Morbid Tales

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Morbid Tales
Extended play by Celtic Frost

Publication
(s)

1984

admission

October 1984

Label (s) Noise Records

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

Thrash metal

Title (number)

6th

occupation
  • Bass : Martin Eric Stricker
  • Drums : Stephen Priestley

production

Horst Mueller

Studio (s)

Caet Studio, Berlin

chronology
- Morbid Tales Emperor's Return
(1985)

Morbid Tales is an EP by Swiss thrash metal band Celtic Frost from 1984. It was released in Europe by Noise Records as an EP with six titles. The version published by Metal Blade in the USA was supplemented by two titles in order to be able to show a playing time that is usual for a long-playing record for the local market .

background

After the end of the previous band Hellhammer and their EP Apocalyptic Raids , which was a failure from the record company's point of view , some of the members restarted under the name Celtic Frost. Their record label Noise Records gave them a second and last chance.

The musicians drove from Switzerland to Berlin in a borrowed VW bus . They carried all of their existing instruments and technology with them because the Caet Studio , where the band Hellhammer had already recorded Apocalyptic Raids , was very small and equipped with cheap technology. During the week of October 8-15, the band recorded and mixed the songs . In the opinion of the band, the record company interfered too much in the recordings, in particular the electronic piece Danse Macabre would never have made it onto the album in their opinion.

Drummer Stephen Priestly recorded the album but rather liked the music from Boston or Journey . For this reason it was clear that he would only record the album but not become a permanent member of the band. Producer Horst Müller contributed the background vocals to Dethroned Emperor and Procreation (of the Wicked) . He also made contact with Hertha Ohling for the female vocals and with the violinist Oswald Spengler. Since none of the band members could write notes at that time, they had to hum their melodies to the guest musicians.

Content

The intro was not listed separately on the first release , only on later re-releases it appeared as the first track under the name Human . The band had the idea for this early on, they wanted to record a scream and repeat it so often that it sounds like an inhuman long drawn out scream. Originally intended as an intro for their live performances, they were only able to implement the idea in the studio with the help of producer Horst Müller.

The first piece, Into the Crypt of Rays, is about Gilles de Rais . Bassist Stricker had read a book about his connection to Jeanne d'Arc . Together with Tom Fischer, he developed the text concept because both were fascinated by the story. With the second piece, Visions of Mortality , Fischer wanted to present his opinion about the people who, in his opinion, hide behind their religion . It was the last piece that was still written in Hellhammer's time and originally had a completely different text.

In Return to the Eve , Tom Fischer processes his youth, which he claims to have been hell. Due to a mental illness of his mother, he had to live in incredible circumstances and could only keep himself upright through daydreams . In Nocturnal Fear and Morbid Tales , the band processed influences from the Babylonian mythology and the Cthulhu myth of HP Lovecraft .

Cover design

The red on black record cover shows the band logo in the upper area. Below is a heptagram based on the version drawn by bassist Stricker for Apocalyptic Raids . A Swiss artist friend of mine had reworked it for Morbid Tales . The basis for the drawing was the occult symbolism of Aleister Crowley . In the center of the heptagram is a skull as a symbol of the memento mori . The skull is crossed by four swords that are supposed to form an upright pentagram . The swords stand for fear, failure, triumph and victory.

Connection to Satanism

Both Martin Stricker and Tom Fischer were raised Catholic . At the time the album was being made, bassist Stricker had read Anton Szandor LaVey's publications . This brought the band into contact with a grotto belonging to the Church of Satan . However, Stricker did not agree with everything that LaVey had written, in part he thought his theories were ridiculous. For the musicians, Satanism was an expression of individualism and rebellion , but they did not see themselves as Satanists.

reception

The contemporary reviews have been very mixed. The Kerrang! awarded one of five possible points ("K" s) and wrote "these are the guys who did Hellhammer, but it's the same shit" ("These are the guys who played at Hellhammer, but it's the same shit"). Fanzines in particular celebrated the album enthusiastically. The Rock Hard described the band as "Europe's toughest and most extreme band" and awarded 8 out of 10 points.

Musical meaning

Celtic Frost's music was classified as Thrash Metal at the time of recording ; stylistically it lies between speed / thrash metal, punk and doom metal and is still close to later Hellhammer recordings. Michael Moynihan writes in his book Lords of Chaos that although the band flirted "in their lyrics with darker, occult topics", they later did not develop towards Black Metal . Many musicians and bands refer to Morbid Tales as a source of personal inspiration, including Voivod , Sepultura or Opeth . The Rock Hard leading the EP at number 122 of the 500 best rock and metal albums ever, editor Frank Albrecht refers to it as "style-defining disc at which to this day numerous bands orient". Metalion from Slayer Magazine points to the slightly different, avant-garde influence compared to Hellhammer on Morbid Tales and the importance of the band for the later Black Metal of the second wave. The invisibleoranges.com site emphasizes the influence on Crustcore , Doom, Thrash and Death Metal and the direct impact on the style of bands like Obituary and albums like Darkthrones Panzerfaust . In addition, Morbid Tales had a long-term audible effect on the music than other innovative albums of his time such as Venom's Black Metal or Diamond Heads Lightning to the Nations .

Track list

  1. Into the Crypts of Rays - 4:19
  2. Visions of Mortality - 4:46
  3. Dethroned Emperor - 4:35
  4. Morbid Tales - 3:26
  5. Procreation (of the Wicked) - 4:02
  6. Return to the Eve - 4:05
  7. Danse Macabre - 3:51
  8. Nocturnal Fear - 3:35

Later publications

In 1988 Noise released a CD version of the mini-LP along with the follow-up Emperor's Return . Compared to the US version, the two songs Suicidal Winds and Visual Aggression have been added. On this first CD release only the cover of the Emperor's Return can be seen. Another, remastered version was also released by Noise in the USA in 1999, with the songs from Emperor's Return being heard for the first time in the original mix. Century Media Records took over the German distribution .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Götz Kühnemund: Review of Morbid Tales . In: Rock Hard . No. 9 .
  2. ↑ Pete Pardo: Review: "Hellhammer: Demon Entrails" - Sea of ​​Tranquility - The Web Destination for Progressive Music! February 15, 2008, accessed March 1, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Michael Moynihan , Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos . Extended and revised edition. Index Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936878-00-4 , pp. 43 f .
  4. ^ Frank Albrecht: Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales . In: Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal - The 500 strongest records of all time . HEEL Verlag, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-517-9 , p. 172 .
  5. ^ Metalion : The Saga Of True Norwegian Black Metal. In: Vice Magazine . April 30, 2008, accessed July 26, 2014 .
  6. ↑ invisibleoranges: Morbid Tales: 25 Years Later .
  7. ↑ a b Originally only included on the US version of Enigma / Metal Blade.

swell

  • J. Bennett: Procreation of the Wicked: The Making of Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales . In: Albert Mudrian (Ed.): Precious Metal. Decibel presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces . Da Capo Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-306-81806-6 , pp. 31-47 .

Web links