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celtic frost
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - December 16, 2000

Formed from the ashes of black/death metal band Hellhammer in 1984, the Swiss based Celtic Frost were a pivotal influence on the death, black, speed, and gloom metal genres, pioneering many of the musical styles and avant-garde elements that have since become synonymous with bands like Sepultura, Emperor, Dark Funeral, and Enslaved.

The primal 'Berserker' fury captured in the early 'Morbid Tales' EP (1984) and 'Emperor's Return' (1985) have been widely emulated and are cited as influences on such recordings as Nirvana's 'In Utero' (1993). Co-founder Tom G. Warrior (Thomas Gabriel Fischer) and bassist Martin Eric Ain created stark and compelling vistas reminiscent of the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, and Charles Baudelaire. Warrior's trade-mark Nordic warrior death grunts and primitive 'wall of sound' sonic assault immediately made Celtic Frost one of the leaders of extreme metal, as influential as the more tongue-in-cheek Venom. Lyrically, Warrior and Ain depicted civilizations crumbling into decay, capturing the 'Autumn/Winter' phases of Oswald Spengler's 'Decline of the West' (1918) cosmology.

The follow-up album 'To Mega Therion' (1986) progressed from blitzkrieg fury to orchestral doom-laden instrumentals. Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger's friendship yielded visually brooding counterparts to Warrior's artistic vision, with 'Satan I' (1977) gracing the cover, and 'Victory III' (1981-83), the gatefold sleeve.

The 'Tragic Serenades' EP (1986) and successful tour set the stage for the landmark experimental album 'Into the Pandemonium' (1987), regarded as the band's most controversial release. Fans were unprepared for Goth/New Wave vocals; dance fusions ('One In Their Pride'); melodic metal ('I Won't Dance'), and bombastic orchestral pieces ('Rex Irae' and 'Oriental Masquerade'). Foreshadowing complex neo-classical metal artists like My Dying Bride and Apocalyptica, the album received strong critical reviews, but the original line-up disintegrated in 1987 under immense pressure. Ain and drummer Reed St. Mark left, replaced with a new line-up that Warrior later found unsuited to Celtic Frost's conceptual vision. Warrior spent eighteen months fighting record company Noise International, who tampered with the album, for subsequent artistic freedom and integrity.

Failing to complete his magical trilogy with the promised 'Necronomicon' album, Warrior instead released the dismal glam rock album 'Cold Lake' (1988), and the complex melodic metal album 'Vanity/Nemesis' (1990). The first virtually alienated Celtic Frost's fans, whilst the latter - regarded as a strong comeback album featuring Ain returning to the fold - was considered too avant-garde for MTV airplay, sabotaging the potential mainstream appeal of David Bowie ('Heroes') and Bryan Ferry ('This Island Earth') covers. Promising with double album 'Under Apollyon's Sun' to return to earlier visions, Warrior suddenly ended Celtic Frost in 1992, releasing the excellent career retrospective 'Parched With Thirst Am I And Dying' (1992) instead.

Several bands evolved from the ashes of Celtic Frost: guitarist Ron Marks founded the satirical 'Subsonic,' and Warrior (reverting to his surname Fischer) founded the highly regarded 'Appollyon Sun,' which continues his unique personal vision. Considered the 'elder statesman' of innovative Euro-metal, Fischer has seen his uncompromising conceptual framework and intricate instrumental orchestration blossom into many cutting-edge genres.

Suddenly in August 1999, long lost master-tapes that had been stolen by producer Horst Muller were re-discovered, including the original mixes from 'Emperor's Return' which have never been heard publicly. Thomas Gabriel Warrior is currently in Berlin, overseeing the re-construction, re-mastering and forthcoming release of the first three albums (scheduled for late October 1999), which will also feature the original conceptual packaging or lyrics. Shimmering twilight darkness beckons again . . .

BNR Metal Pages: Celtic Frost
Short essay placing Celtic Frost within the context of 1980s heavy metal, and describing their influence on the occult/black metal genre. Also features line-up personnel and album information.

Celtic Frost: The Black Metal Band
Brief tribute to Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, with band logo and discography information.

Celtic Frost
Discography, track-listing, and links to the Apollyon Sun web-site. Voting comments convey fan impressions of Celtic Frost's varied musical output.

