Vanity / Nemesis

After the deep dive in this toxic cold lake, Tom G. Warrior threw his trunks away and so he stood there naked. Not a pretty sight. Due to a lack of alternatives, he was heading for new shores. This exercise was not easy – just listen to the opener of “Vanity / Nemesis”. Regardless whether you select the song title “My Heart Beneath”, the riffing or the precious singing of the master himself, one thing becomes very obvious. This song could have been part of “Cold Lake” as well. And the band pic on the back cover also rather indicated another desecration of Celtic Frost’s once untouchable reputation than a return to the masterpieces of a time long ago. Nevertheless, the album has a darker aura than its predecessor. The Swiss dudes intended to regain a certain wickedness and the dry and unpretentious sound was just one component in this respect. However, there was a very important thing missing: the majestic grandeur, the self-evident blackness of their former compositions. Once innovators, now one in a million. Aggravating this situation, I cannot say that they walked the trodden paths of mid-harsh metal in an outstanding manner. The riffing lacks impulsiveness and so parts of the album sound like the work of old men. More or less the complete A side has nothing that sets an impulse. Lacklustre compositions are caught in their mid-paced patterns and any form of sustainable chorus does not occur. As if all this were not enough, the band catapults itself into complete meaninglessness with the boring, lame and uninspired cover version at the end of the first half.

The A side illustrates the dilemma of the whole album. It lacks character. Yes, even “Cold Lake” had one, although it was an unpleasant one. But the A side of “Vanity / Nemesis” emanates absolutely nothing. What keeps sticking in the ear after these five tunes? The female voice in “Wings of Solitude”? Okay, if this is the most outstanding feature than we know that former idols have lost their instinct, their innovative force and their special sense for monumental deeds. The B side starts where the first four songs of the A side have ended: in total mediocrity. They are too good to hate them and much too bad to feel the urge to listen to them more times than necessary. Yes, it is almost a complete debacle, because one can be of the opinion that there is nothing worse than a piece of art that leaves the beholder / listener completely cold. Thank God, after almost everything is already said and done, the album rises like Phoenix from the ashes. It’s a little Phoenix, but it is better than nothing.

Celtic Frost are able to change the course with “A Kiss or a Whisper”. It flirts a little bit with “The Usurper”, although it cannot reach the quality level of this classic, by far not. Nevertheless, it reveals at least a minimum of currishness. And it is a signal that the band does not intend to leave the arena without having shown a real fight. The two-piece title track underlines this. “Vanity” is once again not too far away from the songs of the hairspray album, but its rasping guitars and the catchy chorus form a strong piece. Finally, “Nemesis” pays tribute to the first mini album, because its intro seems to be an excerpt of “Human”. However, that’s not the crucial thing one must know about this song. Of greater relevance is the competent design with the soft beginning, the following heavyweight guitars and the coherent melody line that anticipates the chorus. Yes, the last three songs are responsible that the album does not drown in the sea of mediocrity, but all in all, this output was another damage to the once glorious name of the band. This was all the more disappointing in view of the pretty promising line-up with Martin Eric Ain (R.I.P.) and Stephen Priestly. But maybe they should have kicked Curt Victor Bryant in the ass before they began to record this album? I don’t know. I just can say that the whole evolution of Celtic Frost after “To Mega Therion” was a great misunderstanding, no more, no less. And that’s a mild description.

Looking at this CD, one of the most neglected, most disregarded albums in metal history… a very well-deserved status, everyone would agree. It would have been a serious insult on the metal fan’s intelligence to accept the band back into the fray after the “Cold Lake”. What could they have possibly created after it to placate their fanbase? “To Mega Therion 2”? Another intimidating collection of “Morbid Tales”? Would have those done the trick?

