However strange it may be, I have never listened to a Celtic Frost album. That will change in the very near future, because Tom G. Warrior's new album has completely blown me away. I think my unfamiliarity with his previous work gives me an unclouded look at the virtues of this masterpiece.
Let's start with the cover art. H.R. Giger is always a great way to go for a metal band, and rarely has he connected his work with anything other than worthwhile projects. See Danzig's How the Gods Kill
, for instance. But Triptykon is a much better match for the darkness of Giger's artwork. Interestingly, "Do You Wear the Mark" from that Danzig album references a "devil on the left," and eparistera daimones means "devils on the left." Past the superficial, the music is stunning. Wikipedia currently lists it as avant-garde metal, black metal, gothic metal, and doom metal. In my opinion, it's doom metal, with some death metal passages (including the entire track "A Thousand Lies"). It is the heaviest album I have heard in a long time, and rarely have I heard so many dissonant chords from anyone besides Meshuggah
. It's got to be difficult to write everything with dissonant chords, but it works incredibly well here. If this helps at all, it sounds a lot like Eryn Non Dae
, except with more breathing room due to more minimalist arrangements. They even take the dissonance one step further, with liberal use of string bends, giving it an eerie and extremely scary sound--the scariest I've ever heard. This has to be particularly hard on bass player Vanja Slajh. He must have a grip that could crush bones.
The vocals are great too. Warrior's style isn't particularly unique, but he is very skillful at blending a powerful growl with some rather fragile moments. An ethereal female voice also chimes in from time to time.
Another thing in its favor is that this sounds like a real album, not just a collection of songs. It has a beginning (tracks 1-3), a middle (tracks 4-7), and an end (tracks 8 and 9), each one equipped with an introduction, followed by some real meat, and ending with a satisfying conclusion. And "The Prolonging" is one of the best 20 minute tracks I've ever heard (along with "I"
and "Black Rose Immortal"
), but it could have been combined with "My Pain" to make a perfectly listenable 25 minute song.The Verdict: This has quite handily defeated all other contenders for album of the year thus far. It's absolutely brilliant, and shockingly frightening music, and it fits together as an album perfectly. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
