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Rating: The year is 1984, and Swiss band Celtic Frost, led by Thomas Gabriel Warrior, lays the foundation of what will be their immense castle: this is "Morbid Tales." Celtic Frost's extensive musical exploration begins with a work that fits into the so-called "first wave of black metal", which was in full swing at the time (the previous year, Venom had released "At War With Satan," and Mercyful Fate released "Melissa"): in fact, even though the album essentially belongs to the thrash genre, the dark atmosphere that pervades all the tracks and the lyrics linked to the occult make Celtic Frost one of the most important groups for the development of subsequent black metal.
The ghostly intro "Human" leads us to "Into The Crypt of Rays", a frenetic-paced piece that features all the elements that merge into nearly every track on the album: the dirty and heavy sound of Warrior's guitar, his hoarse and sinister voice, and the relentless drumming of session-man Stephen Priestly. The presence of bassist Martin Eric Ain is perhaps less conspicuous, but he certainly holds his own in terms of aggressive play. It's also interesting to note the singer’s shouts (the classic "Uh!") that will become a genuine recurring signature in his works.
From here on, we sink deeper into darkness, moving from typically thrash songs like "Morbid Tales" and "Visions of Mortality" to extremely slow tracks that seem to come from the underworld, such as "Dethroned Emperor" and "Procreation Of The Wicked". And in the midst of the dense sulfurous cloud, passing through "Return to the Eve", the first instrumental glimmer, "Danse Macabre", can be seen, symbolizing the Swiss band’s desire for renewal and foreshadowing (easy to say in hindsight) the future masterpieces. After "Nocturnal Fear", perhaps the most successful track, the album concludes—in the 1999 remastered version—with three furious gems that seal the whole thing perfectly: "Circle Of The Tyrants", "Visual Aggression" and "Suicidal Winds".
Even though this is not the work that made Celtic Frost go down in history, it remains an excellent album of wholesome (extreme) metal, which I recommend both for listening to the debut of those who will be the pioneers of avantgarde metal (and thus might be of interest), and for the quality of the tracks themselves, in my opinion noteworthy.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Into the Crypts of Rays (04:21)
Years of plead, behind the walls
Chambers and vaults, Scenes of fright
Unspoken Words, in pain and dread
140 lives passed his hands
Gilles De Ray's... the perverted son
The holy man... hanged by nobility
Into The Crypts of Rays...
Alluring children for his masses
Robbing and buying young souls
Sacrifice to morbid demons
Satisfy his repulsive sexual lust
Gilles De Ray's... the perverted son
The holy man... hanged by nobility
Into The Crypts of Rays...
"So this is for the morbid one,
The braveless and sick
Shivering laughter shrilled through the tombs
Sexual offence and perverted rites
Watching them limp and die...
Wizards and darkness, Gilles' dreams
Halfway came true..."
As a late medieval's French marshall
Unrestrained, with endless ambitions
Personal guard for Jeanne D'Arc
...the rising of his soul to god...
Gilles De Ray's... the perverted son
The holy man... hanged by nobility
Into The Crypts of Rays...
Overdone Mystism and
Desperate Satanism (Ha!)
Are just one small step apart
There's no human scheme in the beyond...
Gilles De Ray's... the perverted son
The holy man... hanged by nobility
Into The Crypts of Rays...
02 Visions of Mortality (04:48)
My life turns into sand
Immortality is my dream
Man shall follow my command
Sorcery shall conquer my fear
Astral magic and runic wand
I feel that wisdom's near
Across the mountain's ice
Scarlett at the equinox' dawn
I sacrificed an innocent lamb
And drunk the wine of paradise
But, still run the sands of time
Just one thing yet to be done
As spell surround me
At a lightmass' night
He raised the abyss
Covered by the sword
I sold my soul in vein
I feel it, as he returns
The sands of time will never run
For an immortal dead man
03 Dethroned Emperor (04:37)
See the portal, gate to madness
Locked forever in a veil of shame
Deny extraction - Thirst for disgrace
Watch his break - The emperor's killed
Light of the day - Shadows from beyond
Scaffold of steel - The throne has gone
Dethroned emperor
The foot of the stairs, dimension in might
The king sits, his eyes are glass
Growing of the small - The laughter's fall
Can you deny - Remaining cries?
