I think my first exposures to Celtic Frost in any capacity were the video clips on the old Noise Rec. VHS compilations, but I'm fairly certain "Mesmerized" (on the Doomsday News compilation) from this album was the first Frost I ever owned on CD format. It definitely wasn't as cool as the "Circle of the Tyrants" video, but we'll get to that shortly. Despite that single song being early in my metal history, I ironically didn't hear the album in its entirety until after everything else in their original run (and nope, haven't heard Monotheist yet) because I just never saw it for sale anywhere.
It's not my favorite, but I don't really mind most of the avant-garde experimentation on this album. Considering this was from 1987, the strings and symphonic elements are integrated quite well, and I personally find "Oriental Masquerade" to be one of metal's standout outro tracks. "Babylon Fell," "Caress into Oblivion," and "Sorrows of the Moon" all seem like fairly natural progressions from the To Mega Therion sound into more experimental and atmospheric territory. The "Mexican Radio" cover is pretty fun. But there's one thing that helps to kill a lot of potential enjoyment I would get from the album.
Those crap vocals.
Yes, when I heard "Mesmerized" all those years ago, I thought the semi-moaned, heavily-accented gothic crooning was goofy, and whenever it pops up on the whole album, I still feel the same. Even when they're restricted to a fairly short section, like in "Babylon Fell," they help spoil the entire track with their corniness. That's why "Inner Sanctum" is my favorite track from the album, because it's free of those silly moanings. It's also fairly thrashy and even hints at the sound of some of the Vanity/Nemesis material.
So yeah, even as a die-hard Emperor's Return fan, I don't think the album is terrible so much as it is the victim of a very poor artistic decision in that one vocal style. I can completely understand people who think Cold Lake is a better album--I definitely thought so myself, although I haven't listened to Cold Lake in its entirety for years, so my views may very well have softened. Plus, those weird vocals aside, the more straightforward sections are quite good. The guitar sound is a little subdued and obviously better-produced from the earlier material, but the classic Frost tone is still there in some form.
Should also add while this album is often invoked as a groundbreaking influence on the more experimental and weird fringes of metal, which are largely irrelevant to my listening preferences, I don't think this album gets quite as much credit for its influence on the symphonic/atmospheric doom/death scene. I have vague memories of hearing My Dying Bride for the first time, and the juxtaposition of the heavy riffs and the violin immediately made me think of Into the Pandemonium and the influence it must have been on them.
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