Celtic Frost

Celtic Frost
The classic Celtic Frost lineup circa 2006.
Background information
Origin	Zurich, Switzerland
Genres	Extreme Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Avant-Garde, Doom Metal
Years active	1984 - 1987, 1988 - 1993, 2001 - 2008
Labels	Noise Records, Century Media, Prowling Death Records
Associated acts	Hellhammer, Grave Hill, Apollyon Sun, Triumph of Death, Niryth, Mind Funk, Triptykon, Tar Pond, Oath of Cranes
Website	Celtic Frost Official
Band Logo

Celtic Frost was a Swiss extreme metal band originating from Zürich. Formed in the wake of Hellhammer circa 1984, Celtic Frost managed to compose five studio albums in their original run. Celtic Frost would re-form in 2001 and compose one more album in 2006 before permanently disbanding in 2008. The band was inspired by metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom as well as gothic rock groups like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Christian Death and by the hardcore punk of Discharge.

Celtic Frost is also notable for their influence on the whole of underground and extreme metal. While commonly cited as an extreme metal band their sound is fairly wide-ranged, often evoking elements of black metal, death metal, thrash metal and classical. The band's sound in their second run was more in the vein of blackened doom metal. Early works such as Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion would harbor an influence on the then-developing death metal and black metal genres. Notably the band's third album Into The Pandemonium would lead certain journalists to describe the band as "avant-garde metal". The band's influence can also be felt on not just black and death metal but also doom metal, with Electric Wizard, Acid Witch, 13, Apostle of Solitude, High on Fire, Temple of Void, Gallhammer and Totengott among many others citing Celtic Frost as an influence.

History

Visions of Mortality: Morbid Tales and the Formation of Celtic Frost (1984)

Prior to the formation of Celtic Frost, the band's guitarist and singer Thomas Gabriel Fischer would adopt the stage name of Tom G. Warrior. With Steve Warrior on bass, this duo would form Hellhammer in 1982. This band is often regarded as one of the first extreme metal acts and an early prototype of black metal and death metal, eventually achieving a small cult fanbase early on. The band would get signed to German label Noise Records and released Apocalyptic Raids in March 1984. However the band was harshly criticized by many publications such as Metal Forces, Rock Power and Kerrang! among others who were skeptical of this band, Rock Power in particular calling it "the most terrible, abhorrent and atrocious thing "musicians" were ever allowed to record". Fischer confirmed this in his first book, stating they were "receiving miserable reviews everywhere". In the booklet for the reissued Apocalyptic Raids 1990 A.D., Fischer would state that this would linger on his new band in the following:

“	“Way back in 1984 and 85, when Martin Eric Ain and I recorded Celtic Frost's first two albums Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion, Hellhammer lasted on us almost like a curse. Even though Hellhammer was the very reason we had thought over our goals and conceived the Frost, HH's left-overs kept being mighty rocks in our way. Many voices saw Frost as the same band with just a name-change. The lack of musical quality in HH made it almost impossible for us to get an unbiased reaction for Frost. To make a long story short, it almost killed all our work and dreams.”	”
	— Thomas Gabriel Fischer,

Steve Warrior had been replaced by former Schizo bassist Martin Eric Ain, a change which marked the beginning of a serious and radical transformation in the band's music and lyrics. These changes were ultimately responsible for Fischer's and Ain's increasing perception of being limited within the confines of the purposely primitive Hellhammer vehicle. On May 31, 1984, Hellhammer disbanded, and on June 1 changed its name to Celtic Frost. Fischer, Ain and session drummer Stephen Preistly would rehearse over the next several months and record their debut in October. Morbid Tales was released in November 1984 and was a hit in the underground metal scene. Initially a mini-LP but with two tracks from the Metal Attack Vol. 1 compilation it is considered to be the band's first album. In the spring the band would recruit a new drummer in Reed St. Mark, from New York. The band would record three songs and integrate them with the Metal Attack songs to compose the Emperor's Return EP, released 15 August 1985.

