Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying

Celtic Frost might have dragged their heels in an unwelcome and unwanted glam fetish for a few years, or released a few lacking short form products through their career, but one thing they could never be accused of is ripping off their fan base by capitalizing on such an enormous cult status as they've garnered these past decades. Just how many useless, redundant Best of Celtic Frost compilations might we have suffered it Tom G. Warrior and his backers turned a blind eye to their dignity and quality control and dropped to their knees to fluff the almighty dollar?

It says a lot that, when a fan collection did finally arrive in the form of Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying via Noise Records, that it was so loaded with re-recordings, rare or unreleased tracks, and other odds and ends that don't wind up feeling like a track by track repressing of studio material that they've already turned a buck off. That doesn't make all of its content invigorating, or unique to this one album, but in general this would hold a lot of appeal to an audience of the time who might not have been saturated in the CD re-releases (with bonus tracks). What's more, if you're lucky enough to have gotten the 1999 re-issue of the compilation, it features about 30% more content. This is the version I'm covering here, and the version I'd recommend you hunt down if you're in the market for the odds and ends of your Swiss heroes.

There are, of course, a few cuts here which might have been omitted in favor of other demo reels, live cuts or rarities, most of which are taken straight from the Vanity/Nemesis album: "Wings of Solitude", "The Hearth Beneath", "The Name of My Bride", and a couple oldies in "Circle of the Tyrants" (Morbid Tales) and the French version of "Tristresses de La Lune" which was available on the US release of Into the Pandemonium. All good or amazing choices, but not necessarily relevant to the interests of fans who already owned them. The radio edit of "I Won't Dance (The Elders Orient)" and "Cherry Orchards" are also unwarranted, neither superior or markedly different than their fuller studio incarnations. The raw studio jam of "Return to the Eve" with the added Reed St. Mark vocals is also here, but this too we've heard before on the Tragic Serenades EP or CD re-issue of To Mega Therion; nor do I care about the jam version of "Mexican Radio" much either, or "The Usurper" with Ain's bass that was also already on Tragic Serenades.

But the other half of the compilation is far cooler, or at the very least, it tries to be. For example of the latter: a pair of 1991 re-recordings of tunes from the ill-fated Cold Lake have been included, with a bit more aggression and better vocals. In the case of "Downtown Hanoi", it's not a huge difference since that was one of the heavier tracks on the album to begin with, but for "Juices Like Wine", the verse vocals feel stronger. The chorus is still a bit whiny, and drier than the Cold Lake rendition, but just about everything else might sate fans who hated that. It's nice that they've decided to toss "A Descent to Babylon (Babylon Asleep)" on here from the Wine in My Hand EP (1990), since it removes any and all impetus outside of collection to acquire that piece of crap, but it's still not one of the band's better tracks from the Vanity/Nemesis era.

And lastly, the real 'goodies'! Or, rather, the ones you were really waiting for, even though they don't turn out to be so memorable. "In the Chapel, in the Moonlight" has at last been culled from the rare, limited edition Collector's Celtic Frost vinyl (1987), and while not totally impressive, the grimed out vocals, timpani and the trudge of the riffing place it firmly within the Into the Pandemonium period, though it is nowhere near good enough to have belonged on the full-length. "The Inevitable Factor" and "Journey Into Fear" are both decent tunes, the first with a nice set of grooves and Tom's Gothic grousing; the latter with a primal punk thrust and thrash breakdown circa Morbid Tales or Emperor's Return. "Idols of Chagrin" was a brand new piece made for this album, but I can't say it's a favorite. Lots of more generic rock grooves to the guitar riffs, and though the harsher frog vocals, plodding bass breaks and the guitar tone are all well produced, the riffs are far from standout. "Under Apollyon's Sun" is superior, though the primary guitar line is familiar to others they've written in the past, and the vocals are mediocre.

But at least this last pair I've mentioned give us a hint of how the band's production would have sounded with a theoretical direct followup to Vanity/Nemesis which never manifest, and they are certainly better (sounding) than what they wrote for their Nemesis of Power demo in '92. In the end, I'm not sure that the positives of Parched exceed its mediocre elements. There's a real sense of resolution and completeness here, authored by a band that cared what it was placing on the shelves for its followers to gobble up. Pieces are drawn from all over the canon. But at the same time, there are enough redundancies to drag its value down, and there's not a single track of the unreleased rarities here that deserved to be on one of the Frost full-lengths. It makes perfect sense that they'd end up here, but just because they're novel to the devoted listener does not render them into works of appreciable quality.

