nobody would ever think of using french Horns, Female Operatics and Hiphop drum beats in an entire album would they?

The answer is forunately yes. 'Tristesse De La Lune' is a bizarre orchestral metal piece complete with a Charles Baudelaire influenced Narration, by a French female who's name I cannot recall. 'Mezmerised' and 'Caress Into Oblivion' are Gothic tinged compositions that can be considered as 'GothMetal,' long before the likes of Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride spearheaded the scene of the nineties (although let's be honest these three bands all took an influence from the Frost but pioneered their own exqusite sound).

'Rex Irae' is a trade off between frontman Tom G. Warrior and a female singer and is a highly intense and innovating Death orientated song that would go on to influence basically any band that experimented with the paradox of using extreme vocals and female voice. 'One In Their Pride' is a song complete with Drum Machine and a concept based around Space and 'Sorrows Of the Moon' is another Baudelaire influenced song, that shares the same concept with 'Trisstess De la Lune.'

So you may ask yourself is there anything wrong with this ambitious album? The answer is no, but a few minor points are noticable. The guitar solos are quite poor and rough sounding (which is not intended) but the overall rhythm by Tom, is absolutely spot on and brutally heavy. Drummer Reed Saint Mark is quite astounding and bass player Martin Eric Ain is also stupendous in the compositions.

Nowadays you can see the influence that Celtic Frost had on bands like Emperor, Cradle Of Filfth, Therion, My Dying Bride and Mayhem, plus countless others bands. You could argue that along with Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth, Celtic Frost were the most influential band of the mid to late eighties in extreme metal and they still get covered by bands like Sepultura and Anthrax today.

This is where metal really ventured into the unknown, and remember that in 1987, nobody had heard anything like this!

Rock/metal albums of all time. Incorporated so many different elements and it's amazing it was made on a small budget by their crappy record company.

The sound is a bit dated, but the music is not. It's timeless and the influence in other areas of heavy metal and rock are obvious. Get this and you won't be sorry.

-Dr Morbid

Where do I start? How about with "Mexican Radio," the song that starts the album - and who in their right mind makes the first track a cover song by a band that is nothing like yours (Wall of Voodoo)? That's Celtic Frost, at least when they recorded Pandemonium. Thomas Gabriel Warrior(whatever he called himself back then) wanted to be different, and strange, and heavy, and strange ... boy was this album ever strange. It has death metal riffs, thrash riffs, a pop song (I Won't Dance - yes, that could be played on the radio if Gabriel wasn't growling) ... anyway, there's a rap-sample (One in their Pride), there's an orchestra playing in other songs, some lady is singing in French ... holy hell, and what's with Gabriel's alter-ego whining/mourning/melancholy voice? When I first bought this (think I got it when it came out), I was blown away. I would imagine a lot of bands who strived to be different, and open their horizons to create new brands of music (that would include Voivod, Tool, Therapy?, Isis, and maybe even the short-lived Nothingface) would look to this album with envy. Celtic Frost was way ahead of its time (this was released in the late 80's, remember), and unfortunately it never received the credit it deserved.

If they did, maybe Celtic Frost's later days would be different. Unfortunately, Gabriel had a brain fart of epic proportions. It stunk so bad, that the rest of the band quit, and he signed off on the release of "Cold Lake," which in my opinion, is the biggest sellout in the history of the universe (one of the band members in the album photo is wearing suspenders, and has his zipper down, and Gabriel teased his hair up!?!?!?!). You almost have to buy that album to believe it - but you'll never listen to it again.

Come to think of it, though, Celtic Frost was probably the first death metal band to transform into a Pop-Glam Metal band in a matter of a few years. Now THAT'S strange...but not as strange as "Into the Pandemonium."

This was my first Frost album. I remember sitting in my car after parking just to hear the end of the album, thinking "Man, if I could record just one album, I'd want it to sound just like this." The orchestration, and operatic vocals mixed with the metal was way ahead of it's time. The lyrics were thoughtful and intelligent. I always liked the way the Frost lyrics were vague and open to interpretation, like insightful poetry. This was a major step ahead in te world of metal, but most folks, even the early fans weren't ready for this. After buying Morbid and Therion, I understood more why they thought this was TOO different. I'll bet they thought this was solid gold compared to Cold Lake though,ha ha! This album is highly recommended.

starts off with a weak cover of voodoo's mexican radio. next up, mesmerised the first time tom uses a weepy,eery voice which he uses on some songs here. it sounds kinda cool, evil. inner sanctum and babylon fell are more like old frost. each could have appeared on either of the first two death metal albums. overall pandemonium is more doom metal. rex irae is an interesting song with tom and a female singin back and forth, kinda strange, but has cool riffs and after a few listens really grows on ya. very different from old frost but not bad at all.