YMMV / Celtic Frost

• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • The most die-hard Celtic Frost fans can't stand up for Cold Lake.
  • Even those that champion Cold Lake, refuse to defend the Prototype demo. This includes Tom G Warrior, who has tried to at least explain why Cold Lake was even made to begin with (he had just come out of a grueling battle with his record company and "was all to willing to let the darkness go, all the way up to the music.") He's made no such attempt for Prototype.
• Awesome Music: To Mega Therion in its entirety, particularly "Circle of the Tyrants".
  • Monotheist is this, as well as a meta example of Moment of Awesome, being considered by many as a triumph return and redemption from the abysmal Cold Lake
• Complete Monster: "Into the Crypts of Rays": Gilles de Rais was a French marshal who fought alongside Jeanne D'Arc as her personal guard. A rich nobleman, Gilles found himself deep in debt after squandering his wealth on lavish living, resorting to dabbling in mysticism and the occult to increase his riches. Gilles enticed several children into partaking in his black masses where he sexually abused and sacrificed them to different demons. Gilles took sadistic delight in snuffing out the lives of his 140 victims.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Anyone in the black and death metal communities will tell you this: it is pronounced keltic, not seltic.
• Gateway Series: Celtic Frost is probably one of the most common gateway band into black metal, particularly among thrash listeners, as they, along with Bathory, early Sodom, Venom, Hellhammer, etc. are part of first-wave black metal. They have also gotten many people into death metal.
• Memetic Mutation: UGH!!!, Tom G. Warrior's signature scream. May reach Narm Charm.
  • "Cold Lake was a time when Tom G. Warrior was happy."
• Narm: Cold Lake, in all its hated glory is this for fans, due to the band trying very hard to become glam metal, with hilarious results.
  • The demo Prototype is all of this, especially the infamous "Hip Hop Jugend", which one commentator said it sounded like a "rejected Rammstein song".
• Narm Charm: Their early material can be this by today's standards. Between Tom's Large Ham vocals and the band's over the top Sword and Sorcery aesthetic, the whole thing can come off as being a little ridiculous. That doesn't change the fact that it fucking rules.
• Nightmare Fuel: The music video for "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh."
  • Actually, Monotheist in general is this trope.
    • Considering that Monotheist surpasses the Darker and Edgier aspect, especially with "Triptych" piece. Brr...
  • "Tears in a Prophet's Dream", a Mind Screw instrumental track on To Mega Therion.
• Periphery Demographic: They are massively popular among fans of Hardcore Punk and were a gigantic influence as a whole, particularly on beatdown acts. Hatebreed, in particular, was so heavily influenced by them that Jamey Jasta regularly referred to them as "Celtic Frost hardcore" to describe their style.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Compare the main riff of "Cherry Orchards" to the opening riff of "Seek and Destroy".
  • For that matter, the riff from "Dethroned Emperor" to the one from "Am I Evil?".
• Tear Jerker: While their early records were "dark" in a more silly fashion, Monotheist encapsulates a more genuinely grim tone. "Drown in Ashes", "Obscured", "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh" (Also Nightmare Fuel) and the final part of the triptych "Winter" all deserve note.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Cold Lake, big time.
• Vindicated by History: A minor case, but Cold Lake, while still Celtic Frost's least popular album by a large margin, has since started to be viewed as So Okay, It's Average as opposed to the universal hatred it when it was first released, with reviewers pointing out that if you look at it in a vacuum, rather than try to compare it to the band's regular sound, it's a pretty decent Hair Metal album.
• Win Back the Crowd: Monotheist got this for many fans, especially for those who feel it was a perfect close for Celtic Frost.