After making an appearance on the Swiss-German television program DRS that April, Celtic Frost would perform live for the first time on 17 May 1985 at Grabenhalle in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The band would tour for the first time that summer, performing in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

In an interview with Louder Sound, Fischer would detail the formation of Celtic Frost and the making of Morbid Tales in an article where every full-length is spoken in detail:

“	“When me and Martin [Eric Ain, guitarist] formed Celtic Frost in the night of May 31 to June 1 of 1984, we sat down that night and we wrote down a very detailed framework of how we wanted the new band to be. We loved the heaviness of Hellhammer and we wanted to retain that, but on top of that we wanted to add much more sophistication and we wanted to have a band that accepts no limits musically or artistically. We didn’t want to be tied down by some clichés or scene conventions. Another factor that was really important, by that time the American metal wave was hitting Europe, and the bands that came from America were incredibly sophisticated in their playing. We knew we could never match that, but we still knew that we would have to compete with them and we knew we had to make an incredible effort to lift Morbid Tales technically beyond what Hellhammer had achieved. And all of these elements are crucial in understanding why Morbid Tales sounds the way it does compared to the Hellhammer EP that was recorded only a handful of months before. We wanted to have a band that would develop tremendously in between the albums. We were complete nobodies at the time. We were ridiculed by the media, and to think that the album we created in this situation became an album, that, 30-odd years later is still being played, that’s an immense honour for two complete outcast kids from Switzerland.”	”
	— Thomas Gabriel Fischer, Louder Sound

Circle of The Tyrants: To Mega Therion and Into The Pandemonium (1985 - 1987)

Work would begin on a second studio album but before the album could be recorded Martin Eric Ain would leave the group due to personal conflicts, forcing the band to utilize a session bassist in Dominic Steiner. Recording that September, To Mega Therion would be released on 27 October 1985. Featuring artwork by H.R. Giger ("Satan I") it would be widely praised in the underground metal circles and is considered a major influence on the death and black metal genres. Ain would return to the band after the album was recorded in time for a string of shows in Canada, including their appearance at the "World War III" Festival (With Possessed, Nasty Savage, Destruction and Voivod.). Ain would state later on in the documentary "A Dying God" that the biggest regret of his career was not being involved in the recording of To Mega Therion.

The band would record in early 1986 with Ain again. The intent was to record new bass lines on all of To Mega Therion but ultimately costs only allowed two tracks along with a bonus re-recording of "Return To The Eve", ultimately composing the Tragic Serenades EP. Celtic Frost would tour Germany with Helloween and Grave Digger before touring North America for the first time with Running Wild and Voivod. Notably on the last date of the tour would be at The Ritz in New York City on 14 July 1986. This would be part of the New Music Seminar alongside D.O.A., Nuclear Assault, Rogue Male, MDC and Samhain (In what was notably their last live performance of their original run.).

The first four months of 1987 would be spent working on their third studio album, drawing not just from metal but influences of classical, 70s prog and new wave. During the sessions rehearsals would begin as word was out of an impromptu February tour with Anthrax, against the band's wishes. However on 1 June 1987 Into The Pandemonium was released. A far departure from their extreme metal motif as this album featured a cover of "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo, emotionally charged love songs, an EBM-inspired song in "One In Their Pride" along with elements of industrial, classical music and gothic rock. Some critics would coin them as "avant-garde metal", a motif that has stuck ever since. However tensions behind the scenes mounted, especially between Noise Records owner Karl-Ulrich Walterbach and Fischer over pay (The record allegedly sold 120,000 units worldwide) just to scratch the surface.

A second guitarist in Ron Marks would be added to "beef up the sound" as Celtic Frost would tour Europe in October with Kreator and Virus, followed by a North American tour with Anthrax and Exodus. Tensions also mounted between the band with Fischer stating to the audience on 19 December 1987 at the Bronco Bowl Auditorium in Dallas, Texas that this would be the final Celtic Frost concert.

