Celtic Frost - Into The Crypts Of Rays

Quick, name your favourite band. Metal or metal adjacent, obviously – this set up doesn’t quite work if your answer to that question is Backstreet Boys. Though, now I think about it, where else could they have gotten their layered harmonies and synchronised dance moves if not from late 80s blackened doom metal? The answer is quite literally anywhere else.

Now, if your answer to the first question was any metal act formed after 1984 then congratulations, we’ve got a song that most probably inspired them to pick up their instruments this week. Celtic Frost are certifiable legends of the game, the rolling Swiss juggernaut that scooped up band members and spat out classics. While the second period of their existence was widely, let’s say not enjoyed as much to be polite, they had two separate runs as a band that could be classified as genre-defining and are in the thank you section of more album liners than vocalists’ dogs. One of the great joys of the band, besides their iconic extreme metal status, was figuring out what the hell they were going to do next. From thrash to black metal, to doom and their, ahem, radio friendly return in 1988, there was very little in the way of styles that Celtic Frost wouldn’t touch. 

With all that said, we are going back to the good stuff that started it all this week. It’s time to bow down and pay homage to “Into the Crypts of Rays”, a whirlwind three and a half minutes of some of the best and speediest black metal that ever graced the ears of the general public. Depending on when you first heard Celtic Frost will massively determine your overall opinion of them, yes, but there’s little to no chance you can listen to this and not destroy all the muscles in your neck slamming along. Just don’t bill us for the hospital visit; we’ve basically got one neck between all of us left here in the office.