To Mega Therion is the first full-length studio album by Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, released in October 1985 through Noise Records. The cover artwork is a painting by H. R. Giger titled Satan I. "To Mega Therion" translates to the great beast in Greek.

Reception

Ned Raggett in his review for AllMusic wrote, "The bombastic 'Innocence and Wrath' starts To Mega Therion off on just the appropriate note – Wagnerian horn lines, booming drums, and a slow crunch toward apocalypse. ... With that setting the tone, it is into the maddeningly wild and woolly Celtic Frost universe full bore, Warrior roaring out his vocals with glee and a wicked smile while never resorting to self-parodic castrato wails. 'The Usurper' alone is worth the price of admission, an awesome display of Warrior's knack around brute power and unexpectedly memorable riffs." According to Raggett, "other prime cuts" include "Circle of the Tyrants", "Dawn of Megiddo", "Tears in a Prophet's Dream", "Eternal Summer" and "Necromantical Screams". Raggett concludes his review by stating that the album "is and remains death metal at its finest".

Legacy

The album was a major influence on the then-developing death metal and black metal genres. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considers the album "a black metal landmark" and "the most consistent example of early death metal that exists". He remarks how "the band had decided to delve more into the extreme" and praised Tom Warrior's "surprisingly accomplished" lyrics and the mix of death, black and doom metal with a pinch of ambient music. Decibel magazine ranked To Mega Therion #21 in their "Decibel Thrash Top 50" list. Writer Nick Green praises both its "purer" thrash metal tracks such as "Circle of the Tyrants" and the experimental edge of "Necromantical Screams."

Track listing

All songs written by Tom G. Warrior, except where noted.

Personnel