Tom G Warrior's bands (Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Triptykon)

[RobotOfDecay]

Any fans here? I'm one but don't own the Hellhammer stuff, I like Celtic Frost 'Morbid Tales' a lot. Also 'Monotheist' is awesome as is the Triptykon album. In a sea of extreme metal (and not generally being a fan of it so much anymore) I find TGW's stuff a lot more genuine. Not to mention riff-tastic. What are your favourite of his albums?

[devstorm]

Frost was a really cool band. Actually the only CF album I really dont care for all that much is Vanity Nemesis. As shockingly different as Cold Lake is, there's a couple songs there that I think have some great riffs. But the presentation was pretty much an attempt to pander to a commercial audience.

Monotheist to me is an awe inspiring release. But Tryptikon has fallen somewhat flat with me. Im not sure what it is that I didn't get into, perhaps it was just the absence of Martin Ain. But the older music is still killer, and I'll check out whatever future releases come from Tom G, with an open mind.

[Sabbathman]

I'm a (criminally belated) fan of (the remastered editions of) "Morbid Tales" and of course "To Mega Therion"...
...plus the song "Babylon Fell" from the album "Into The Pandemonium"...

What can I say...I've known of Celtic Frost for years, known their worth and weight...Just like Venom, Slayer, Mercyful Fate and Bathory, Celtic Frost is one of the essential bands of the dark & extreme metal genre.

[kamikazetom]

I like all 3 bands - Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raids was a favorite of mine back in the early 80's - love old Celtic Frost & have seen them several times - favorites are probably To Mega theron & Into the Pandemonium especially the cover of Mexican Radio - great band - did like Monotheist & saw the reunion show - really wish they could have kept it going - the Tryptykon Cd is pretty good sounds very much like a continuation of Celtic Frost just haven't had the chance to catch Tryptykon live yet

Mexican Radio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIrI50wSAYs

[celt]

In my opinion the album Monotheist is major fucking masterpiece! The song 'a dying god coming into human flesh' is one of the most brutal, angry, dark and foreboding metal songs in existence, and it freaks me out every time I listen to it...damn, I love it when that happens! I must admit that I don't really like the early Celtic Frost stuff as much, but Monotheist, whoa!!! Amazing!!!

[RobotOfDecay]

In my opinion the album Monotheist is major fucking masterpiece! The song 'a dying god coming into human flesh' is one of the most brutal, angry, dark and foreboding metal songs in existence, and it freaks me out every time I listen to it...damn, I love it when that happens! I must admit that I don't really like the early Celtic Frost stuff as much, but Monotheist, whoa!!! Amazing!!!

I can see where you're coming from - Monotheist (and also the Triptykon album, which is pretty much a follow-up to Monotheist) almost have a completely different sound from the 80's Celtic Frost stuff. It would probably be sacrilege to some but I think it would be really interesting to hear the classic CF stuff with the production values/doomy guitar tone of Monotheist/Triptykon. I've never seen TGW live but there's a good Triptykon bootleg floating around (Live at Le Romandie) where the older tracks like Procreation of the Wicked sound a lot doomier than the original versions.

[RLP4ever]

I noticed this thread just today, but didn't have time to post a reply here earlier.

I rate the first two Celtic Frost full-lengths, To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium, very highly. Outright extreme music classics, as every fan will confirm. Then Cold Lake, and its much watered-down, CF-Lite version predictably left many fans like myself cold. I thought Vanity/Nemesis was a rebound, relatively speaking. But no, even that album is quite average and non-essential Frost. I've actually heard some very unflattering flak flung the way of the band's last disc, 'Monotheist'. But I liked it a lot. It sure rivals To Mega Therion as arguably the best Celtic Frost album, so far.

There's not too much Hellhammer to really choose from, obviously. But I definitely dig the Hammer stuff I've got: the 'Death Metal split, and the 'Apocalyptic Raids' EP are excellent exemplars of early extreme metal.

I've heard a little of Triptykon; recall quite liking what I heard.

[Paulie 88]

I wasn't crazy about the first Apollyon Sun release, but other than that, I pretty much love everything he's ever done (Cold Lake included even though it can't compare to the mightier pieces).

I've had the same top-5 fave bands since I was a teen, and I'm in my 40s now. Tom G is in there.

All the best,
PAULIE

[RLP4ever]

Hey Paulie, now that you say it, I'm really curious to know what your permanent Top 5 bands (for more than 25 years by now) is.

[VikingChrist]

Frost was a really cool band. Actually the only CF album I really dont care for all that much is Vanity Nemesis. As shockingly different as Cold Lake is, there's a couple songs there that I think have some great riffs. But the presentation was pretty much an attempt to pander to a commercial audience.

