•
Rating:
"Monotheist". The final chapter of the rediscovered Celtic Frost. A work that, like the monumental albums of the past, escapes any classification, and it is precisely in this element that all its strength lies. Released in 2006, it features the unmistakable Thomas Gabriel Fischer on guitar and vocals, the equally legendary and dark Martin Eric Ain on bass (always out of the spotlight, always supporting Fischer, but a fundamental and valuable collaborator in the composition of the songs) and the new entry Franco Sesa on drums, replacing Reed St. Marc, who declined the reunion offer for health reasons; also present is guitarist Erol Unala, who will leave the group shortly after the album's release, thus returning the band to a trio, as in its glorious past.
"Monotheist", as I was saying. An album not easy to assimilate, all centered on themes of death, frustrated human desires, and decomposition, themes supported by the most macabre imaginable artwork, with black and white photos of the four musicians with faces in an advanced state of decay, much like the face on the cover. The music then seems to speak for itself, leaving the listener, track after track, a growing sense of anguish, of mortal abandonment to their most feral and unhappy thoughts. The music proposed here is, as I said, not easy to classify: each piece has its autonomy, yet it is complete only in the entirety of the album: the genre is a Thrash-Nu Metal that extensively borders on Doom and features various hues that range from a noise typical of Industrial (perhaps Fischer's experience with Apollyon Sun was influential in this regard) to touches of delicacy with female voices or violins typical of Gothic (or rather like in their monumental "Into The Pandemonium").
The arrangement of the tracks is done skillfully: Fischer & Co. take us by the hand from the Thrash-Nu Metal fury of "Progeny" and "Ground" to the morbid melancholy of "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh", one of the most successful tracks, featuring an unexpected Martin Eric Ain on vocals as the dying God, a slow song, mostly acoustic but interrupted in the refrain by anguishing bursts of rage. More Gothic-tinged is the following "Drown In Ashes", introduced by a fluted female voice, which continues to spread the veil of melancholy that the previous piece had already started to weave. Tougher and Doom is "Os Abysmi Vel Daath", all centered on themes derived from Kabbalah and Aleister Crowley's theories, also chiseled by a faint female voice in the background, swept by Fischer's aggressive voice, interrupted by a noise interlude that seems to open in the listener's mind the infinite echo of the ultimate Abyss. "Obscured" brings us back to more melancholic territories with its slow, unhealthy melody, with a refrain where a female voice seems to weep with us for our fate. As if to shake us from the mortal torpor and anguishes that the previous piece had cast upon our minds, the good Fischer awakens us with "Domain Of Decay", proceeding more Thrash-like and almost lively despite its not excessive speed, preparing us for the outbursts of the subsequent, pessimistic "Ain Elohim". At this point begins what our artists define as 'the Triptych', a trio of tracks starting with the noisy "Totengott" and proceeding with the excellent "Synagoga Satanae", with a Doom and also violent flavor, the longest song on the album, a provocation that behind a text praising the Devil actually wants to be, as Ain explains, a dedication to all those whom the Church considers acolytes of Satan, including free thinkers. The album closes with a piece entirely played by violins, which is actually the third part of a Requiem of which the first part is "Rex Irae" (in "Into The Pandemonium") and the second part still needs to be written: it is on these sad notes that the album concludes, leaving a lingering sense of latent anguish in the listener.
"Monotheist" is inferior, I would say, to the sacred monsters created by the band in the distant '80s, but it is undoubtedly a well-executed work, perhaps too much so: they wanted to infuse all the possible melancholy and anguish into their music, and they succeeded admirably. Celtic Frost is a group that has made experimentation its hallmark, offering us absolute masterpieces in the past and now this "Monotheist": the Celtic Ice has returned, and the hope now is that it has returned to stay, because this is one of those groups that has never finished saying what it has to say.
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.
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By sfascia carrozze
A work which, in all sincerity, goes far beyond any rosier sensible-prevision.
Innovative. Avant garde. Brave. Brutal. Bizarre. Electrifying. Unique.
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.