Marcus Karlsson's Page Of Black & Doom Metal
Brief reviews by Marcus Karlsson of the classic Celtic Frost 'Morbid Tales' EP (1985), and the earlier Hellhammer 'Apocalyptic Raids' (1984) and 'Satanic Rites' EPs. Karlsson suggests that Thomas Gabriel Fischer was more influenced by the brooding Black Sabbath than the trasy KISS. Snap-shot of Fischer's seminal influence on death, black, and gloom metal bands.

Celtic Frost Tribute Page
Brief Celtic Frost fan-page with rare early photos showing the band's brooding gothic/doom/death metal style and striking neo-Viking warrior imagery.

Black Metal: Celtic Frost
Online mail-order service handling Celtic Frost albums and bootlegs. Also check-out the 'Master/Slave Relationship' page under 'Label Spotlite', and the very funny 'Asshole Ripoffs' page which exposes failed sonic grifters.

Noise Records: Hellhammer
Bare-bones info on the predecessor to Celtic Frost: the biography consists of comments from Thomas Gabriel Fischer in 1990. Excellent comments, but the record company could have done far more to honour Hellhammer's musical legacy than this!

Celtic Frost: Satan Stole My Teddy-bear
Reviews and album covers for the Celtic Frost collection. The reviewer comments regarding each album's unique musical elements and influence on the black, death, and gloom metal scene are accurate, and convey grass-roots reactions to Thomas Gabriel Fischer's avant-garde sonic experiments.

Subsonic
Official web-site of the splinter project formed by former Celtic Frost lead guitarist Ron Marks, with a cutting satirical edge and a wide array of stylistic influences. This site features merchandise, recordings, and a brief interview/biography of Marks. Expect hip-hop songs mocking redneck bigotry and stupidity; anti-fundamentalist religion rants; and a merciless demolishing of music industry superstar John Tesh.

Noise Records Europe
Official web-site for Celtic Frost's former record label. 'Our Bands' feature basic album and line-up information, with links to rare arhival reviews. 'Listening Post' features RealAudio files from the first two albums for download in 14.4k, 28.8k, and ISDN. Slick site that heavily promotes new bands without hinting at the feuds between Celtic Frost and Noise Records personnel.

Homage To Celtic Frost
A huge very well designed (but graphic intensive) Celtic Frost site including biographies, rare reviews and interviews, archive photos, equipment lists, bootleg and unreleased track analysis, tour anecdotes, and fan homages. Celtic Frost co-founder and frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer regularly sends commentaries on historical issues, and the site's content has many fundamental insights not found elsewhere such as insider coverage of a 1998 New York City reunion. Fischer claims that this is one of the 'official' Celtic Frost web-sites. Definately the most up-to-date and reliable. Editor 'R.U. Morbid' is rumoured to be the long-lost Altamont love-childe of 'Mondo 2000' editor R.U. Sirius.

Apollyon Sun
Based in Zurich, Switzerland, and founded in 1994, Thomas Gabriel Fischer's new avant garde project Apollyon Sun draws upon the twin legacies of Celtic Frost and Coroner, creating post-apocalyptic dub soundscapes that defy traditional genres or musicological analysis. This slick site features direct updates from the band, streaming RealAudio files from the 1998 EP 'God Leaves (And Dies)' and 1999 album 'Sub', merchandise, and stunning visual imagery. Well worth checking out!

The Official World Of H.R. Giger
Known for his distinctive 'bio-mechanoid' designs for Alien (1979), Poltergeist II (1986), Alien III (1990), and Species (1996), Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger was friends with Celtic Frost, and his paintings 'Satan I' (1977) and 'Victory III' (1981-83) featured prominently in the seminal album 'To Mega Therion' (1985). Giger's friendship and chthonic conceptual vision featured throughout this web-site is the visual counter-part to Celtic Frost's early music. This relationship conveyed a formidable pact between magicians exploring the never-ending spiral vistas of the Deep Self.

The Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Apollyon Sun Mailing List
Definitive mailing and trade list for Celtic Frost fans! Includes links and member-only interview and soundfile areas. Useful for maintaining worldwide contacts with grass-roots fans.

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