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Rating:
The Swiss-metaller Messer Thomas “Warrior” Fischer, after some wavering, if not indecisive, musical adventures, reunites [un poquito fondoraschiobarilescamente] the shattered ice-Celtic pieces, relaunching the eighties' note to the most avant-garde/metal creaturam.
Called back to himself the equally veteran companion of ferocious adventures (Monsieur Martin E. Ain), he strengthens after more than a good fifteen years, the Frosteggiante joint-venture, restarting makeup/iconographically and [especially] soundwise from the inexplicably interrupted path, with the arduous perspectiva of achieving, through the substantial neo-trabajo, the super-classic and nth (geronto/qratico) case of a comeback as improbable as it is credible.
Fruit of a o[c]cul(t)ate and prolonged gestation in the background and through the endorsement of the hyper-metallic Century Media, the work "Monotheist" shapes up as what one would have expected years-et-years-or-so ago from the recalcitrant post-thrash/metal-esque congregation, that is, Materiam Superabat Opus: an adequate and, above all, intriguing follow-up {on the less than mediocre "Vanity/Nemesis" ['90], but especially the unspeakable "Cold Lake" ['88], (vulgar metal disguised as pseudo-glam/rock), I would cover with a thick layer of heavy alpine/winter qùoperte} to the spectacular ultra/progressive "Pandemonium" work [in other words: at eighteen years, the pre-collapse synapses perceived it as such... (it is known: in youth, one often exaggerates in innocent bursts of abundant generosity)] dated millenovecent/eighty-seven.
The diversified yet troubled up-to-date work in quaestionem, results in sound-provided sound-productionem which to define effective is to commit a grave injustice to the density and resoluteness of the perceived sonorities. The Celtic moreover chilling trabajo unfolds through eleven tortuous new de-compositions endowed with a recognizably aggressive/middle-European flair: thank heaven (perhaps inferno, would be more appropriate..) no monotonous "squared heaviness" is present within the multiphorme Frost-trabajo; a more than abundant hour of impeccable [often overwhelming] neo-metallic/substance, episodically marked by an unexpected and brave variety in the promulgated sonorities: a work which, in all sincerity, goes far beyond any rosier (or obscura, you do your thing) sensible-prevision.
The fearsome unhealthy and invasive para-Hellhammerian guitaristics contained in the murky and dark “Ain Elohim”, the authentic abyss inflicted upon the intimidated listener named “Os Abysmi Vel Daathla”, the derailing “My Domain Of Decay” or again the proemial duo formed by the massive and smashing (but with tact) “Progeny” and the subsequent, saturated, “Ground” sound exactly as one would expect today from a credible (and intelligent: few, to be honest) contemporary sulfur-band: a significant sound-density often intensely engaging, not the result of shoddy and reiterated paroxysmal speeds and/or assorted sound-clowneries, mais simplement since endowed with overwhelming as well as highly turgid (vehement) personality. There are also some albeit willing pieces, bearers of a celtic-unusual and frost-expansive sound-intentionality with explicitly serious/dark peculiarities [see the Apollyon’s Sun-influenced “Drown In Ashes” or the slightly redundant “A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” ] which, though not at all despicable, seem not to fully penetrate the intriguing potentials expressed in much of the work, not blending coherently with the caustic (but reasonable and reasoned) general surrounding climax.
Presumably, today-come-aujourd’hui, if in the dark packaging there wasn't engraved the veteran-monicker Celtic Icelike [the nostalgia of youthful times, in this sense, plays an intriguing breccia-di-porta-pia/role], I don't know if I would have {erroneously..} granted repeated attention to a work of such massive metal-nature [tempus fugit, gustatos modificandum]: it stands here de facto at the end of the audio-journey, one experiences the unexpected as well as natural finger-phalanx instinct to reiterate (ad infinitum) the intrigued and satisfied listening.
“Innovative. Avant garde. Brave. Brutal. Bizarre. Electrifying. Unique.”
States the generous and “partisan” Celtic Frostian web-brochure… forgot only a not at all negligible last detail: UH !!!!!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Progeny (05:01)
I am you.
Stillborn.
Into this state of being numb.
I am the temple and the sacrifice.
The shrine, entombed within lies all I am.
And you, the womb from whence I came.
I am you.
If I am you, no life is sacred in my hands.
If I am you, no love will prosper in this world.
If I am you, I am the faith to end all faith.
If I am you, you shall not live to save yourselves.
I bring no God, no afterworld.
I am no more than a lie.
I love your life not for you.
I am a throne made from dust.
02 Ground (03:55)
I am hatred, seeping blood.
The rain, the flood, the grief.
I am rage becoming flesh.
A dismal, ravaged life.
This is pain, a wall of tears.
And my tears are my truest friends.
This, my heart, a dying sun.
A flower fading to black.
Oh God, why have you forsaken me?
In this darkness, called my mind.
