Search - Celtic Frost :: Morbid Tales / Emperor's Return

Extremely influential extreme metal classic

Big J Moreno | Naples, FL | 06/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1984 while much of the world was headbanging to the likes of Ride the Lightning, Powerslave, and even stuff like Quiet Riot there were a smaller group of people getting into the much more evil Celtic Frost. This along with the CF precursor band Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate, and Bathory were laying down the foundation for black metal and the other extreme metal styles that were still coming into being. In 1984 all three of these bands made influential and groundbreaking releases. What really sets this one in particular apart was CF's ultimate guitar tone from Hell, their doomy/sludgy/thrashy riffs were unlike any other. Tom G Warrior's (isn't such a cool stage name?) voice was also quite unique, his deeper more guttural voice coupled with his heavy accent adds an evil touch to the songs that no one else really had at the time. Quorthon and King Diamond had much higher pitched vocals yet still unrelentingly evil as well.



As for the actual songs, they're filled with occult themes and those proto-doom/thrash/black metal riffs. If speed's what you're looking for check out the opener "Into the Crypts of Rays", the title track, and Nocturnal Fear leave you headbanging into rigor mortis. If you're looking for doom and gloom we have that too! Listen to Visions of Mortality and Procreation of the Wicked. There's even more midpaced songs like Return of the Eve and Dethroned Emperor to satisfy all your cravings. WAIT A SEC! This album also contains perhaps the creepiest soundscape ever in Danse Macabre, I'm not even going to bother describing it you just have to hear it to believe it, words couldn't do justice. Yes it's true these three guys might not be the most talented "technically proficient" (that phrase is overused) guys in the biz but they still managed to churn out a f*cking classic. This is just another reason technicality is sometimes overrated if you ask me. I know this is a big hit with the older group of metal fans and with damn good reason too, and with people like me spreading the good word it should be liked and appreciated by my generation as well.



If you like this and are interested in more of the roots of extreme metal pick up basically all the stuff that's listed in the "customers who bought this cd also bought..." section up above. I leave you asking this very important question-



ARE YOU MORBID???"

Ahhhhhh..........The Old School.........

James M. Mulkern | Dobbs Ferry, NY | 11/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember when I was a kid and I traveled by bus with the flu just to pick this up. Theres so much extreme/black/death, etc. metal around today, which is great, but theres some things that just bring back memories. This is where it all started. Same with Possessed, Bathory, etc. None of this stuff was really around then and to hear something so different than the run-of-the mill metal was incredible. This is what "old school" death metal is all about. Today's extreme metal is "corpse paint", "blast beats", etc, and I love it, but please check out some of this old school black/death metal....It's just as sick. "Morbid Tales" is a true classic."

Ultimate CF masterpiece

Michael Tobey | 01/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"More than "To Mega Therion", which suffers somewhat from a bad sound, "Morbid Tales" is the ultimate Celtic Frost masterpiece. The original mini album (released about 1985) featured only 6 songs. On this CD, these have been mixed with songs from the "Emperor's Return" EP. A pity, because the "Morbid Tales" songs (Into the Crypts of Rays, Visions of Mortality, Procreation (of the Wicked), Return to the Eve, Danse Macabre and Nocturnal Fear) formed a real unity that couldn't really be improved. Together with Motorhead's "Overkill" and Destruction's "Infernal Overkill", this "Morbid Tales" definitely has a place in my metal top 3 of all times. There is no album that mixes the brutality of metal with the avant-garde feel of industrial music so well and so uncompromisingly as this one. All tracks are great (apart from the sound collage Danse Macabre perhaps), most are fantastic, and Procreation (of the wicked) is probably CF's best song ever. Other legendary black metal bands like Venom, Bathory and Mercyful Fate surely produced some fabulous stuff, but things never got any darker, dirtier or more grinding than on "Morbid Tales"."