I don’t think so; not after the first genuine flop in the annals of the genre, splashed right in the middle of the greatest year for metal. On the other hand, if you think of it, it wouldn’t have hurt so bad, save for the band’s most diehard followers of course, with so many great things happening in every single department… still, some paid attention, though, not feeling very happy with it as it was the first sign that their favourite music wouldn’t be spared the industry’s flippant, capricious meanderings, with arguably worse things to befall the hapless audience in the future...

not from the Celtic Frost camp, mind you, and not only because there couldn’t have been a more embarrassing statement than “the most aggressive performers within the glam metal roster” one made with… an apology for the momentary mindloss seemed like a more logical next step regardless of how many would be those to really vote to hear it. Tom G. Warrior and Co. owed it to their fans, and they had to soldier on, at least for one more stint. For the purpose the Co. part readily welcomed Martin E. Ain (R.I.P.), who was inexplicably (or maybe not really) missing from the “Cold Lake” line-up, back. And the band do deliver with him in action as this farewell (at the time) opus sounds way more convincing than “Into the Pandemonium”, for one thing, as the guys do not want to mess around with so much experimentation, reducing the mentioned album’s frivolous excesses to the minimum.

The band’s effective, but ultimately hard to categorize, style is in full bloom once again here, and although thrash takes the leadership for a change this is nothing like the average, customary thrash metal odyssey out there the guys always keeping the staple element of surprise and the sense of unpredictability in the air, for better or worse. “The Heart Beneath” and the more lyrical (watch out for some nice female vocals here) “Wings Of Solitude” nicely update the guys’ effective heavy delivery of old for the newer, anticipating the groove, generation but it’s the speedy roller-coaster “Wine in My Hand (Third from the Sun)”, already heard on a single a few months earlier, the belligerent stompiness of “The Name Of My Bride”, and the insistent galloping urgency of “Phallic Tantrum” that propel the album forward, and compensate for the slightly shaky nature of the longer, more ambitious material which comprises the somewhat monotonous proto-doomster “Nemesis” and the balladic psychedelic “This Island Earth”, a Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music) cover with Warrior attempting some semi-successful cleaner vocals to a rousing effect. Not so much outside-the-box ideas elsewhere, fortunately, with “The Restless Seas” thrashing confidently in a bumpy mid-paced manner, and “A Kiss or A Whisper” notching the intensity to the max, a brief dynamic headbanger with rowdy lashing riffs.

Apology well noted, and although the band saw themselves overtaken by their apprentices Coroner in the mean time, also not very well fitting into the more demanding technical/progressive metal landscape at the dawn of the new decade, they should have felt at least partially content with the final result as this was an admirable way to try and bury their vain glammy dreams with something way more appropriate. The totally relevant, self-reflective album-title should by all means add a few more points to their resume as the band were obviously well aware of the mistake they had made, with no intentions whatsoever on treading the same path. It wasn’t exactly a farewell song, either, as the band hung around for another few years, their subsequent endeavours amounting to half an hour of more nemeses, this time titled “Nemesis of Power”, the 1993 demo. Not the most dignified sequel to a savoured apology, it saw the band just grooving around in a nonchalant Helmet-esque fashion, the staple experimental touches sounding awkward on the pretty listless background.

The album reviewed here was naturally the first attempt at getting back on the feet after a disastrous flop and is definitely better (Megadeth’s “The World Needs a Hero”, Annihilator’s “King of the Kill”) than some although it fares a bit less well compared to others (“Helloween’s “Master of the Rings”, Kreator’s “Violent Revolution”). The Swiss legends washed away the shame from their repertoire to an extent, even more so with the comeback opus “Monotheist”, and although it’s not very likely that their creative output would grow bigger in the future, their tales of morbidity, pandemonium, vanity, etc. have long since won their rightful place on the metal pantheon.

You'll never catch me tripping over myself with ardor for the fourth Celtic Frost full-length Vanity/Nemesis, but at the very least it served as a redress or re-assessment of the tragically flawed 1988 flop Cold Lake. Shortly after that record was released, founder and vocalist Warrior performed a bit of 'housecleaning' by sending Oliver Amberg on his merry way, presumably for the betterment of all. He retained the services of drummer Stephen Priestly and guitarist Curt Victor Bryant (never trust a guy with three first names!), and also got Martin Ain involved again with the songwriting, though he only performs bass on "The Hearth Beneath" and contributes a few of the backing vocals throughout. A third guitarist, Ron Marks was used for session recording, and Bryant and Warrior also performed some of the bass lines, so there seemed like a real sense of collaboration and unity to the record, most of its constituents involved in multiple roles.