Monotheist to me is an awe inspiring release. But Tryptikon has fallen somewhat flat with me. Im not sure what it is that I didn't get into, perhaps it was just the absence of Martin Ain. But the older music is still killer, and I'll check out whatever future releases come from Tom G, with an open mind.

I get what you're saying about Triptykon. I like it but...I was expecting more. I think, for me, at least, it was that "Monotheist" was such an incredible leap from everything else CF had done, I was expecting Tom to make another incredible leap and instead got an album more or less in the same vein as Monotheist. I also think that Tom needs Martin as a creative partner. I guess he's really unhappy with Martin over a lot of things with the CF break up, but I'd love to see them work together again.

[Totentanz]

I got into CF fairly early on, I loved the EPs Morbid Tales and Emperor's Return; To Mega Therion is the undoubted masterpiece (although I don't like the couple of remixes on the remastered CD - they should've been additional tracks, not put on in place of originals!), Into The Pandemonium is great but not as good as TMT. I don't much care for later CF albums, and I include Monotheist in that, which I find a bit dull - didn't ever hear the magic that brought it rave reviews. For this reason I've avoided Tryptikon too, the couple of songs I've heard don't really grab me.

Apollyon Sun is a mixed bag, I can't say it's great but I've certainly got more repeat play out of their EP God Leaves and the album Sub than I have from Monotheist. Incidentally I got the Apollyon Sun stuff more because I was interested in Markus Edelmann's involvement rather than Tom's.

Early CF is definitely Tom's best period to me, TMT the peak. But when it comes to Swiss metal Coroner > CF by a long way on every level (IMO of course)

Tom did guest on several of the Coroner 'Death Cult' demos in '86 (look under 'Coroner Death Cult' on YouTube) and also wrote the lyrics to Spiral Dream which was added to the CD version of the debut Coroner album, R.I.P. These are all decent performances by Tom as he was giving plenty of roughness in his vox - these early songs are decent but aren't mindblowing, they pre-date Coroner's total awesomeness. Personally I do prefer Ron Broder's vox to TGW too.

[Cosmiceddie]

To me, the 'Morbid Tales' and 'Emperor's Return' EP's contain the best Celtic Frost tracks. 'Dethroned Emperor' is still my absolute favourite. And can it get any sicker or more morbid than 'Danse Macabre'?

[Paulie 88]

Hey Paulie, now that you say it, I'm really curious to know what your permanent Top 5 bands (for more than 25 years by now) is.

It's not "permanent" per se, it's just stayed exactly the same because no one mightier has knocked any of them out of place.

NOT necessarily in order... Black Sabbath / The Residents / Raven / Voivod / Celtic Frost (Hellhammer / Triptykon)

Ok, back to the thread.

I managed to see Triptykon back in September, and they totally crushed. This was genuinely better than the Monotheist-era CF shows I saw, and rivaled the only other CF show I caught, which was in '86. *Highly* recommended. Tom G, by the way, happens to be one of the kindest, most humble and gentle souls I've ever had the pleasure to scream at the top of my lungs at.

All the best,
PAULIE

[RobotOfDecay]

To me, the 'Morbid Tales' and 'Emperor's Return' EP's contain the best Celtic Frost tracks. 'Dethroned Emperor' is still my absolute favourite. And can it get any sicker or more morbid than 'Danse Macabre'?

I agree with you there, there's definitely a high ratio of songs there that have remained in TGW's setlist too. If those 2 EPs count as one album (which is probably cheating), that's a tie with Monotheist as my favourite from Celtic Frost.

[TYR66]

A big fan from " Apocalyptic Raids " EP . Tom has a great artistic talent . Celtic Frost takes a big part in Metal fundation .Monotheist is the Darkest album I' ve ever heard . Triptykon is the logical continuation and awesome too .
I always dream about a Tom/Martin restored friendship for the future ... but when I see Tom 's attitude and the deafning silence of Martin , I'll be waiting for while ![COLOR="silver"]

[Drago]

I believe that Morbid Tales was a life changing experience and one of the best metal records I have ever heard. When I bought Morbid Tales on vinyl when it was first released I had no idea what they where going to sound like. I remember looking at the back cover and you really couldn't tell what the guys looked like and they seemed so creepy. Then the intro starts on Into The Crypt Of Rays and it was so bizarre. It is such a crushing tune and still my favorite song by them.

The cover of To Mega Therion was the only cover that ever rubbed my Mom wrong. She had scene Hell Awaits and didn't bat an eye but when she saw the cover of To Mega Therion back in '85 when it came out she was not happy. I would have been 13 at the time. Crazy!!

I love all of Celtic Frost records through Vanity Nemesis. I even thought Cold Lake was great for what it was, i think there is quite a few good tunes on it and Vanity Nemesis was a killer return. Not a huge fan of Monotheist or Tryptikon really. Probably not given either enough listening time. I also own the Hellhammer and the Apollyon Sun Sub record. I like them but nothing has ever even come close to Morbid Tales through Into The Pandemonium. That time period was very special for that band.