The new songs were, truthfully, underwhelming. Boring even. Engineering aside, if they had released a full length with such lackluster composition it would have flopped even harder than Cold Lake. They're just not memorable, an attribute critical to all of their classics. The other rarities are a mixed bag: "Journey Into Fear" and "The Inevitable Factor", the two best on this collection, are still not up to the level of album tracks. So there's a real sense of 'leftovers' which permeates the compilation, flabby non-athletics that would never have been picked for any volleyball team, and in conjunction with the cut and paste tracks or minor edits that represent about 50% of its play list, the best I could consider this is average. Not as worthless as many other collections of its type, but not all that inspired in retrospect.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

With a career as long, influential and illustrous as that of the almighty Celtic Frost, most commercially succesful bands start churning out compilations and best-ofs at an alarming rate. Not so with Celtic Frost, they didn't release an actual best-of album before their reunion and the 2003 Are You Morbid?, and kept their original, beautiful run clean of such trivial and unnecessary cash grabs. What, then, is Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying?

Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying is a compilation of things in the way compilations are supposed to be made. Instead of simply skimming the cream from the top and arbitrarily choosing the "top" tracks for those people who are too lazy or poor to get the original albums, Celtic Frost offers some interesting stuff on the compilation. No, this is not a "best-of". A few unreleased tracks that were only included on re-releases of their respective albums after this compilation saw daylight, a few alternative versions of familiar tracks, and incredible honesty in the form of several Cold Lake songs.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of the compilation is the fact that the songs chosen are holotypes of their respective albums, and the few previously unreleased tracks are obvious children of their recording sessions as well. "Descent to Babylon" and "The Inevitable Factor" reek of Into the Pandemonium, and the tracks chosen off Vanity/Nemesis are perfect examples of the litter they sprang from. Uniquely, this leads to a an interesting situation: the tracks recreate the band's career, excluding Morbid Tales, in an zig-zagging mess, but still keep things interesting with the previously unreleased tracks and alternative versions.

Even the tracks off Cold Lake, in their re-recorded form, sound surprisingly good, and to those of us who have never heard the originals, it throws a wrench in the gears of those who thrash the album. While the originals are probably pitiful glam-drenched attempts at justifying an era of bi-curious lipstick experiments, the re-recordings are good tracks. "Juices Like Wine" sees Mr Warrior as his grumpy, sexy self, trying to bring a new life to an obviously lackluster song, but the rather riff-heavy production has the almost thrashy guitar drilling throughout the song's length, and whatever the original was like, this version raises the song into the "upper mediocre" category among Frost's catalogue. It's not a masterpiece, and remains a rather simplistic song, but offensive it is not. "Cherry Orchards" is even present in its original form, although as a slightly shortened radio edit. Brave honesty!

As a cross-cut of the lengthy and complex Celtic Frost history, the compilation, and especially its longer 18-track CD version, works wonders. It hauls the listener from the Emperor's Return era straightforward angry blackened thrashing, through the To Mega Therion's budding avant-garde and Into the Pandemonium's full-blown atmospheric experiments, all the way into the strange and confusing poppy alien surroundings, taking the re-recorded detour via the crater of failure known as Cold Lake. There isn't much else to say, although the lack of songs from Morbid Tales strikes a fan of the band as odd. Why by-pass such an important EP? We may never know, but if a compilation is supposed to have a "flow", or simply to stay together as a pleasurable listening experience, Morbid Tales' Hellhammerish and abrasive character might have interrupted the story arch, and disturbed the progression of the alien feel of Celtic Frost's later works.

It would be very interesting to see such a compilation now. How would the slow, crushing and primal despair of Monotheist fit the works of Frost's earlier career? Can the two be combined at all, with the 16 years between Vanity/Nemesis and Monotheist, or is the hidden progression that took place during the decade and a half something that can't be bridged at all? We may never know. It's quite likely that the creative restraint of the band is too perfect for a post-mortem. At least judging by the rarity of such releases so far. We may now enjoy Triptykon, and if the title track of the Shatter EP is anything to judge by, Celtic Frost didn't die due to lack of creativity. Martin Eric Ain's contributions to the world of music still remain to be seen, but the promise is there.

This compilation is definitely worth your money. There are no unnecessary pieces of blubber or song choices that reek of easy cash-grabbing. No, this is value, from the beginning to the end, and lays bare a mighty career. Get this!

The last Celtic Frost album was this: Parched With Thirst Am I And Dying. An hour and 13 minutes of a large collection of rarities. Some of these songs were on EP's and vinyls that were long out of print and most of them are available on the re-released Celtic Frost albums. Even if you have the re-released albums, this is still a great buy.

The album starts out with Idols Of Chagrin which was supposed to a song on the never released Under Apollyon's Sun album. Seems that Tom Warrior backed out on his word of returning to an Into The Pandemonium type status. This would've fitted well on Vanity/Nemesis. The vocals aren't the old school death grunts, but they are heavier than the ones on Vanity/Nemesis. This is a pretty much a groove/heavy metal song. There is a nice part around 2:30 in where the guitar plays then stops then does it again until a small bass riff comes in and finally the guitar explodes with a short but cool solo.

A Descent To Babylon (Babylon Asleep) is a track from the Vanity/Nemesis sessions. Its available now on the re-released Vanity/Nemesis. And just like all the tracks from Vanity/Nemesis it has those odd clean vocals that will turn off many people. Overall it's a pretty nice thrashy song. The solo 2 minutes sounds like it belongs in Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion... Damn you Celtic Frost... why'd you guys have to change?