Extraneous elements like shitty hip hop intros and glam lyricism might have been cast to the wayside here, but Vanity/Nemesis certainly preserves a few of Cold Lake's aesthetics. The band's image hadn't changed a great deal, for one, and Tom's use of the whining, frog-like vocal is still manifest on a number of the compositions. Priestly's drums are still as pop-rocky as they were on the previous album, and in truth the snare seems even tidier, polished sounding to the point that it comes off a bit sterile. Frost was not about to relapse back to the double kick beats Reed St. Mark was fond of, but Stephen is otherwise up to the task. Female vocals are featured even more prominently, from the seductive whispers of "The Heart Beneath" to the more soulful style in "Wings of Solitude" which recounts "I Won't Dance (The Elders Orient)" from Into the Pandemonium, but here they seem to assimilate themselves far more assertively alongside Warrior and the heavier tone of the riffs...

And there is where the primary difference lies, the foremost reason that Vanity/Nemesis hasn't evoked such sour grapes as its predecessor, and sustains respect from many Frost fanatics even today. The heavier, chugging guitars, while not necessarily any more complex than Cold Lake's harder hitters like "Downtown Hanoi" or "Roses Without Thorns", carry a more tangible emotive power that resonates down through the years with a mystique akin to Into the Pandemonium, if glazed in the muscle enhancement of To Mega Therion. I can't be the only one who feels that this album is still a strange bastardization of glam/hard rock and thrash aesthetics, but there is a mightier furor to the chugging elements in tracks like "The Heart Beneath", "The Name of the Bride" and "Nemesis" that makes it all the more to take seriously. Hell, a few of the cuts like the ill-titled "A Kiss or a Whisper" resurrect the punkish panache that thrived on their earlier PE Morbid Tales, and here Priestly lets the double bass rip.

Mid-paced thrashing ("The Restless Seas", "Nemesis") is where this album seems most effective, and Frost resumes the throne of palm muted groove momentum without leaving behind the eros, eloquence and philosophical rambling of their lyrical matter. Acoustics are teased here, beneath the eaves of "Wings of Solitude", or just beyond the throwback "Into the Crypts of Rays" intro of "Nemesis", and they glint with appropriate sorrow, the latter dowsed in a bluesy if forgettable lead. A few tunes seem a little strange and dorky, like the hilariously named "Phallic Tantrum" with its goofy, happy verse thrashing and pinched, whiny Warrior pitch. "Vanity" and the covers of David Bowie's "Heroes" and Bryan Ferry's "This Island Earth" also seem a tad on the light side for Celtic Frost. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting to hear their muscled alterations to the source material, but they're hardly evocative of the crushing nightmares that so memorably speckled the band's morbid past.

I will say that the first chunk of the album, specifically the first four songs, are very well handled and even exclusive of the rest of Vanity/Nemesis, they surpass Cold Lake with ease. The open chords, grooves and sexy whispers that permeate "The Heart Beneath" all ramp up to a dirty but effective lead, and the whole things sounds quite damned heavy despite the polish. "Wine in My Hand (Third from the Sun)" was the first 'single', given its own EP and a rather lame, largely rock star video treatment; but the song is quite cool, especially the thick verse riffing, and the chorus in which the vocals are affixed to the percussive, escalated wail of the guitar. Tom sounds a lot heavier here, returning to the harder bark he implemented on Dethroned Emperor or To Mega Therion. "Wings of Solitude" chugs along with confidence until the acoustic break, and I love where it opens back up to the huge chords and soulfully backed 'beauty and the beast' chorus. "The Name of My Bride" might occasionally sound a whole lot like a Frost take on Megadeth's "In My Darkest Hour", thanks to the chord progression in the verses, but it's still rock solid throughout, with a nice lead.

Ultimately, though, the album lacks so much of the novel, poignant menace of To Mega Therion or the breathtaking exoticism of Into the Pandemonium that it never quite launches itself to that same plane of immortality. In truth, it's more like an edit of the Cold Lake aesthetics which takes into consideration so much of the critique of that album into an account and then executes with a far more appealing savvy. Gone are the incredibly cheesy lyrics of a "Dance Sleazy" or "Little Velvet", replaced with the more apocryphal rantings of their earlier 80s fare; yet there's only a thin line which separates the pair musically. That said, Vanity/Nemesis is a vast improvement, a cognizant rebuttal to the faux pas of its predecessor that holds up a lot more strongly through the ensuing decades. Not so good that I feel often compelled to revisit it, but engaging enough to break out once in a blue moon. Ironic, then, that it would be the last 'official' record before the shit hit the fan...

