Former Celtic Frost Mainman: The Biggest Mistake I Have Ever Made in My Life". Blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009 . Retrieved 24 January 2013.

That band was Celtic Frost. Everything about this new outfit was to be different. Warrior and Ain wanted it to have the power and excitement of the thrash metal bands emerging in the US, but the ultimate intent was to not be constrained by metal’s self-imposed rules – an attitude shaped by the band’s geographical isolation from the mainstream metal scene. “It was a constant conflict, because we loved metal. At the same time, however, we were conflicted by feeling that metal is so limited, that there were albums with notes saying: ‘No keyboards on this album’, and so on, like it was something evil,” he recalls. “We felt, where are these unwritten laws that say you cannot combine a keyboard with metal, or you cannot combine classical music with metal? We didn’t want to accept this. We were anarchists.”Into The Pandemonium’ was the last recording made by this era of Celtic Frost, bringing to an end a period of incredible creative and artistic growth over what was a remarkably brief period of time. That the teenagers who recorded ‘The Third Of The Storm’ and ‘Triumph Of Death’ for the Hellhammer EP would, despite constant turmoil, be recording the jaw-dropping ‘Rex Irae’ just three years later is astonishing. Convinced, Noise asked Celtic Frost to record a mini-LP, even though that hadn’t formed part of Warrior and Ain’s concept document. Undeterred, and propelled by a burning urgency, Celtic Frost set out to write and record a full length LP in a matter of a few months. ‘Morbid Tales’ was recorded with Horst Müller in Berlin and was unlike anything else. Intensely heavy, nuanced and experimental, the record was a radical musical statement of intent; a stunning synthesis of Warrior and Ain’s disparate influences. From the furious opening riff of ‘Into The Crypts Of Rays’ through to the avant-garde experimentation of ‘Danse Macabre’, ‘Morbid Tales’ heralded the arrival of Celtic Frost as a profoundly unique and uncompromising band. We hated these unwritten limitations in the metal scene,” he continues. “‘You cannot do this on an album, otherwise it's not metal…’ We thought, ‘Who writes these laws?’ Once we embarked on that path, Martin and I basically egged each other and continuously made each other more extreme in our endless discussions about these things. We just decided to abandon any restraint and not recognise any limits.” In late 2001, Fischer and Ain began to write music along with Unala on guitar and, soon after in 2002, with Swiss drummer Franco Sesa. The aim was to develop and record a new dark and heavy album. The completion of the project took longer than anticipated -in part due to the DIY nature of the project and the project's financing- but finally resulted in what Fischer and Ain would describe as "perhaps the darkest album Celtic Frost have ever recorded." Rosenberg, Axl; Krovatin, Christopher (2017). Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem. Race Point Publishing. ISBN 9781631064302.

Celtic Frost Profile". Centurymedia.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2008 . Retrieved 26 March 2008.Over the course of little more than three years between 1984 and 1987, CELTIC FROST established themselves as one of the most important bands in extreme and experimental music of that era. Due on October 28 in Europe and November 25 in the U.S., "Danse Macabre" brings together the band's recordings from those years, capturing their boundary-pushing ambition and creative zeal. Dave Grohl and Mark Tremonti have both stated on several occasions that Celtic Frost were an influence. Grohl consequently invited Fischer to participate in the recordings of his 2004 solo album, Probot, resulting in the song "Big Sky". Alternative country singer Ryan Adams has also claimed influence from Celtic Frost. In his village, he shows what he means when he says that musicians aren’t particularly well respected in his locale when says he continues to be asked, “Are you still unemployed?” Sadly, Martin Ain may no longer be with us, having passed away in 2017, but time has proved that the pair’s instincts and visions were right. The albums in Danse Macabre represent metal at its most urgent, its most creative, its best. It is what happens when people with nothing to lose but their own self-respect and artistic integrity go for broke, even when everything seems against you. Because it’s all you have.