In various interviews for the book Damn The Machine: The Story of Noise Records the members of Celtic Frost and various associates would go into details on the mounting tensions that year. Fischer would state that Noise Records was "not the springboard that it was or could have remained but the hinderer" and that the label "destroyed the band in 1987". Reed St. Mark and Ron Marks would also detail the problems they had on the road on that infamous tour:

“	“Karl was giving us per diems to live on. He quit sending them and we're dying. We're starving. I remember Tom gets on the phone, calls Noise: 'Hey, this thing is two weeks past. We're starving. Send the money.' They hung up on him. That's where the relationship was. Karl literally didn't care if we starved to death, and my thought was, "Hey, this isn't about rock and roll or music. This is about people." It was ridiculous. We were so hammered mentally and just beaten like dogs at that point. By the end of the tour, it was pretty rough. Nobody took it out on each other. Even if you felt like doing it, you walked away. Nobody got in my face; I didn't get in anybody's face. By that time, nobody was thinking of the next album. I had two quarters in my pocket and a plane ticket to Pittsburgh. I was thinking about eating and sleeping and taking a shower and being a human being again. It's not like I quit or anybody quit. We owed money on the bus, and they were getting up our ass about that. Reed took his girlfriend and went to New York and did his thing. My departure wasn't abrupt. Tom, Martin, and I sat on the tour bus before I left to go home, so it wasn't like I left on bad terms. Everybody was just looking at the floor going, "Holy fuck."”	”
	— Ron Marks, Vice

“	“I was really homesick. I'm an American. Those guys are Swiss. Ron was from Pennsylvania and he's a country guy. I'm from New York — you know, "Go fuck yourself.". I was overconfident and I had no right to be. Tom is always on the verge of being in a really horrible mood and it's contagious — quick. If he's miserable, he makes sure everyone around him is. It's a combination of Tom and myself; we were barely talking to each other. Which is not what we were; we were close. We were roommates. It was stressful from the business end and I had to take my share of the blame. I was probably difficult to get along with. I was aloof. Overconfident. I wasn't loud confident. I was quiet confident.”	”
	— Reed St. Mark, Vice

Cold Lake, Vanity/Nemesis and Breakup (1988 - 1993)

Five months after the band's ill-fated One In Their Pride tour, Celtic Frost would rehearse for new material, minus Ron Marks. The next month Warrior would form a new lineup of the band with Stephen Priestly back on drums, Oliver Amberg on guitars and Curt Victor Bryant on bass. The band would record over the next several months with big-name producer Tony Platt, eventually revealing their fourth album Cold Lake on 1 September 1988 via Noise Records. The band's sound would deviate into more of a traditional heavy metal sound with a vague semblance of the extreme sound the band established. Notably the band adopted more of a "glam" look to appeal to the rising popularity of glam metal at the time.

Celtic Frost would tour Europe and the United States the next year from February to April. Cold Lake was ultimately slammed by music critics at the time and the band would be labeled a sell-out. Amberg would be fired not long after the tour. Retroactively some critics have been more positive to the album such as Decibel. However, Fischer has referred to it as "the absolute lower limit of whatever can come from my mind" and in his opinion "the worst album ever created in heavy music". Commonly in recent times the album is referred to by Fischer as "The Abomination", even listed as such on his discography.

Recording would begin on a fifth album in the summer of 1989, with Ron Marks joining in the sessions. Eventually Martin Eric Ain would return to the band for a portion of the sessions. Vanity/Nemesis would be released on 11 April 1990 and while seen as a return to form by fans and some critics, would ultimately be panned by contemporaries at the time. Celtic Frost would tour that April and May in support of the album, with the band's last show of the tour on 29 May at the Assembly Room in Darby, England. Though not known at the time this would be the band's final performance until 2006.

In the fall of 1991 the band would record a handful of demos and include two of those new tracks on a compilation album entitled Parched With Thirst Am I And Dying, released in 1992. In the meantime Reed St. Mark would join the band for demo sessions, this demo being referred to as Nemesis of Power. A sixth album was planned entitled Under Apollyon's Sun but before anything could be finished the band would dissolve in 1993. Curt Victor Bryant would join the metal band Doomsday while Reed St. Mark would become one of the founding members of Mind Funk.