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Celtic Frost - Vanity/Nemesis: Or How Tom Got His Groove Back.

This is probably the only overlooked CF album. Notice I said "overlooked". Absolutely no CF fan is able to overlook the sore thumb that was Cold Lake. Hell, not even Tom G. Warrior can, no matter how hard he tries even today. So even their worst album (and one of the most baffling moves in the history of metal) is less overlooked than this, the album that managed to concentrate the best of mid-80's CF with a slightly tame preview of the monstrous, massive Monotheist (aren't alliterations fun?). And not only that, but it also brought forth a very compelling argument against the accepted genesis of a then-brand-new subgenre in metal. What subgenre is that, you say? Worry not; an explanation will swiftly follow.

There's one word that, in my opinion, dominates the album, and that word is Groove. Now, before you spew your Mountain Dew all over your your 10-year-old Cowboys From Hell T-Shirt and scream obscenities at me, know that I am well aware that "Groove Metal" as it is traditionally known has its origins on the mixing of classic heavy metal and southern (U.S.) music, giving the already heavy and thick sound a jumpy, energetic/energising and almost party-approved vibe. That is Groove.

But that, also, is what this album is, essentially. So, am I saying CF are just as responsible for the birth of groove metal as Pantera is? Hell, at this stage in life labels and tags and genres/subgenres/crossovers lose meaning by the hour, so I don't really give a bloody fuck. As far as I'm concerned Godflesh is responsible for all non-doom slower-paced types of metal that made their appearance in the late 80's, like sludge, groove and even stoner, so who the fuck cares about my opinion on the genesis of a subgenre? We're here to discuss CF's most overlooked album, but I'm also taking this opportunity to conduct an experiment which is basically an excellent example of a "what if" situation. My hypotesis is that, had people paid as much attention to this album as they paid to CF's early works, then hey, maybe an entire generation would look back on this album as seminal in the ways of groovin' metal.

From the moment the first guitar string is picked we get a mouthfull of trademark CF riffs as a main dish, but with a rather unexpected side: They seem to have taken some very subtle elements from the "glam" era and adapted them to make what could have just been a more polished and less energetic To Mega Terion into a fist-pounding, catchy, groovy and groundbreaking ablum, once again proving that every release Mr. Warrior creates is seminal (we could even agree that Cold Lake was the best Glam Metal album, since it's such a horrendous, worthless "subgenre"). The guitars are thick and reverbered yet well under control. This could either be a good or a bad thing whether you like feedback and amp noises in genres where it doesn't really belong.

The bass and drums play second fiddle here, if only because of the excellent and gigantic guitar work and not because of subpar execution. The bass has a very interesting spring-like sound that would become popular throughout the 90's, especially in groove, sludge and stoner bands, as well as other non-metal genres influenced by the aforementioned (*ahem*mallcore*ahem*). The drum kit chosen for this record sounds rather dull, especially the bass drum (which happens all too often in metal), but the sheer... let's say cheerfulness and variation of Mr. Priestly's style more than makes up for the lack of a more fitting (read: rawer, more aggressive, more... contusive) sound.

There is yet another blast from the past in the form of experimentation. This time less schizophrenic and more thought out, it comes in the form of sudden timing/mood changes and very Into-The-Pandemoniumesque sections of clean/acoustic guitars and female vocals. This time these elements work more as a cohesive tool that ultimately shapes the album into a concrete, palpable work of art, instead of the more surreal, chaotic and even ethereal approach of Into The Pandemonium (not that that was a bad thing, mind you).

Tom's vocals sound basically the same as they did back in 1983, except this time the recording quality allows us to appreciate his (cleaner) tone and personality as close as we would ever be able to get. It can get a bit tiring at times, because they were mixed a bit too loud and up front. I think his (pre-Monotheist) vocals are better enjoyed with slight feedback and halfway between the drums and the guitar, but that's just me.