[Musicman11]

Ah yeah, Celtic Frost and Triptykon are the kind of the stuff that is right up my alley. Or at least part of their works that I know of anyways, I haven't heard all of their works collectively, and in fact I've never heard Hellhammer at all, so I'll have to look into that one. But otherwise Tom G. Warrior is one of my favorite musicians period. In fact I forgot to mention him in my honorable mentions for 5 favorite guitarists, so I might need to go back and edit that

Anyways I'm a big Celtic Frost band. The name itself I've always thought is simply awesome, I don't really know why, but it just is. As for the actual music, I enjoy the majority of it. Morbid Tales and Emperor's Return are great little beginning pieces that have been nicely combined into one little release and is what I would recommend to any starting fan of the band. There a little more thrashy then later releases, but they're still brilliant releases. Then we get into To Mega Therion which is another great album, tied for my favorite with Morbid Tales. It's the beginning of their experimental stuff and really shines. I love some of the slowed down stuff and then the speed-ups that follow ala Dawn of Meggido. Even if Ain was missing, it was still one hell of an album. Into the Pandemonium isn't exactly what I expected, but is still pretty good overall. I didn't care for the vocal direction that Tom took at first to be honest, and it still slightly irritates me, but I've grown to accept it. The music itself is great, and it's just short of the previous two studio albums. However this is as far as I know their music for the first part of the band's history. The next that I know of is Monotheist, which I thought was amazing. Coming back after all those years and releasing an album such as Monotheist was a testament to the band's greatness. I loved the whole thing, it's not quite as good as Mega or Morbid, but it's damn close, overtaking Pandemonium. I think it's a huge shame that the band called it quits afterwards as they were on a good streak by that point. Think of what they could have possibly done. Which makes me question, can someone explain the break-up to me, is there any real reason why?

As for Triptykon, it's similar to Monotheist, so I enjoyed it, but I agree with most of the comments saying that it shows Tom needs Ain as a writing partner. They're a brilliant writing duo, I sincerely hope that one day we will get another Celtic Frost reunion!

[Sabbathman]

I'm just going through these stone cold classics of early black/thrash/death metal. I'm not one of the fans of the "old guard" but I can tell you that I do like these albums a lot. Brutish, original, timeless power.







I never got to see Celtic Frost live, not even in 2006 when they performed at the annual Tuska festival here in Finland. I haven't seen Triptykon either, yet...but I do like the album "Eparistera Daimones", the Sabbath-like heavyness, the brooding darkness, the sweeping coldness, the chosen artwork...Nordic Frost will perform a cover show here in my hometown this Saturday, I'm there.

While I haven't experienced any Celtic Frost/Triptykon shows yet, I have been to one of H.R. Giger's exhibitions 2 years ago. The experience was so mindblowing. Have you been to one of his exhibitions? It's a fantastic collection of real, intriguing, horrifying, thought-provoking art. The huge Alien and the original Alien mechanic head alone are something to behold for hours...and the huge portrait paintings with all the little details..

I'm planning to get this too...I like not only the artwork segment taken from Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", but also the great song "Babylon Fell"...

[TYR66]

I just buy a new diamond head for my old turntable .
So during ths last week , I' ve Listened these classics of my collection on VINYL !! :

Hellhammer - Apocalyptic Raids
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Celtic Frost - Emperor's return
Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
Celtic Frost - Tragic Serenades pic disc
Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium
and Triptykon : Eparistaera Daemones the complete sessions triple LP

[Totentanz]

While I haven't experienced any Celtic Frost/Triptykon shows yet, I have been to one of H.R. Giger's exhibitions 2 years ago. The experience was so mindblowing. Have you been to one of his exhibitions? It's a fantastic collection of real, intriguing, horrifying, thought-provoking art. The huge Alien and the original Alien mechanic head alone are something to behold for hours...and the huge portrait paintings with all the little

Awesome Sabbathman! I've never been to one of his exhibitions, but would love to. I have a few prints of his in my office/study room and own many books including the large hardcover versions of Necronomicon I and II plus Biomechanics. In particular I love his '70s work which is so dark and unlike anything before or since. This was the period in which he did the painting which later became the cover to TMT, and it's incredible just how prolific he was with such quality in that time. Slightly too many cocks overall , but I forgive him that as his work was pure and genuine genius. The TMT cover, whilst not created to be a record cover, is simply one of the most beautifully and delightfully blasphemous covers of all time. As drago mentioned above, it was the one cover amongst all the metal freakery that truly upset my mother too!

[TYR66]

Appolyon Sun is Fantastic too !!