The waste you left for me.
I'm your shit, your verbal smut.
Your twisted world recapped.
This is you, your lifeless soul.
Your sick and fucked-up lies.
In my world your love is death.
Your disease, your skin that burns.
Oh God, why have you forsaken me?
You tied my limbs and buried me alive.
And piled this frozen mud.
You watched me die with lustrous eyes.
As all your words grew stale.
You mocked my care and stained my mind.
You yearned for me to fail.
03 A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh (05:39)
All is cold and frozen.
Frozen the sea, frozen the sky.
Frozen is death, but I cannot die.
Cannot die.
As the snow falls.
To cover this all.
And all is cold.
And cold is all.
All is cold and cold is all.
Cold.
Frozen.
Frozen is heaven and frozen is hell.
And I am dying in this living human shell.
I am a dying God, coming into human flesh.
I am a dying God.
Frozen my heart.
Frozen my soul.
Frozen my love.
I am a dying God, coming into human flesh.
04 Drown in Ashes (04:23)
I drown in ashes you've enshrined.
Of blissful days long gone by.
Concealed behind my dying eyes.
This hell of anger and weary lies.
A frame of mind, a dismal soul.
My final womb, this flesh turned cold.
You held me down and let me bleed.
My love, it died, along with me.
A world of scars and caresses pale.
And thoughts as chaste as pristine dew.
And flowers placed across your face.
I trace the life I've lost with you.
This bleakest pit that you've unveiled.
I hate to love as it is pain.
My hands are cut but still I sail.
An ocean of sadness in the rain.
My flesh, my blood.
My wound, my cry.
My broken back, my all now dies.
My soul, my tomb.
My pain, my joy.
My darkest mind, my love destroyed.
05 Os Abysmi vel Daath (06:40)
A pallid sun sheds dimmest glow.
On mute and pallid soil.
I am the one, a life long gone.
A refuge raped in search of life.
Like a shadow on this earth.
In embraces pale as human flesh.
I am unborn, and I'm undone.
How much of me is lost.
I deny my own desire.
Lying one among the liars.
I deny my own desire.
Dark in darkness I can see.
Nothingness is blinding me.
Os abysmi.
I'm drowning in this sea.
For those I loved I hurt.
So you taketh from me.
My name untold and numb.
Where I am there is no thing.
No God, no me, no inbetween.
07 Obscured (07:04)
Somewhere inside.
It's still obscured.
Darkness reflects.
Stronger than fear.
I seize control to inhale this final day.
I shut my mind but I'm falling anyway.
No..No..No..No..
And I think that I'm all alone.
I can feel the rain pull me down again.
No..No..No..No..
And I know that I have no home.
I can feel the pain take a hold again.
Tied to the ground.
In mounting shade.
My soul is bound.
And so it fades.
I seize control to inhale this final day.
I shut my mind but I'm falling anyway.
No..No..No..No..
And I think that I'm all alone.
I can feel the rain pull me down again.
No..No..No..No..
And I know that I have no home.
I can feel the pain take a hold again.
And I know that I won't escape.
My remaining faith is draped.
Like my hurt and my fleeting grace.
In this numbing empty space.
08 Domain of Decay (04:38)
Within these darkest walls.
As I write these lines.
In this domain of decay.
Words fall on the soil beneath.
Enfold, embrace, besiege, swathe.
My domain.
Within these darkest walls.
How can I be human?
They say they are blind.
Smearing ashes across glass.
In this forest of harbored thoughts.
There's demons in my mind.
And I entrust myself to the lure.
Of leaving this existence behind.
09 Ain Elohim (07:33)
Lay thy hand on the neck of thine enemies.
Devour their flesh with thy sword.
Bring down the slain from among thine adversaries.
They shall fall to rise no more.
Tetragrammaton.
Thy wrath inflame my passion.
Tetragrammaton.
Against all sinful flesh.
Let thy wrath consume all of thine enemies.
Scourge them with flames of fire.
Lay thy feet on the pile of those slain by thy mysteries.
We shall be cleansed by their blood.
Thus said the Lord: I am Sabaoth.
Feel my holy wrath.
I am glorified.
I cannot be denied.
I am he who is.
Punishment for wickedness.
I am the one you dread.
You are as good as dead.
There is no God but the one that dies with me.
I have no life but the one I take with me to the grave.
We come into this world alone.
And we will die on our own.
I live.
I die.
Ain Elohim.
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Other reviews
By Defender85
"Monotheist is an album not easy to assimilate, centered on themes of death, frustrated human desires, and decomposition."
"Celtic Frost is a group that has made experimentation its hallmark, offering us absolute masterpieces in the past and now this 'Monotheist'."
By ThirdWorldChaos
Monotheist only rarely shows those qualities of gutsy experimentation.
The album descends into a doom mush with almost gothic traits that is decidedly unconvincing, indeed quite boring.