So what do we make of this album, after all is said and done? Well, to finish up my Pantera-comparisons and groove-originators conspiracy, let's think about a very odd fact: Pantera started as a shitty glam band until, one day, they decided to pump aggressivity, heaviness and a rock-ish groove to their sound, leaving the glam wankery behind and, allegedly, single-handedly inventing groove metal. Now let's look at Celtic Frost: A band that, with each release, has managed to shake, break and recreate the grounds of metal, one day decided to go glam. I don't think I need to tell you how that turned out. So what happened after that mother of a failed experiment? Celtic Frost decided to bring back the aggressivity, heaviness and thrashy sound of their earlier works, and add a rock-ish groove to their sound, leaving the glam wankery behind. Coincidence? I don't even know anymore, this is just a very fun thought experiment and also a good way to ease an estranged CF fan back into the horde. As long as they like to headbang, that is.

And the other, major conclusion to this review is the following: Every Celtic Frost album (minus Cold Lake) is unique, groundbreaking and influential*. Every release has a special, unique sound, approach and quality to it that makes it stand tall amongst other albums of the same genre. What makes this particular album special and unique is that it manages to combine elements from every single one of their previous works (yes, including the only decent aspects of Cold Lake, like sound quality and guitar solos), as well as showcase (albeit in embryonic shape) elements from future albums (or rather future album period). And the most impressive part is that this amalgamation of groundbreaking elements into one album gave as a result a cohesive and sound album instead of something more resembling an inconsistent collection of b-sides.

Overall, this beast of an album is not just a "return to form" (I don't know about you, but I'm rather sick of that stock phrase), and it's not just an "I'm Sorry" gift to make up for the horrid Cold Lake. This collection of chugging, heavy, thrashy and at the same time doom-ish riffs with a strong groove, aching solos, bouncy bass, lively drums and vocals with Attitude is a testimony to the seemingly inexhaustible creativity of one Mr. Tom G. Warrior.

*even if sometimes said influence takes years to kick in

How the hell does one make up for an album such as "Cold Lake?" Answer: You don't. Your band who was a highly revered, innovative, mega cult-like band that made such an impressionable and highly resonating mark in Metal's golden era gets the silent treatment for turning in an album that is still to this day considered one of the worst point's in the historical timeline of the musical genre. Sorry Jack, it's not going to start winning your points back from such a commercial suicide/fallout. That's just the sad truth. But all in all even if it was a rough period in one's career it's also now looked upon as a underrated album. It is, "Vanity/Nemesis" is a vastly underrated album, but it isn't in the fact that it's an album that is more or less considered make-up sex in the weird relationship between a band and their loyal fans. Tom G. Warrior and company got caught with their pants down and now are trying to be all "Baby I love you, don't leave me!" Shawanda is going to tell yo black ass off on Maury next Tuesday.

Like many older interviews with Tom G. Warior, he's more than likely explained himself about the somewhat erratic/bi-polar behavior of post "Into The Pandemonium" era of CF, and I'll be honest I've completely forgotten those excuses not just due out of being a fan but probably because I think such trivial things are meant to be forgotten because simply put, they are purely trivial. Again, as stated this was more or less an album to make up for "Cold Lake". It does. Once you actually sit down and listen to this, the first thing that pops into your head is "Holy shit! This is pretty damn good considering all things." I mean if the opening riff from "The Heart Beneath" doesn't get you playing air-guitar to that heavy-as-fuck DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNNA DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNNA riff from hell and the classic Warrior grunt then you're in denial. It's a thrashy little diddly that works like a charm in trying to get the fan to listen. Even the following song "Wine In My Hand" continues it and goes at a faster tempo. But that's what the big difference about "Vanity/Nemesis" is: another major change in the CF sound. Don't expect "Morbid Tales", or "To Mega Therion". This is a more classic 80's thrash sound based CF instead of the innovative extreme Metal sound they help created. The music is still heavy, still chunky sounding, and still evil-sounding....but "Vanity/Nemesis" sounds more like a Coroner album if anything.

