Celtic Frost

Members: Tom Gabriel Fischer, Martin Eric Ain, Franco Sesa, Anders Odden

Active: 1984-Present

Celtic Frost is an innovative heavy metal group from Zurich, Switzerland, best known for their influence on the thrash metal, black metal and death metal genres.

HISTORY

The band's frontman, guitarist and singer Tom Gabriel Fischer, changed his name to Tom Gabriel Warrior early in his career. With Steve Warrior on bass, he formed one of the earliest extreme metal bands, Hellhammer, in 1982. Steve Warrior was later replaced by Martin Eric Ain. The band attracted a small international fan base, got signed to Noise Records in Germany and recorded their debut EP Apocalyptic Raids in March of 1984.

By May of 1984, Hellhammer had disbanded; Fischer and Ain, along with session drummer Stephen Priestly, reappeared with an new lyrical and musical concept under the moniker of Celtic Frost. Their 1984 debut LP, Morbid Tales was a hit in the metal scene, and the band set out on its first tour, through Germany and Austria. Their second album was To Mega Therion, with cover artwork by H.R. Giger and recorded with New York drummer Reed St. Mark. To Mega Therion was far more successful than their first release. However, their most influential recording is 1987 Into the Pandemonium. The album was one of the pivotal LPs for underground metal and inducted a new and more varied sound. With the addition of classical instruments, opera vocals and sampling, as well as the more experimental sounds found in death metal, this led to the band being credited by some as giving birth to the genre of avant garde metal.

After a subsequent American tour (which saw the addition of a second guitarist, Ron Marks to the groups ranks), financial trouble, personal tension between the bandmembers and an ill-fated relationship with their record label led to a complete dissolution of the band. Six months later, Warrior decided to reform the band with Stephen Priestly back on drums, Oliver Amberg on guitars and Curt Victor Bryant on bass. Despite his willingness, Warrior did not take much interest in the album and producer Tony Platt and Amberg took control of the recording of Cold Lake. They mutated the death/black metal sound into radio-friendly glam rock/thrash metal sound. The album was an utter failure in both mainstream and heavy metal markets, and the band was ridiculed by its former fans as a sell-out.

Warrior fired Amberg and former live guitarist Ron Marks returned as a guest for the recording of Vanity/Nemesis in 1990. The most significant change, however, was the return of founder Martin Eric Ain. Though the album was still heavy and critically successful, Celtic Frost's reputation did not fully recover. The group's next (and, as it would turn out, last for a while) album was a collection of rare and unreleased recordings called Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying (1992). A final album titled "Under Apollyon's Sun" was never completed, although work had progressed quite far and several demos were recorded.

APOLLYON SUN

Some years after the termination of Celtic Frost, and after quite some time spent entirely away from the music industry, Fischer co-founded a new group called Apollyon Sun with his close friend Erol Unala on guitars in the mid-nineties and recorded an EP God Leaves... ... and Dies and a full-length album Sub. Although clearly based on Celtic Frost's dark and more adventurous music, Apollyon Sun was a dedicated industrial music/electronic body music project. During his hiatus from music, Fischer had also finished work on an autobiographical book, called Are You Morbid?, which was published by London-based Sanctuary Publishing to critical acclaim in 2000.

RETURN OF CELTIC FROST

In late 2001, Fischer and Ain began to write music together again, along with Unala on guitar and, from late 2002, experienced Swiss drummer Franco Sesa (a.k.a. The Inverted Cross within the group). 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 fianncing) but finally resulted, in late 2005, in what Fischer and Ain describe as "perhaps the darkest album Celtic Frost have ever recorded", based on a combination of the musical aura of To Mega Therion and Into The Pandemonium.

This new, seventh, Celtic Frost album was financed by the group itself through their own record company, Prowling Death Records, the organization named after the publisher of the Hellhammer demos and which managed Hellhammer's career. The album was produced by Celtic Frost and assisted by Peter Tagtgren (of Hypocrisy/Pain fame). Celtic Frost later signed a worldwide distribution deal with Century Media Records. The album, titled "Monotheist", was released on May 30th, 2006.

ALBUMS AND EP'S

1984 - Morbid Tales

1985 - Emperor's Return EP

1985 - To Mega Therion

1986 - Tragic Serenades EP

1987 - Into the Pandemonium

1988 - Cold Lake

1990 - Vanity/Nemesis

1992 - Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying (COMPILATION)

1999 - Morbid Tales

1999 - To Mega Therion (REMASTERED)

1999 - Into the Pandemonium (REMASTERED)

1999 - Vanity/Nemesis (REMASTERED)

1999 - Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying (REMASTERED)

2006 - Monotheist