Tom Gabriel "Warrior" Fischer explains the demise of Celtic Frost

The following is an excerpt from a recent discussion on the TRIPTYKON/CELTIC FROST discussion forum by mainman Tom Gabriel "Warrior" Fischer:

"I once made the mistake to continue Celtic Frost without Martin (Eric Ain). It wasn't Celtic Frost, in spite of the name, and the results were stunningly pitiful (to put it nicely). I will not repeat that mistake. Martin and I formed Celtic Frost together, we determined the band's concept together, and we worked together on all but one (To Mega Therion) of the important four Celtic Frost albums.

In 2005, Martin and I also signed an agreement which prohibits either one of us to continue as Celtic Frost without the other one. We both have the same view on this.

When I left Celtic Frost on April 2, 2008, several parties suggested to me to continue Celtic Frost on my own. It would have made sense from a business point of view. Celtic Frost was very successful at the time, the band was a headliner, and the name opened doors all over the world. Leaving such a strong name behind, a name that took over two decades of often bitter and hard work to grow to that stature no less, was indeed very difficult for me. I had written almost all of Celtic Frost's music and probably more than half of the lyrics. Celtic Frost is my life's work [mein Lebenswerk]; it defined my life and my life defined it. It is still unbearable to think that Celtic Frost no longer exists and never will exist ever again. That band was my life, my love, my emotions, my home, and my sanctuary.

But to me, it would have been a shallow, cheap, and cowardish lie if I would have formed a 'surrogate Celtic Frost' without Martin, in spite of the fact that I feel he had stood by and allowed Celtic Frost to disintegrate. I am certain that I could have talked to Martin and that he might have agreed to let me continue with the name in spite of our agreement. But that still wouldn't have made it Celtic Frost.

No, I was - and am - convinced that the only correct and courageous manner of procedure is to accept reality: Celtic Frost no longer exists, and Celtic Frost was only truly Celtic Frost with Martin and me.

On the other hand, that doesn't prevent me from continuing as closely as humanly possible to Celtic Frost. Among other things, that I created To Mega Therion virtually single-handedly made me confident that there was sufficient Tom Gabriel Warrior in Celtic Frost's identity to ensure that a new group of mine could be a true successor. This is my music, my passion, and my calling.

For the successor of Celtic Frost's Monotheist, we were going to make long-suffering live guitarist V. Santura a full member fo the band. And this is what I now did in Triptykon. Triptykon is to a very large extent my music and entirely my lyrics, and Triptykon follows the concept I wanted to pursue with Celtic Frost. We recorded and mixed Triptykon's Eparistera Daimones album at the studio we were going to use for the successor of Monotheist, it was engineered by V. Santura as originally intended for the successor of Monotheist, it contains much of the music I wrote for the successor of "Monotheist", it uses the cover art and concept I originally proposed for the successor of Monotheist, and Triptykon is working with the same webmasters, management, record company, concert agency, and crew as Celtic Frost did.

I was simply honest when I formed Triptykon. The band that had been so important and special to all of us, Celtic Frost, had ceased to exist, and any attempt to continue it with the same name would have amounted to an insult to our fans' (and my own) intelligence."

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Tags:  Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Martin Eric Ain, Tom Gabriel "Warrior" Fischer 

admin    December 01, 2009