New Yorker Reed St. Mark joined CELTIC FROST as a permanent member in February 1985, replacing session drummer Stephen Priestly, and the trio recorded the "Emperor's Return" EP in April '85, at Noise's request. Featuring the first recording of the essential "Circle Of The Tyrants", the EP is a solid snapshot of the sheer fanaticism that was the lifeblood of Tom and Martin in particular. Tom G. Warrior Interview". About.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015 . Retrieved 24 January 2013. He was another outsider in Switzerland,” says Tom. “And of course, the Hollywood thing only came after years of struggle, where he too was pushed into the underground for a long time. Because he was doing dark art that one doesn’t do. I think the level on which he connected to us was because he discovered some parallels in the struggle and in the origin of what we were creating. Celtic Frost's next album Cold Lake (1988) saw a new lineup, and a stark change of style, which was widely derided due to its commercial and flamboyant tone. [2] [4] After the release of Vanity/Nemesis (1990), the group temporarily disbanded. Celtic Frost then re-formed in 2001 and released the critically acclaimed Monotheist (2006), and finally disbanded permanently following Fischer's departure in 2008. [6] Celtic Frost's frontman, guitarist and singer Tom Gabriel Fischer, adopted the alias Tom Warrior. With Steve Warrior on bass, he formed one of the earliest extreme metal bands, Hellhammer, in 1981. Steve Warrior was later replaced by Martin Eric Ain – also a pseudonym. The band attracted a small international fan-base, was signed to Noise Records in Germany, and recorded their debut EP Apocalyptic Raids in March 1984.The ambition exceeded the capabilities – by setting a goal that was almost unachievable, it forced us to go and achieve it,” he says now. “To work like maniacs to reach this. We had nothing else. We had nothing to lose. All bridges are burned, so all you have to do is go forward.” Fling wide the gates of Hell! Your prodigal Son has returned". Facebook.com. 13 September 2018. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022 . Retrieved 16 June 2020. The first Celtic Frost record, Morbid Tales, was ferocious and extreme. The second, To Mega Therion, was a huge step forward. But the third, Into the Pandemonium, was the landmark – a dark and beautiful set that sounded like nothing else and confronted closed-minded metal fans by opening with a cover of Wall of Voodoo’s new wave hit Mexican Radio. Even the band name had been intended as a break from metal convention. Certainly, especially with the non-traditional instruments, you get the feeling from this point that Celtic Frost were a band prepared to push a few boundaries. The only time offhand I can recall hearing anything similar in a non-themed album (such as Ex Deo’s releases) was on Soulfly’s Archangel.

The strange thing is that while nobody would deny Celtic Frost’s importance now, at the time, the metal press was distinctly sniffy – especially Kerrang! “Morbid Tales got one out of five Ks,” Warrior says. “And it was ripped apart in the review. Whereas it’s one of the most important albums I’ve ever written. But we also understood Kerrang!’s approach, because it was the centre of the universe at the time. The early work of Swiss band Celtic Frost is among the most influential heavy metal of the 1980s. Now those recordings will be immortalized in the Danse Macabre box set, out November 25th in North America. a b Raggett, Ned. "Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying – Celtic Frost". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 26 September 2011. In 2015, Corpse Flower Records released a tribute of their own entitled Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost. It too compiles a number of Celtic Frost covers by other bands, including Child Bite, Acid Witch, Municipal Waste, and Hayward, among others. [32]

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Morbid Tales announced the new band. But it was on To Mega Therion where the band’s wider vision properly came into focus. Becoming “even more fanatical” about what they were doing in their bunker, the music was staggering, despite Tom insisting their own skills were nothing special ("If we'd had musical training, we wouldn't have made the music we did. But that meant we could create things by getting it wrong"). When they got to the studio, they began adding in classical instruments. Having to explain such ideas made things difficult. Only having short opportunity to do it more so. And their label weren’t keen. “But we were so pumped on testosterone and youthful energy, we just staked everything on it,” says Tom. “We set up timpanis in the in the large freight elevator, because that would give it this metallic reverb.” Morbid Tales: A Tribute To CELTIC FROST 12" Streaming In Full; Features CHILD BITE With PHIL ANSELMO, ACID WITCH, EVOKEN, MUNICIPAL WASTE And More". Bravewords.com. 10 November 2015 . Retrieved 16 June 2020. So this into went to the street, and there was a huge period of youth unrest in Zurich,” he remembers. “The establishment first reacted by sending the police with rubber bullets and tear gas. There were severe injuries. It was basically the establishment waging a civil war against the young people. And that’s the environment during which Hellhammer was formed.” The final Celtic Frost album was financed by the band through its own label, Prowling Death Records. Prowling Death Records originally was the self-founded label which released the Hellhammer demos, and managed Hellhammer's career in 1983 and 1984. The album was produced by Celtic Frost with Peter Tägtgren and mixed by Fischer and Ain. Celtic Frost and Prowling Death Records ultimately entered into a worldwide licensing deal with Century Media Records. The album, titled Monotheist, was released in May 2006. The album was received well critically and by fans of the band. While experimental and heavy in nature, it is seen as an evolution from both the extreme metal styles first developed on Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion, and the avant-garde style of Into the Pandemonium.