Cold Lake is the title to the very unpopular album by Celtic Frost. After a disheartening end to their "One In Their Pride" tour in Dallas, Texas, Thomas G. Warrior decided to end the band. Though in mid 1988, to the request of Oliver Amberg and support of producer Tony Platt, the band was resurrected, though with an entirely new line-up (Oliver Amber-Guitars, Curt Victor Bryant-Bass, Stephen Preistly-Additional Vocals). Even though the project had the cooperation of Warrior, he held little interest in it and so allowed Amberg to do the major body of composition. The album was released in 1989 and received hugely negative reviews by critics and the band was labeled a sell-out by its core fanbase. The music was changed to sound much more like glam rock such as Mötley Crüe (a popular style at at the time) than that of the hardcore underground pre-black metal sound that defined the band (and its early incarnation, Hellhammer).

Track list:

"Intro-Human II"

"Seduce Me Tonight"

"Petty Obsession"

"(Once) They Were Eagles"

"Cherry Orchards"

"Juices Like Wine"

"Little Velvet"

"Blood On Kisses"

"Downtown Hanoi"

"Dance Sleazy"

"Roses Without Thorns"

"Tease Me"

"Mexican Radio (New Version)"

Needless today, Amberg was quickly fired after the release of the album. When the band re-issued its back catalogue in 1999, they purposely left this one out. It does sell for as much as $70 dollars but only for collectors. Some of the tracks appear on their compilation album Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying in a different, heavier mix that Tom Warrior supervised.

From celticfrost.com, Tom Warrior had this to say about Cold Lake: "I was too eagler to simply have a good time age, I was too happy too have new musicians who actually wanted to write and who didn't leave me with the immense burden of writing and producing the entire album (as it had been for the first three Celtic Frost albums). I therefore loosened control (of material and quality) too much. And I was too glad to let the darkness go - right down to the band's image. The original comcept for Cold Lake as outlined was now taking on its own dynamics and our focus became totally out of control. What was going to be a far more melodic (commercial) album by the original line-up became an overblown steam release valve for past frustrations, recorded by new musicians who didn't yet understand the legacy of Celtic Frost. Tony Platt's faulty production and the hefty disagreements we had with us contributed to this. The mistakes are countless. Just two here: we didn't let go of Tony because we wanted a major name attached to the album - after all, that was what Celtic Frost always requested from Noise Records and had never gotten. Now it was possible. And Celtic Frost's traditional complete ignorance of what was appropriate now backfired when we did Cold Lake in this totally inappropriate way."