Some years after Celtic Frost disbanded and with that time away from the music industry completely, Fischer would be invited to contribute to a new project involving a friend of his in Erol Unala. This would lead to the formation of Apollyon Sun, the band's first recording being a cover of "Babylon Fell" for the 1996 tribute album In Memory of Celtic Frost. Unlike Celtic Frost or Hellhammer, Apollyon Sun was more of an industrial metal/trip hop project. The band would release an EP entitled God Leaves (And Dies) on 29 May 1998 and later their only album Sub on 4 April 2000. Apollyon Sun performed on two known occasions (25 August 2000 in Switzerland and 1 September 2000 in London as part of the Gig Week at the Kerrang Awards). Unala and Fischer also contributed the song "Big Sky" to Dave Grohl's metal side project Probot, with the eponymous album being released on 10 February 2004.

Fischer would also spend time working on an autobiography of his career to that point. Released in 2000, Are You Morbid? detailed Hellhammer and the entirety of Celtic Frost's first run, currently holding a 3.74 average on Goodreads. Also of note would be Celtic Frost and Noise Records working together for a series of reissues in 1999 with re-mastered audio and bonus tracks (With the exception of Cold Lake, which was omitted entirely.).

Monotheist and The Death of Celtic Frost (2001 - 2008)

In 2001 Fischer and Unala had recorded several songs for a second Apollyon Sun album entitled Flesh. However plans would change when Fischer and Ain would begin writing music together again. Unala would be invited to join a newly formed Celtic Frost as work would begin on a sixth album. Preparation and development work for this new album had begun as far as 2000, with the possibility of releasing the album that year under the title "Probe" or "Resurgam" (With a later tentative title being "Dark Matter Manifest"). The band at this point intended to recruit Ron Marks and Reed St. Mark into the lineup along with founding members Tom Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain.

Celtic Frost would recruit a new drummer in Franco Sesa (NunFuckRitual) and eventually compose a private demo in 2002 entitled Prototype. Notably this demo featured leftover songs from the Flesh sessions and a cover of "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles. Many fragments of the songs in this project would be worked into the band's next album (And even later in Triptykon's debut album) though some observers have slammed this demo for it's nu-metal sound.

The aim was to develop and record a new, very dark and heavy album. The completion of the project took far longer than anticipated in part due to the DIY nature of the project and the project's financing done entirely by the band. The band also rebooted the Prowling Death Records label and formed a publishing imprint in Diktatur des Kapitals to maintain complete control over their own music. Celtic Frost would sign a worldwide licensing deal with Century Media through Prowling Death to maintain complete creative control on the musical aspect. The announcement of signing to the label was on 18 January 2006 with a May release set for their first album in sixteen years. A month later on 18 February 2006, Erol Unala would leave the band. Developing a sound that mixes black metal, doom metal and gothic metal along with other musical elements, Monotheist would be released on 29 May 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. In an interview with Louder Sound, Fischer would speak in detail on the culmination of the album based on artistic merit and the "spark" to close out their career on a high note:

“	“Celtic Frost eventually dissolved in the early 1990s and I think both Martin and I felt that on the one hand we didn’t want to have anything to do with Celtic Frost at the time because of the way that it ended, but at the same time, given that these last two albums of Celtic Frost were such failures, we always felt that not everything had been said. We always said, this cannot be how Celtic Frost ends. I think we always carried that little spark in ourselves. We always knew that one day we would probably have to talk about it, whether it should be the end or whether we should attempt to resurrect that. But we weren’t in the mood throughout the 1990s, and that was a good thing. We received sometimes incredibly lucrative offers to reform the band for certain festivals. There was this one offer particularly that was monstrously big, and Martin and I talked about it and we decided we were not going to reform Celtic Frost for money. If we ever reform it, it has to be for artistic reasons, and I’m very proud we did this. So we waited a few more years, but eventually in 2001 we met for dinner in Zürich, and we just said, look, we have to attempt at least to provide some kind of artistic conclusion to Celtic Frost that is worth the name. That’s really when Monotheist became a reality from having been in the back of our minds as a concept for many years, but that’s when it became a reality. “It’s the album that should have followed Into The Pandemonium really. To me it’s different from the other Celtic Frost albums, but then every album is different to the other Celtic Frost albums, that is why it’s a Celtic Frost album. And to me, Monotheist counts as one of the important Celtic Frost albums. To me, there are four albums that Celtic Frost did that are crucial to the band’s history and those are the first three and Monotheist. And I’m extremely glad that we have the guts to do this and we had the patience to work for five-and-a-half years on that album to make it right.”	”
	— Thomas Gabriel Fischer, Louder Sound

