WHICH VERSION OF “CIRCLE OF THE TYRANTS” IS THE BEST?

 WHICH VERSION OF “CIRCLE OF THE TYRANTS” IS THE BEST?

“Circle of The Tyrants” is a song by Celtic Frost, originally heard on their 1985 album, “To Mega Therion”. In the years since, there have been a plethora of covers, and I wanted to make a video comparing some of these. Obviously, this is not comprehensive, and everything said in this video are my own opinions. 
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In 2008, the band Bewitched released their cover on “Diabolical Desecration/Ecyclopedia of Evil”. 

I found the cover to be very much in the same note as the original. A faithful cover, I feel like there is a layer of heaviness missing. I suppose that it’s not as “evil” in a way. The cover isn’t bad, though I’m the type of person who likes for covers to do something different, even just a little bit. This version is fun, black metal-y, and quite thrashy. I rate it 3/5 stars.
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In 2003, the band Pro-Pain released their cover on their album “Run For Cover”. I found it to be faithful to the original, and a good listen overall. The solo is good, though the song is not quite that evil, in comparison to the original. The vocals may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy bands like “Burn The Priest”, “Damageplan”, or early 2000’s era metal in general, this cover is for you.  3/5 stars.
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Around the year 2015, a band called Revolt released a cover of the song. I could only find it on youtube. Revolt is a relatively unknown band, coming from Ukraine. The song is good, heavy, though I’m not the biggest fan of the vocals. It reminded me of some sort of fish man bubbling underwater. Not a bad cover though. 3/5 stars.
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Ultraviolence released their cover in 2011, which I came across on youtube. I wanted to include this one because it surprised! The cover seems to be from a live show, and sounds really good! It’s a perfect cover, in the sense of recreating the sound and evil-ness of the original song. I give it a 5/5, for completion points. 
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Mystic Circle has released two covers of “Circle of The Tyrants”, something that I didn’t think that a band could do! But really, what’s stopping any band from covering the same song multiple times through their career? As they improve in talent, and gain better technology to record, it really shouldn’t be surprising that we’d hear multiple versions of the same song. 

The first cover I heard by Mystic Circle was from their 2025 release, “Kriegsgotter MMXXV”. The beginning was a little silly, and I laughed my ass off at first when I heard it. But! This is an amazing cover! I really love how evil it is! They stay true to themselves their style too. I definitely recommend this cover to any Black Metal fan! 5/5 Stars.

Their earlier cover of the song is from “The Bloody Path of God”, released in 2006. I like this version too, as its also faithful to the original. A great cover on its own, though the 2025 version is more evil. 4/5 stars.
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Sunstrike released their cover of “Circle of The Tyrants” in 2024, on the release “Moira”. A good cover overall, it captures the ice wind sound that Tom G. Warrior has with his guitar tone. It stays faithful to the original, though I don’t hear much of a twist from the band’s own style. I’m not the biggest fan of the vocals either. 3/5 stars.
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Morning After released their version of the song in 1999, on their release “Inherit The Aftermath”. A Finnish hardcore band, this cover is actually really good. I’m surprised with how they made it. It’s faster, yet still evil. I really liked this one! 4/5 stars.
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A.O.D released their version in 2001 on the release “AnnoDomini”. It’s an evil but faithful cover that I found to be really good. It’s Black Metal and Thrashy, which surprisingly goes together really well. The song randomly decides to speed up, then slow down, which I hadn’t ever heard a cover do before. Overall, I really liked this one. 4/5 stars.
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Totengott released their cover of the son in 2014. A  Spanish cover band, this cover was uploaded to youtube. I find this one to be great, and in a very similar tone to Trytykon’s sound. Great overall! 5/5.
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Aggression released a cover of the song on their 1986 demo “Live””. This is probably one of the earliest covers of the song, ever. The recording isn’t the best quality, but since this is a Black Metal song, that actually adds to it, not detracts. A good cover, pretty evil, and faithful to the original. 3/5 stars.
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Cremator released their cover of the song on their 2011 demo. An overall good cover, it captures the evil sound from the original. Good for what it is, I think that it’s a great song to have on a demo. 3/5 stars. 
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Opeth created a cover of the song somewhere around the era that they made their album “My Arms, Your Hearse”. The cover was released on the 2000 re-release of the album by Candlight, which is how I originally came across the song. 

I found the cover quite Rock and Roll-y, just like Opeth could be, whil keeping what was once Opeth’s Black Metal sound. I would have given this cover a 5/5, though the fact that they decided to rename the song “Circl of The Tyrant” makes my eyes roll. In the liner notes of the “Candlelight Years” release, it’s stated that Opeth thought that there should just be one tyrant, instead of multiple, because a tyrant wouldn’t allow multiple other tyrants around him, or rule with him. While I see the idea here, it seems to completely miss the point of what Tom G. Warrior wrote in the lyrics. 

The song ends with a theatrical orchestra dramatic, which is in the same note of the original, though this is done in a very Opeth way.

Even through the odd choice of renaming the song, I still give this cover a 4/5 stars, because it’s actually good. 
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Obituary covered the song on their 1990 release, “Cause of Death”. I found this cover to be good, faithful to the original, with the amazing “Grim Reaper” esque vocals by John Tardy adding a “zombie” feel to it overall. I think that this is a really great cover, and they stayed true to the original, while adding the “Obituary Touch”. It’s got that sludgy zombie movie sound, that I love so much about this band. I give this cover 4/5 stars, only because I wish that they made their version of the song more evil. It’s not bad, it just needs to be more evil! I know that this was pretty early in their career, so I imagine if they were to re-record it today, it’d be a 5/5 cover.
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And finally, there is a version covered by Triptykon on their 2012 EP “Shatter”. I mean, it’s Tom G. Warrior playing his own song! I think this rendition is great, though of course, it’s a live recording; because of this, I crave a studio rendition of this song by the Triptykon gang! I think that if they made a studio recording of the song on whatever their next release is, it would be the most evil version of all. 4/5 stars.
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Out of all the songs mentioned, there are two that stick out most to me. I personally find the covers by Obituary and Mystic Circle to stick out the most. They are fun to listen to, and among the releases created in their own respective styles.

Video: 

https://youtu.be/65XT2odgsM8