Radical Research Podcast

Storming the gates with a new wave cover tune, borrowing from Baudelaire and sampling from NASA Apollo transmissions over primitive machine pulses, Swiss pioneers Celtic Frost exploited terrain no metal band had before with their third full-length album. Created under constant stress and duress in the early months of 1987, the self-produced album was a bold, controversial piece of art that continues to divide the Frost fan base decades later. Irrational yet focused, phantasmagoric yet genuine, and depicting a Heavenly sort of Hell, Into the Pandemonium knots together opposing forces and plunges us into the abode of all demons. Playful, mischievous, path-finding demons… Note I: “Babylon Fell,” “Caress Into Oblivion” and “I Won’t Dance” are subtitled on some version of Into the Pandemonium thusly, parenthetically, and respectively: “Jade Serpent,” “Jade Serpent II” and “The Elders’ Orient.” Note II: Jeff misspoke slightly. The correct title of the Hieronymous Bosch painting that the band used for the album c