May 25 - Mesmerized

Today's song is another one I can thank Jan Are for. I am not sure when he discovered Swiss metal band Celtic Frost, but he was on top of them when they released their avant garde metal masterpiece Into The Pandemonium in 1987. OK, so maybe One In Their Pride from the album is far from a good song (it made Paul Hardcastle's 19 seem varied), and maybe it has more ups and downs than I'd like to remember, but the highs are really high, and they were really trying to create new music here.

Celtic Frost were led by Thomas Gabriel Warrior on guitar and vocals, and on Into The Pandemonium, he was joined by long-time collaborator Martin Eric Ain on bass and Reed St. Mark on drums. Their origin was in one of the first extreme metal bands, Hellhammer, which Jan Are also had found one recording of with the EP Apocalyptic Raids, which was their only official release. Where Hellhammer had been more chaotic, Celtic Frost started getting disciplined and clearly focusing more on the music, although they kept it very experimental.

Into The Pandemonium was an important album for me, because Celtic Frost really started erasing the boundaries between music I always had seen there. Using classically trained singers and strings beyond just traditional enhancement of the chords/riffs was really new to me - and the use of the instruments went way beyond the chugging along with power chords that metal was filled with. Just listen to Mesmerized and hear the picking of strings that go on during the verses and you may be able to hear what I am talking about.