Prime examples of this new Coroner sound would be songs such as "The Name of My Bride", "A Kiss Or A Whisper"(which this actually one song that mixes CF and Coroner), so forth and so on. Which is GOOD considering everything else. Plus this new Cornoer-esque edge/sound to their brand of molten metal is somewhat expected since main man Tom G. Warrior helped catapult Coroner into the trash scene to become a generally respected technical Thrash monster when a lot of other bands who tried to be technical fell short of the promise of mind-massacring metal. You also have songs that somewhat resonate an "Into the Pandemonium"-vibe with "The Wings Of Solitude" and even a certain song that starts out with the epic screams to Morbid Tales "Human" intro on the song "Nemesis".....as a previous review said, this album is slightly inconsistent. This album is a showcase of CF trying to pull every trick from it's hat to win back fans and it shows. Again, this is by no means a bad album in the least bit. The production is excellent. The riffs are there. Everything that is Celtic Frost is there, but it's like two different albums put into one and when you combine that and the fallout from "Cold Lake", you're going to have an album that more or less is for serious die-hard fans only.

To sum this album up it's a bit more challenging. It's Celtic Frost that's for sure. If you were to mix it with a more thrashy Coroner-edge with certain sounds from their first 3 albums and an early 90's sound production on top of it sounding like two albums combined into one album AND it being this "back-to-basics" type album, you would get "Vanity/Nemesis"; a massively underrated mixed bag of goodies for the die-hard CF fan.

Celtic Frost is a band that I hold in very high regard. This bands influence on all things metal is absolutely undeniable, but in 1988 when the band released the disaster that was Cold Lake the bands future was in serious question. Vanity/Nemesis is not Cold Lake part 2, in fact it more or less is a return to the heavy inspired metal that the band churned out consistently. I find that this album is very underrated and contains some excellent songs mixed with some not so great moments.

First things first this albums major flaw is it's inconsistency. Right out of the gate your hit with the one two punch of The Heart Beneath and Wine In My Hand. These two songs are energetic and heavy slabs of solid metal. They both are written well and contain great playing throughout. Then comes The Wings of Solitude and The Name of My Bride and it all falls apart. The riffs are weak and other than the chorus of Wings of Solitude these two songs are not worth the time. This is a recurring pattern throughout all of Vanity/Nemesis.

Tom Warrior's voice on this album is good at times and others he sounds like a child with down syndrome. In a driving song like Phallic Tantrum it fits well but in the song Vanity he comes across as laughable. The guitar playing is good, both Warrior and Bryant are competent and capable guitar players. The solos for the most part are well played but sometimes they dwell in wank territory (the Heart Beneath and A Kiss or a Whisper come to mind).

Stephen Preisty's drumming is in top form here, just listen to the thunderous double bass in Wine In My Hand it's awesome stuff. The drums also play the right beat to match the guitar riffs or keep certain songs grooving, the fills and cymbal work is well placed too. Martin's bass isn't that loud and plays a big part as too why the sound of this album is weak.

The songs on Vanity/Nemesis are a varied bunch. Most of the time the music is mid to fast paced but occasionally slows down to let the more emotional and calm tracks breathe. Celtic Frost obtains a thrashy, and traditional sound here. It works for the most part but every now and then one of those melodic riffs from Cold Lake rear their ugly head and throw the atmosphere off kilter.

Vanity/Nemesis sound wise, like I stated earlier is weak. The production is muffled and Martin's bass is not prominent in the mix, on albums like To Mega Therion and Morbid Tales the bass was loud and in your face, that is not the case here. Unfortunately Tom's voice is front and center along with the drums. Speaking of vocals I feel the excessive use of female vocals on this album is redundant and a bit...distracting I guess.

The female vocals in Wings of Solitude are awful. She sings the entire verse and backup on the chorus of that song and sounds ridiculous. I guess Tom wanted to increase the dramatic nature of the lyrics but it comes across as goofy honestly. Michele Amar has a good voice don't get me wrong but for god's sake she is on almost every song and kills the mood!

Truth be told I do like this album and I listen to it frequently. It is not on the level of To Mega Therion or even Into the Pandemonium but does display a more emotional and mature side of Celtic Frost. I say give it a shot because that is the beauty of Celtic Frost, everything sounds different and you can experience a lot from album to album.

Celtic Frost has gone through a myriad transformations, and up to Into the Pandemonium, everybody seems to know their works, and have a solid opinion on every album. Cold Lake, deserved or not, seems to be the retarded little brother chained in the attic among the full-lengths, and even if it still does a lot better than the average Poison or Cinderella wannabe album, it is the universally loathed unsuccessful sell-out album. Monotheist is the ruthless and musically rather successful comeback album, and for a lot of Celtic Frost fans, the only album they have personally seen and experienced upon release. The rest is too old for an eager young metalhead to remember, and as the unnoticeable follow-up to Cold Lake, Vanity/Nemesis is easy to skip and forget.