Return To The Eve (studio jam) was from the Tragic Serenades EP and is now available on the re-released To Mega Therion album. The studio jam is so much superior to the original version off Morbid Tales. The vocals are fantastic with some laughs and whoo's heard every now and then. The guitars are much and now have natural harmonics. Even a metal n00b will see a huge difference in the drumming from Reed St. Mark. Don’t get me wrong, Steve Priestly was great for whom he was but Reed is just a better drummer.

Juices Like Wine was a track originally off Cold Lake. The song has been re-recorded and is much better than the original. When hearing this, you will seriously doubt that the original version was glam. This is full on thrash with the Vanity/Nemesis vocals.

The Inevitable Factor was from the Into The Pandemonium sessions now available from the re-released ITP album. The song is totally kickass with a gloomy atmosphere featuring a magnificent performance by every band member. Tom Warrior unleashes his tragic vox (gothic moans) and delivers a fine guitar performance with a cool solo. Tom also adds keyboards from the verses. It's just 2 notes but they contribute so much to the gloomy atmosphere. The song would've been bland without it. Martin Ain's bass is cool as well. And who could forget Reed's awesome drum performance? During the first verse the drumming is a bit conservative but on every verse line, Reed delivers a barrage of drums.

The Heart Beneath is from Vanity/Nemesis. Most likely put on this album due to the low sales of Vanity/Nemesis. After all, Celtic Frost lost tons of fans from Cold Lake so many fans decided not to buy Vanity/Nemesis thinking that Celtic Frost can't make quality albums anymore. The Heart Beneath is the opener on Vanity/Nemesis and a solid track.

Cherry Orchards is the radio shortened version of the original Cold Lake track.

Tristesses De La Lune was from Into The Pandemonium. At first I hated this track but now I see the real beauty of it. It's a sad, dark, gothic song with only strings and French female vocals.

Wings Of Solitude is again from Vanity/Nemesis. Solid track with acoustic guitars and lead female vocals. Tom Warrior only sings during the chorus.

The Usurper is the re-recorded version originally only available on the Tragic Serenades EP but now available on the re-release of To Mega Therion. I actually enjoyed the original version more than this but this is still a great song. Tom Warrior struggles a bit with the vocals but he was having problems back in '86. I was always thinking that he had problems with his voice back then which explained the lamer death grunts on Into The Pandemonium. I recently found a German interview with Martin Ain where Martin said that Tom was having problems with his voice and strained it a few times.

Journey Into Fear was from the Emperor's Return sessions. A fiery, fast-paced death/thrash track with lyrics still unknown after all these years. The scream 3:05 in and the great solo are all memorable. This song will leave you screaming JOURNEY INTO FEAR!!!

Downtown Hanoi, like Juices Like Wine, is from Cold Lake but has been re-recorded in '91. Just like the re-recorded Juices Like Wine it’s a solid thrash track although bits of glam can be felt from the slightly cheery atmosphere. The 2 solo's are both experimental pretty much being amp feedback and long sustains.

Circle Of The Tyrants... this track is from the To Mega Therion version. Slightly re-mastered are the only changes done to this classic. It was most likely added because it's their trademark song.

In The Chapel In The Moonlight is a Dean Martin cover originally only available on a rare LP that was limited to 1000 copies. Now it's available on the re-released Into The Pandemonium album. It’s a short, mid-paced thrash song with Martin Ain on backing vocals during the chorus.

I Wont Dance (The Elder's Orient) is the shortened radio version from the original Into The Pandemonium classic.

The Name Of My Bride is from the Vanity/Nemesis album. A solid mid-paced thrash track that would've been perfect on Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion if Tom used death grunts.

Mexican Radio is a '91 studio jam. This is a decent version of this song but the original Into The Pandemonium cover was much better. It starts out with an intro solo and the bass is pretty audible throughout but the chorus is just lame. The part about the barbequed iguana is just awful and stupid. The atmosphere is just too happy.

Under Apollyon's Sun is from the never released Under Apollyon's Sun album. The song has a similar style to Idols Of Chagrin but it has a much darker atmosphere and much better in every way. Sure, Tom Warrior doesn't return to the Into The Pandemonium status but this is still a pretty damn good groove/thrash metal song. Just like Idols Of Chagrin, this track has a moment of brief silence then a brief guitar riff followed by an explosive guitar solo. For once there's a dual solo between Tom Warrior and Curt Victor Bryant but this moment is brief as the second guitar quickly returns to the rhythm riff. The song changes halfway through to an awesome riff with the cool vocal line of "TO LIE! TO CRY! TO DIE!!!" that I've been worshipping daily.

Overall, this is a fantastic album. If you love Celtic Frost, you'll love this. If you're a newcomer to this band, then this'll give you a taste of how much they changed over the years...