Leading up to Monotheist's release the band began to announce tour dates, the first date in question being a headlining slot at Wacken Open Air on 4 August 2006. More dates would be announced with Celtic Frost's first live performance of the Monotheist tour (And first live performances since 1990.) would be on 29 May 2006 at Remise in Wil, Switzerland, the same day as the release of Monotheist. On 15 September 2006, Century Media released a music video for "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh".

What would follow would be the band's most extensive touring cycle of their entire career, with over 120 shows spanning over the course of two years. Even more notable is the band managing to perform more live shows in these two years than in the entirety of their initial run. Along with the European tour in 2006 including multiple festival dates were tours of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and two days in Mexico, which would prove to be the band's final shows (Though not known at the time). Anders Odden would perform as a live guitarist for the 2006 tour dates while V. Santura (Real name Victor Bullok) would perform as the live guitarist for the 2007 dates. Adrian Winkler and a team of camera crew followed the band on these tours, filming for a documentary entitled Celtic Frost - A Dying God. The documentary aired on Sunday, 16 November 2008 on Swiss national TV station SF1 (After the band's demise.).

Fischer tendered his resignation from Celtic Frost on 9 April 2008, with the following message displayed on the band's official website: "Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has left Celtic Frost due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious.". While the details behind the breakup aren't entirely known it is public knowledge that Fischer had a major falling out with drummer Franco Sesa. The band had intended to headline the 2008 edition of Roadburn Festival and according to Fischer on the Triptykon forums, the band had intended to perform all of Morbid Tales (Nocturnal Fear being the only song never played from that album) along with classic Celtic Frost songs and "Domain of Decay" for the first time.

Martin Ain, at the time of the announcement, stated that the band was "still alive, albeit in a coma of sorts." He went on further to say that the remainder of the band is "not going to continue recording or touring," saying this "would be preposterous" without Fischer. On 9 Septermber 2008, Celtic Frost members Martin Eric Ain and Tom Gabriel Fischer confirmed on Celtic Frost's official website that the band had "jointly decided to lay Celtic Frost to rest for good".

Aftermath

In May 2008 Fischer would form a new band in Triptykon with former Freitod bassist Vanja Slajh, Dark Fortress guitarist V. Santura and former Celtic Frost drummer Reed St. Mark (though he would be replaced the same year). This new band would evoke a similar sound as to what was displayed on Monotheist, with the band also performing classic Celtic Frost and Hellhammer songs live. To date this new band has two studio albums and an EP released to date with a third on the way. Notably in 2018 Fischer would begin and Triumph of Death, A Hellhammer tribute band largely performing at festivals.

Martin Eric Ain stopped actively playing music entirely and owns a DVD shop and a bar in Zurich called Acapulco. He is also a co-owner of the music club Mascotte, which has become well known for hosting upcoming international bands. He would however perform spoken word on occasion and contribute his voice to a handful of releases. Ain would pass away from a heart attack on 21 October 2017.

On 30 March 2010 Bazillion Points Publishing would release a book of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost entitled Only Death Is Real: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost 1981–1985, featuring an introduction by Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone and a foreword by author Joel McIver. Two follow-up books have since been announced in the works: A revised version of Are You Morbid? detailing the entirety of the band's first run and a book detailing the band's reunion and Triptykon.

In the fall of 2016 BMG would acquire the Noise Records catalog with plans to do expanded reissues of many classic albums among the label, with Celtic Frost being among those artists. BMG would approach Fischer about participation in the reissue project to which he would contribute to it, including unheard bonus tracks, new liner notes, photos and a re-mastering by Fischer and V. Santura. Cold Lake would once again be omitted as Fischer considers it "an abomination". However on 17 May 2017 Fischer would announce that due to censoring and editing of proposed liner notes he would no longer endorse the reissues.