Indeed, Vanity/Nemesis is the forgotten Celtic Frost album, and it definitely needs more attention in the grand scheme of things.The music on the album is not easy to define. There are few doom or black metal elements, but simply calling it thrash or heavy metal does not work on any level, either. Perhaps slowish thrash, with the locomotive riffing underneath the rest of the music, is the closest descriptive term available, but it conveys the wrong idea on its own. There may be some gothic ingredients in the stew, but again, simply tagging the album "gothic metal" is completely wrong. Some parts have a barely perceptible touch of 80s progressive metal in them, but generally the music is almost impossible to categorize in simple terms. And that, people, is the magic of Celtic Frost.

The album is a good one. That much is obvious. The metal is driving like a train, and the guitar tone is a pleasant compromise between the old Celtic Frost dental drill and the definite 80s metal crunch. There are occasional female vocals by someone called Uta Günther, and while they may well sound extremely grating, juvenile and irritatingly punkish on the first dozen or so spins of the album, they are something worth tolerating until you get used to them; once they become a part of the music in your mind, the album wouldn't work without them. People say that beer is an aquired taste, but there are those of us who would not want to be without it, either, and while an operatic voice would have been an easier and more obvious choice, the relatively boorish and unsophisticated voice might well have been a conscious detail of dissention, chosen on purpose.

There are whispers, a few scattered solid thrash parts, and Tom's trademark vocals, and if the listener sets his ears on the regrettable "analytic" mode upon the first track, it's simply and purely human to look for glammy parts, some contemptible carry-on luggage from the allegedly loathsome Cold Lake times. There is little of that, but it is easy to think that the sound, the easier and more comfortable listening experience than on most Celtic Frost albums, is somehow legacy from the glam abomination. Vanity/Nemesis, unlike most other Celtic Frost albums, works as background music for certain activities, and while the rest of the band's discography demands attention and breaks concentration centered on other tasks, this album has a unique character: it is simply inoffensive to a higher degree than any other Celtic Frost pieces of art. Glam this isn't, and definitely not as dissonant in nature as the average Celtic Frost album, either... that is, if there ever was an "average" Celtic Frost album to begin with.

In the end, the music may technically be whatever it is, but the final verdict must be based on the experience and feelings the album leaves in the mind after the final track ends. And here the almighty Celtic Frost surpasses the expectations set by the technical dissection and analytical theory of this odd album. There are undercurrents, emotions and a strange brand of grimness in the music, and the experience is certainly more than the sum of its parts... once again. This is what Celtic Frost does best, and has always done. This time, however, the tools and methods used are not simple aggression and abrasion, or reckless avant-garde reconnaissance of uncharted territories, but rather refined and even amicable metal of somewhat indeterminate brand. The precious musical steak is hidden under the combination of perfectly executed riffing, doubly crass vocals, and ingenious songwriting. There is more to this than what can be read in the guitar tabs of the songs. Vanity/Nemesis is the forgotten Celtic Frost album, and while it may be mediocre on the scale set by the band's other masterpieces, it certainly has the merits for more attention than what it gets.

This is a fine album that would have plenty of renown, had it been written by some other band. Among the works of Celtic Frost, this is just the album between Cold Lake and splitting up. Unfortunately.

If you spend more than a few seconds reading up on Celtic Frost, you'd assume Vanity/Nemesis is a return to form of Celtic Frost without hearing it. Nobody has yet bothered to explain or confirm this though. The album doesn't get much attention or discussion, and is a taboo because of it's placement in Celtic Frost's discography. Almost anyone could express their disappointment in the album prior, Cold Lake, but Vanity/Nemesis seems to have been produced at such a poor time, that both negative and positive feedback for the album was abortive. This album may have managed to exist as the prime example of neglected music. A return to form would have caused much more feedback, as would a confirmed sellout. On one note, this is not a return to form. Vanity/Nemesis does not impose the darkness and energy of previous albums, and Tom's "whining" vocals are still present. On two contrary notes however, Celtic Frost remains Celtic Frost, as their "perpetual changing" from album to album is still present, and the manner in which V/N was presented, is also not as extreme as Cold Lake. V/N is not a glam metal album, but would more properly be labeled as a progressive heavy metal album. Some would consider this as much of a sellout as glam metal, but I would not be a part of that group.

