Reevaluating To Mega Therion by Celtic Frost

First off, I am never going to claim that I did not care for this album at any point.  This has always been my favorite album by Celtic Frost.  And it has never been particularly close.  The album is legendary and for very good reason.  There are multiple classic songs here, songs like "Circle of the Tyrants" and "The Usurper".  And so it has earned its legendary status.

The album stands as a landmark in the creation of a number of extreme metal genres, including thrash, death and black metal.  What I have realized however, is that it may contain some of the very first death/doom metal tracks.  Death/doom is largely considered to have started in the early 1990's with groups like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Morgion.  But several songs on this release (and several on the criminally underrated Journey Into Mystery by Dream Death) have all of the elements that came together into the fusion genre.  Songs like "Dawn of Megiddo", "Necromantical Screams" and the aforementioned "Circle of the Tyrants" all sound like something that could easily be on an early Paradise Lost album with their slow and lumbering, yet massively heavy riffs.  And the tone on the guitar and bass during the riffs is something of which Asphyx would be proud.

Finally, I think that "Endless Summer" is one of the most underrated songs in the entire Celtic Frost library.  It never seems to be mentioned among the band's many classic songs, but it absolutely should be.  That opening riff is absolutely amazing and it is one of the heaviest and fastest songs the band has ever released.

I am by no means saying anything controversial when I refer to this album as a legendary release.  It gets massive amounts of credit for its influence on death and black metal, I just think it is equally important to the genesis of death/doom as well.