(((I don't know if this forum is a place for reviews of live shows {I saw no place for such endeavors} - if there is a place for such scribblings, please redirect me; if there is not, feel free to crush this.)))
________________________________________________
Band: Celtic Frost
Venue: El Corazon, Seattle, WA, USA
Date: October 02, 2006
________________________________________________
This was the show that no one thought they would ever see...
I can, with the calm and confidence of one beyond contestation, with the certainty and clarity of one vindicated by history, assert that Celtic Frost is a band that has influenced and inspired everyone reading this:
If you are a fan of metal, you either love Celtic Frost or you love the bands that love Celtic Frost.
Formed in a phoenix-like uprising from the bed of ashes know as Hellhammer, Celtic Frost carved out the then-burgeoning metal landscape through sounds, images and ideas - but the band, as a living thing, was lost to most of us Listeners long before we were ready to embrace them; as the the curtain fell on the metal heyday of the 1980's, it swept Celtic Frost under the proverbial rug woven with the fabric of progression and the sadistically unmindful trimmings of its own annals.
As a result, most of us could only endeavor Celtic Frost retroactively - knowing them in the wax-static sense of recorded music instead of as a living, seething thing.
Tonight, those shackles were released as the former Celtic Frost reconstituted and unleashed themselves upon Seattle.
On a personal note:
I discovered Celtic Frost in 1987 when I happened across To Mega Therion. I was barely a teenager at the time and knew no one that listened to Metal - but I had somehow stumbled across a few gems like Peace Sells... and Haunting the Chapel, and I was ravenous in my appetite for more of the same. The cover art of To Mega Therion intrigued me with its Giger-meets-burlesque sensibility, and the daemon-lurking-through-the-Bible eidos of song titles sold me.
From there, Emperor's Return, Into the Pandemonium and the afore-mentioned Hellhammer> releases locked me in. Problem was that by then, there was no Celtic Frost to be had. There were future releases, but these were the Albums-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and there was no chance to ever experience Celtic Frost as a living, Live-In-Concert, entity.
But back to the show:
As I walked down to the street towards the venue, I found myself running through a verse from The Usurper:
Innocence and wrath
Now lie far beyond
As we cross the deserts
To reach the fortress' gates
After a decade and a half of wanting, I needed this show to be more than a mere aural expose' of the band - this was a show that needed to meet, exceed and dominate the build-up of so many years spent listening.
Such was the need and such was the deliverance.
The club was overflowing with the metal-militia that had seeped out of every pore of the greater Seattle metal community. The crowd literally erupted as Celtic Frost took command of the stage:
A veritable ululation of crowd growls and cheers swept up the most fervant of Listeners, and a pit immediately formed, churned and spat up concert-goers into the malestrom.
The set opened with the needed Celtic Frost classics, but three songs in, I was taken aback:
The band, without warning, launched into Circle of the Tyrants. This is commonly acknowledged as the singular crowd favorite and, as such, a fitting finale for the show - all I could think was that if this is coming out on song three, the force of this set is going to be...ungodly.
An hour and a half. No breaks. Barely a word to the crowd. Just song after song after song. I can't recall every song at this point, but can tell you that I heard every song that I wanted to ever hear from them:
Into the Crypts of Rays
Procreation of the Wicked
Circle of the Tyrants
The Usurper
Necromantical Screams
And it just kept going and going and going.
Every song a moment in time.
There were a few songs played off the new album (which held up unfuckinbelievably well), but this show was obviously constructed with the
understanding of what it was for everyone in attendance - and that sentiment can not be better stated than it was by Terry (Vocalist/Guitarist of Scorched Earth), standing outside the show about a half hour before the set got underway:
"Childhood dreams are about to be realized."
And they were.
Hails & Ales to one of the best shows I will ever attend.
________________________________________________
Band: Celtic Frost
Venue: El Corazon, Seattle, WA, USA
Date: October 02, 2006
________________________________________________
This was the show that no one thought they would ever see...
I can, with the calm and confidence of one beyond contestation, with the certainty and clarity of one vindicated by history, assert that Celtic Frost is a band that has influenced and inspired everyone reading this:
If you are a fan of metal, you either love Celtic Frost or you love the bands that love Celtic Frost.
Formed in a phoenix-like uprising from the bed of ashes know as Hellhammer, Celtic Frost carved out the then-burgeoning metal landscape through sounds, images and ideas - but the band, as a living thing, was lost to most of us Listeners long before we were ready to embrace them; as the the curtain fell on the metal heyday of the 1980's, it swept Celtic Frost under the proverbial rug woven with the fabric of progression and the sadistically unmindful trimmings of its own annals.
As a result, most of us could only endeavor Celtic Frost retroactively - knowing them in the wax-static sense of recorded music instead of as a living, seething thing.
Tonight, those shackles were released as the former Celtic Frost reconstituted and unleashed themselves upon Seattle.
On a personal note:
I discovered Celtic Frost in 1987 when I happened across To Mega Therion. I was barely a teenager at the time and knew no one that listened to Metal - but I had somehow stumbled across a few gems like Peace Sells... and Haunting the Chapel, and I was ravenous in my appetite for more of the same. The cover art of To Mega Therion intrigued me with its Giger-meets-burlesque sensibility, and the daemon-lurking-through-the-Bible eidos of song titles sold me.
From there, Emperor's Return, Into the Pandemonium and the afore-mentioned Hellhammer> releases locked me in. Problem was that by then, there was no Celtic Frost to be had. There were future releases, but these were the Albums-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and there was no chance to ever experience Celtic Frost as a living, Live-In-Concert, entity.
But back to the show:
As I walked down to the street towards the venue, I found myself running through a verse from The Usurper:
Innocence and wrath
Now lie far beyond
As we cross the deserts
To reach the fortress' gates
After a decade and a half of wanting, I needed this show to be more than a mere aural expose' of the band - this was a show that needed to meet, exceed and dominate the build-up of so many years spent listening.
Such was the need and such was the deliverance.
The club was overflowing with the metal-militia that had seeped out of every pore of the greater Seattle metal community. The crowd literally erupted as Celtic Frost took command of the stage:
A veritable ululation of crowd growls and cheers swept up the most fervant of Listeners, and a pit immediately formed, churned and spat up concert-goers into the malestrom.
The set opened with the needed Celtic Frost classics, but three songs in, I was taken aback:
The band, without warning, launched into Circle of the Tyrants. This is commonly acknowledged as the singular crowd favorite and, as such, a fitting finale for the show - all I could think was that if this is coming out on song three, the force of this set is going to be...ungodly.
An hour and a half. No breaks. Barely a word to the crowd. Just song after song after song. I can't recall every song at this point, but can tell you that I heard every song that I wanted to ever hear from them:
Into the Crypts of Rays
Procreation of the Wicked
Circle of the Tyrants
The Usurper
Necromantical Screams
And it just kept going and going and going.
Every song a moment in time.
There were a few songs played off the new album (which held up unfuckinbelievably well), but this show was obviously constructed with the
understanding of what it was for everyone in attendance - and that sentiment can not be better stated than it was by Terry (Vocalist/Guitarist of Scorched Earth), standing outside the show about a half hour before the set got underway:
"Childhood dreams are about to be realized."
And they were.
Hails & Ales to one of the best shows I will ever attend.