As we start spinning the album, we get one fun little tune after another. None of these come off as bad, but not the best of CF's work. Each song gets progressively slower though, but this is by no means a bad thing. Wings of Solitude for example, is a beautiful and track including female vocals and acoustics. There are two or so tracks after that that feel similar, and could be excluded though. The band picks up on this, and gives us some speed with Phallic Tantrum, and A Kiss or a Whisper. The latter track is the easiest to connect with CF's previous work. We hear d-beats in the drumming, and even the CF styled "mini-march" writing. The title tracks come up, Nemesis, being my favorite. It was the only long track on the album, and throws in lots of twists. Not much can be said about the rest of the album aside from the album ending well. Again, nothing bad, but nothing astounding. My conclusion was that there was no real reason to hate the album, aside from perhaps not meeting the expectations set by CF before. The only fair criticism I must give, is that 12 tracks is too much. Perhaps if this stood alone, as a debut for a progressive heavy metal band, my standards would be higher. V/N has been held back far too much for where it's been placed.

I don't wish to say this is for Celtic Frost fans only, but this is by no means the proper album to be introduced to CF by. There are still plenty of new tracks to be discovered in this album, return to form or not. Most people would have preferred CF to die after releasing Cold Lake, instead of trying to recapture themselves, though I believe they succeeded in doing so. It is undeniably a work to be considered. The band wanted to release it for a reason: it's an album of much effort and should be treated as such.

After the classics "Morbid Tales" and "To Mega Therion" (both of which feature the ugliest, most frightening guitar tone known to man, a beautiful sound!), and the flawed-yet-still good "Into The Pandemonium" (I refuse to acknowledge "Cold Lake" and fondly remember the night they played my hometown on that tour--the fans threw lipstick at them!), Celtic Frost were at a crossroads. And they went the right way with this cruncher of a comeback effort.

Roli Mosimann's production is absolutely perfect, with crunchy guitars, clanging, rumbling bass you can hear and feel, and cracking drums that really nail it down. Tom and Co. knew it was make or break on this one and you can feel it with the urgency of the new material. The following are some of the better tunes on this album.

"The Heart Beneath" starts with a whisper, then builds to a uptempo metal number which, while not as thrashy or extreme as their earlier material, still kicks up a pretty respectable fuss. "Wine In My Hand (Third From The Sun" follows with a slightly faster verse bursting into a thrashing chorus and some nicely jagged and jarring riffing post chorus."Wings of Solitude" changes gears into a more subdued and quiet verse with acoustic guitars and whispered female (?) vocals that erupts into a heavy chorus featuring more of the female backing vocals and Tom roaring better than he had done in a while at the time. The only real problem on this album for me is that Tom still thought he could sing instead of roar (he can't sing at all, and his weak clean vocals are the only real annoyance here), and this holds back the album some. But he does get in his classic death grunts here and there, and that makes up for it a little.

"The Name Of My Bride" sees them heading back to heavier, doomier territory, with plaintive vocals--Tom's clean vocals actually work on this number, dare I say it, with their anguish benefitting the tune well. "Restless Seas" is more uptempo, more hard rock in feel, with a catchy as hell chorus that features more wailing female vocals, and even a nice little bass solo with very cool syncopations and groove from Martin Ain--his bass tone KILLS on this album! The heavy version of David Bowie's "Heroes" is OK at best, I see it as a curiosity more than anything else. Especially since they cut out half the song in the process of converting it to a more metallized approach.

Even more of a hard rock approach was, for me anyway, a better direction for Celtic Frost to head into for this album. At least the riffs and soloing were more urgent, and far heavier than its wretched predecessor. Tom gets his mojo back for the vocals on this album (excepting most of his clean vox), and even Stephen Priestly (original Morbid Tales session drummer) had joined the band full time by this album. It's not up to the level of the first two albums, of course--what could be?--but it still is a respectable effort nonetheless. I still enjoy this album to this day.