Descent of the lords - Into the trap
Existence and hate - Unseen gate
Dethroned emperor
04 Morbid Tales (03:29)
By burial this night
Nitocrys weaves the spell
Down the vault's misty light
The lurking Sphinx dwells
Agony and nightmare
To Yog sothoth they noan
Nightfalls, morbid affair
Beard the faceless one
In the nuclear domain
Arcades lost in eternal skries
Written by the insane
Nitocrys orders must
Agony and nightmare
To Yog sothoth they noan
Nightfalls, morbid affair
Beard the faceless one
Mummy's rebirth by wrath
Below the temple of nile
Vanished in Osiris' path
Above us reigns the Necrophile
Agony and nightmare
To Yog sothoth they noan
Nightfalls, morbid affair
Beard the faceless one
Morbid Tales
05 Circle of the Tyrants (04:27)
After the battle is over
And the sands drunken the blood
All what there remains
Is the bitterness of delusion
The immortality of the gods
Sits at their side
As they leave the walls behind
To reach the jewels gleam
The days have come
When the steel will rule
And upon his head
A crown of gold
Your hand wields the might
The tyrant's the precursor
You carry the will
As the morning is near
I sing the ballads
Of victory and defeat
I hear the tales
Of frozen mystery
The new kingdoms rise
By the circle of the tyrants
In the land of darkness
The warrior, that was me
Grotesque glory
None will ever see them fall
And hunts and war
Are like everlasting shadows
Where the winds cannot reach
The tyrant's might was born
And often I look back
With tears in my eyes
Grotesque glory
None will ever see them fall
And hunts and wars
Are like everlasting shadows
06 Procreation (of the Wicked) (04:03)
You are blind - Deny the sun and light
Whose are the objections - From where come the doubts
Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked
Serenades of opposition - Absurdity, humans fate and hope
True reflections of community - Procreation of the gods and lords
Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked
Cain and Abel's love and death - Love and hate is what we are
Dagger and grail are- Fallen of the altar
Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked
"Mysteries of perversity"
"I've killed this old man, because he limped
I've done it because he shouldn't have to do it"
If god raised the abyss - you'd procreate your own
Abolism of death is - Abolism of life
Evidence of infinity
Procreation of the wicked
Twist of the known
Procreation of the wicked
07 Return to the Eve (04:07)
Dreaming eyes
Hope to return
As shadows fall onto
Distorted paths
Delivered from the fetters of light
Drifting back into my reality
The subconscious deprecates the day
In the twilight of my own intellect
Dull is my mind
Captive of illusion
Remaining awake
Is just dust
Take my soul away into the dark
Dreaming a thousand morbid dreams
No tomorrow when the wind caress my mind
Could I ever return, it would be my doom
Obsessed by the nightmare's sound
Drifting back into realms of chaos
Reality has become my dream
I'll be covered by the abyss' ground
An endless fall
Memories in the light
Frontiers of chaos
Return to the eve
09 Nocturnal Fear (03:38)
Obscurity hides the plateau
Stars darkened at their place
Nanna's glowing above
Illuminates the silent scenery
Seven they are-Yeziti's Call
Aeon of night-Eager to prevail
From the mountains of dawn they cry
The call of the frantic god
From the womb of mother earth they scream
The wage of creation and sin
Seven they are-Yeziti's Call
Aeon of night-Eager to prevail
"The sleeping lord awakes
Tiamat pulls on her chains
The blind phantom rages
Azag-Thoth Howls
Vibrations at the black ethers edge
As nocturnal fear penetrates the land
Ecstatical celebrations at their zenith
The seven sharpen their claws"
Winds emerge from the east
Deep dark water moves
Even the cold moon eclipses
When they adore the dog-faced-beast
Seven they are-Yeziti's Call
Aeon of night-Eager to prevail
As they admit the infernal tide
The eye on the throne derides
The old gods and their tribes
In chaos Tiamat laughs pride.
Seven they are-Yeziti's Call
Aeon of night-Eager to prevail
11 Visual Aggression (04:13)
Thousand decades in vain
(Again) they strive for final completion
Forgotten are the fast sins
And the perfect creation calls
What will the wind bring these days?
The smell of self-deception?
Masses of dullness, a spiral cage
As they ride on visual aggression
Once, I slept in confidence
Sounds like I've been a fool
Now, as my will is invisible
(They shall) face the evoked curse alone...
What will the wind bring these days?
The smell of self-deception?
Masses of dullness, a spiral cage
As they ride on visual aggression
Just fool yourself - a world of ignorance
Will tear the walls - of dreams apart
Vast signals - memories in black
Sense is beyond - distorted any balance
Flood of tears - you'll have to drink
As the grail - is lying on the floor
Don't ask for another messiah
No martyr will save the stupid (again)
Is truth what you believe?
A prophet's tears will dry...
What will the wind bring these days?
The smell of self-deception?
Masses of dullness, a spiral cage
As they ride on visual aggression
The watcher's eyes are closed
As the dust covers the madmen again
There'll be a new king
And I was born to encounter him...
What will the wind bring these days?
The smell of self-deception?
Masses of dullness, a spiral cage
As they ride on visual aggression
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Other reviews
By Cronos
"Morbid Tales, along with Bathory’s self-titled first, opened a new period for black metal."
"Warrior surprises us with killer riffs and sings with his terrible demonic roar."
