Monotheist

Preparation began in 2000 and the first sessions started at the end of October 2002. The band was the founding members Martin Eric Ain on bass and vocals and Tom Gabriel Fischer on vocals, guitars and keyboards, together with the guitarist and producer Erol Unala, Fischer's long-time songwriting partner, whose part grew as the writing went on. Working titles included Probe and Dark Matter Manifest. Where early Celtic Frost mixed thrash and black metal, this album's sound is generally called hard to define: the songs run from doom metal to blackened thrash to gothic and symphonic metal, and the result is varied but consistently dark. Don Kaye of Blabbermouth described it as "a monstrously heavy and oppressive slab of metal" venturing "into even heavier, blacker territory" than before. Adrien Begrand of PopMatters called it near a masterpiece of "brutally heavy" metal "completely devoid of light", and Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic pointed to the "instantaneously infectious melody" of "A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh" and the "haunting female voices" duetting with Tom Warrior on "Drown in Ashes". Fischer has said some of the lyrics were influenced by the English occultist Aleister Crowley; "Os Abysmi vel Daath" takes part of the title of one of Crowley's books. A limited digipak added "Temple of Depression", and the LP and the Japanese CD added "Incantation Against You". The running order here is the original's as printed.