Monotheist (album)

Monotheist
Studio album by Celtic Frost
Released	29 May 2006
Recorded	2002–2005
Studio	Various Horus Sound Studio, Hanover, Germany Oakland Recording, Winterthur, Switzerland Celtic Frost Bunker, Zurich, Switzerland Apollyon Sun Bunker, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Noize, Kilchberg, Switzerland FSK-18, Winterthur, Switzerland Transmutation, Thalwil, Switzerland
Genre	Doom metal gothic metal black metal death metal avant-garde metal
Length	68:16
Label	Century Media
Producer	Celtic Frost Popkredit Der Stadt Zürich (exec.) Martin Eric Ain (exec.) Peter Tägtgren Roland Brümmer (exec.) Tom Gabriel Fischer (exec.)
Celtic Frost chronology
Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying (1992) Monotheist (2006)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blabbermouth	8/10

Monotheist is the sixth and, according to band members, final studio album by the Swiss heavy metal band Celtic Frost. The album was released in May 2006 and was the first new recording released by the band for sixteen years.

Preparation and development work for the project had been ongoing since 2000. The first recording sessions for the album started in late October 2002. The band consisted of founding members Martin Eric Ain (bass/vocals) and Tom Gabriel Fischer (voice/guitars/keyboards), along with guitarist/producer Erol Unala, Fischer's long-time songwriting partner. Unala became an increasingly significant part of Celtic Frost during the songwriting.

"Obscured" comes from the demo track "November" from the 2002 demo album "Prototype".

"Drown In Ashes" uses lyrics from the demo track "The Dying I".

Working titles for the album included Probe and Dark Matter Manifest.

Celtic Frost's earlier work melded elements of thrash metal and black metal. The sound of Monotheist has been described as difficult to reduce down specifics, as the songs vary from doom metal to "blackened thrash" to gothic metal to symphonic metal. The result is a wide-ranging but very dark heavy metal experience. Don Kaye at Blabbermouth called it "a monstrously heavy and oppressive slab of metal" which goes "into even heavier, blacker territory" than previous albums. Adrien Begrand of PopMatters said that the album was nearly a masterpiece of "brutally heavy" metal, "completely devoid of light." Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic noted more subtle touches such as the "instantaneously infectious melody" of "A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh", and the "haunting female voices" heard in duet with bandleader Tom Warrior on "Drown in Ashes".

According to Fischer, some of the lyrics were influenced by the writings of the English occultist Aleister Crowley. This influence manifests itself in tracks such as "Os Abysmi Vel Daath", which is partially a name of one of Crowley's books.

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Wikipedia