Franco Sesa and Erol Unala would form a new band in 2021 known as Oath of Cranes, the first time in fifteen years the two musicians had collaborated together.

Discography

Studio Albums

• Morbid Tales (1984, Noise Records)
• To Mega Therion (1985, Noise Records)
• Into The Pandemonium (1987, Noise Records)
• Cold Lake (1988, Noise Records)
• Vanity/Nemesis (1990, Noise Records)
• Monotheist (2006, Century Media/Prowling Death Records)

Other Releases

• Metal Attack Vol. 1 (Split with Grave Digger, Helloween, Running Wild, Sinner, Warrant) (1985, Noise Records)
• Emperor's Return (EP) (1985, Noise Records)
• Tragic Serenades (EP) (1986, Noise Records)
• The Collector's Celtic Frost (Single) (1987, Noise Records)
• I Won't Dance (EP) (1987, Noise Records)
• Sounds Waves 1 (Split with Stupids, Kreator, Motörhead) (1988, Sounds Magazine)
• Tankard / Celtic Frost (Split with Tankard) (1988, Metal Hammer)
• The Celtic Frost Story (Live Single/Interview) (1990, Rock Hard)
• Wine in My Hand (Third from the Sun) (EP) (1990, Noise Records)
• Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 3.3.89 (Live VHS) (1990, Fotodisk)
• Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying (Compilation) (1992, Noise Records)
• Nemesis of Power (Demo) (1992, Self-Released)
• Prototype (Demo) (2002, Self-Released)
• Are You Morbid? (Compilation) (2003, Delta Music)
• Monotheist (Single) (2006, Century Media / Prowling Death Records)
• Temple of Depression (Single) (2017, Night of The Vinyl Dead)
• Innocence and Wrath (Compilation) (2017, Noise Records)

Members

• Thomas Gabriel Fischer aka Tom G. Warrior - Guitar, Vocals (1984 - 1987, 1988 - 1993, 2001 - 2008)
• Martin Eric Ain - Bass, Vocals (1984 - 1985, 1986 - 1987, 1990 - 1993, 2001 - 2008) (Died 2017)
• Isaac Darso - Drums (1984)
• Stephen Priestly - Drums (1984, 1988 - 1992)
• Reed St. Mark - Drums (1985 - 1987, 1992 - 1993)
• Ron Marks - Guitar (1987)
• Curt Victor Bryant - Bass (1988 - 1990), Guitar (1990 - 1993)
• Oliver Amberg - Guitars (1988 - 1989)
• Erol Unala - Guitar (2001 - 2005)
• Franco Sesa - Drums (2002 - 2008)
• Anders Odden - Live Guitar (2006)
• V. Santura - Live Guitar (2007 - 2008)

Tours

• Emperor's Return (With Beast, Mass) (1985)
• Tragic Serenades (Europe) (With Grave Digger, Helloween) (1986)
• Tragic Serenades (North America) (With Voivod, Running Wild) (1986)
• One In Their Pride Tour (Germany) (With Anthrax) (1987)
• One In Their Pride Tour (UK) (With Virus, Kreator) (1987)
• One In Their Pride Tour (North America) (With Exodus, Anthrax) (1987)
• Cold Lake Tour (Europe) (With Destruction) (1989)
• Cold Lake Tour (North America) (1989)
• Campaign Slow Freeze (With Slammer) (1990)
• Monotheist Tour 2006 (Europe) (2006)
• Monotheist Tour 2006 (North America) (With 1349, Sahg, Goatwhore, Sunn O))) depending on dates) (2006)
• Monotheist Tour 2007 (Japan) (With Satyricon, Naglfar) (2007)
• Monotheist Tour 2007 (Europe) (With Kreator, Legion of The Damned, Watain) (2007)
• Monotheist Tour 2007 (North America) (With Type O Negative, Brand New Sin) (2007)
• Monotheist Tour 2007 (Summer Dates) (2007)
• Monotheist Tour 2007 (Mexico) (With Finntroll) (2007)

External Links

• Celtic Frost YouTube
• Interview via Guitar World