A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh

A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh

Celtic Frost

“A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” was the first single and video from Celtic Frost’s highly anticipated 2006 comeback album Monotheist.

True to form, Celtic Frost served up a song full of surprises for their first new record in over thirteen years. “A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” eschews most of the sonic trademarks of the band’s first go-around. The tight, speedy thrash metal guitar and drum patterns, the orchestral instruments, and the wailing female vocal interludes of 1984-1992 are replaced here by a sludgy, detuned, and very dark-sounding dirge that nodded to doom and black metal.

Most unexpectedly, Frost chose to launch their comeback with a song sung almost entirely by bassist Martin Ain, who had contributed no lead vocals on the band’s first five albums. The first two verses feature Ain singing in a clean, melodic tenor over spare guitar arpeggios. As the band cranks up behind him, Ain switches to a demonic-sounding shriek bolstered by some studio (black) wizardry. Only during the pummeling coda does usual frontman Tom G. Warrior show up to rasp and groan the titular refrain until the song’s end.

The song’s title would prove prophetic and ironic; it served as the namesake of the Swiss documentary film “Celtic Frost – A Dying God,” which documented the two-year tour in support of Monotheist, including the intra-band tensions that would lead to Celtic Frost’s breakup at the end of that tour.

(German audio, subtitled in English)