Celtic Frost "To Mega Therion"

To Mega Therion (meaning the great beast in Greek) is the second studio album by Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, released on 27 October 1985 by Noise Records. The cover artwork is a painting by H. R. Giger entitled Satan I. The album was a major influence on the then-developing death metal and black metal genres.

Ned Raggett in his review for AllMusic writes, "The bombastic 'Innocence and Wrath' starts To Mega Therion off on just the appropriate note -- Wagnerian horn lines, booming drums, and a slow crunch toward apocalypse. [...] With that setting the tone, it's into the maddeningly wild and woolly Celtic Frost universe full bore, Warrior roaring out his vocals with glee and a wicked smile while never resorting to self-parodic castrato wails. 'The Usurper' alone is worth the price of admission, an awesome display of Warrior's knack around brute power and unexpectedly memorable riffs." According to Raggett, "other prime cuts" include "Circle of the Tyrants", "Dawn of Megiddo", "Tears in a Prophet's Dream", "Eternal Summer" and "Necromantical Screams". Raggett concludes his review by stating that the album "is and remains death metal at its finest". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considers the album "a black metal landmark" and "the most consistent example of early death metal that exist". He remarks how "the band had decided to delve more unto the extreme" and praised Tom Warrior's "surprisingly accomplished" lyrics and the mix of death, black and doom metal with a pinch of ambient music.

Track listing

All songs written by Tom G. Warrior, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Innocence and Wrath" 1:02
2. "The Usurper" 3:24
3. "Jewel Throne" 3:59
4. "Dawn of Megiddo" (Warrior, Martin Ain. Consistently misspelled as Dawn of Meggido on re-releases) 5:42
5. "Eternal Summer" 4:29

Side two

1. "Circle of the Tyrants" 4:36
2. "(Beyond the) North Winds" 3:04
3. "Fainted Eyes" 5:00
4. "Tears in a Prophet's Dream" (Celtic Frost, Steve Warrior) 2:30
5. "Necromantical Screams" (Warrior, Ain) 6:06

Cover Artwork: H. R. Giger - "Satan I", 1977.

"To Mega Therion" is Greek for "the great beast". It was one of Aleister Crowley's "magical names".

Housed in gatefold sleeve. Initial copies also included a 60x90cm poster.

Recording information:

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Casablanca Studio, Berlin, 14-28 September 1985.