new Celtic Frost material

1
this is interesting - CF hosted a fan from their official message board at a rehearsal last month, and here's what he had to say:
CelticFrost.com wrote:I know you are all starving… so here we go…

I met Tom last Saturday not far from the rehearsal studio. On the way, he told me that they have thrown material worth for one album at least in the bin, too experimental in the band’s eyes, they want to concentrate on the heavier stuff. Sounds wonderful! At the rehearsal room, I was introduced to Martin and Erol and after a short chat, the new drummer arrived as well. His name is Franco Sesa, 34 years old, he joined Frost 1 year ago. He has definitely the skills to step up and fill in Reed’s or Stephen’s place and he fits perfectly to rest of the band. I also would have liked Reed back on board, but I know he can’t participate in the reunion, so Franco is the new drummer. Period.

No vocals yet. The only songs which have vocals at the moment is the one you all know, “Ground” and “Transfixed”, sung by Martin. Tom is going to work on lyrics/vocals in the next few weeks.

Saturday, the band was rehearsing two tracks, working titles are “I hold Death like a Black Banner” and “Ante Thronum”. Both songs, in the actual form, are quite similar. Both start with a slow riff, (short bass intro in “I hold Death…”) followed up by a fast part, very “Visual Aggression”-like (mainly for the drum parts), then slowing down again. Definitely some of the slowest and crunchiest stuff I have ever heard from Frost, ever!

I was then given the opportunity to listen to 4 new songs, which were, at that time, only finished at 50 %. No vocals, rough mixes, ideas not fully developed at some points, you got the point…

Os Abysmi vel Daalh: (hope the spelling is correct... Tom?): Good song, like it more than “Ground”, nice riffs, very Frost and very modern at the same time. This is the song I remember least; did it have an intro?

Catatonic State: Killer! Best track I listened to, cool midtempo groove, I felt like starting headbanging again; and… Timpanis! Even though the band keeps insisting that all the songs are far from being finished or are not sounding good enough, “Catatonic State” works extremely well already.

Transfixed : No instruments, only Martin singing, backed up by a continuous sound in the same key and a “cracked vinyl” sound effect. Poor stupid me, they have to tell me it’s a cover! Immediately, the whole title (“Transfixed” is followed by two more words in parenthesis…shh, big secret!), the whole song, the whole idea makes sense. Martin, make it happen!

Blood Alone (makes the world keep turning): (not shure if the title is even randomly correct, sorry…again, Tom?) Again midtempo, simple riffs, straight forward. Tom doesn’t like it and doesn’t want this song to go on the album. („Der Song kommt nicht aufs Album. Das ist ein Befehl!“ ;-) )But rest of the band still insists. The song is for now definitely lacking the groove, but has quite some potential. They agreed that Tom comes up with something at least twice as good. OK, fine with me J…

I remember 3 more working titles, but mainly because they’re already known: November, Requiem (part III), Ground. There are 2 or 3 more working titles on the list attached to the wall, but I don’t remember them, shame on me!

So, that was it for the “facts”. I hope that I didn’t mix too much up. Tom, please correct me if I got something wrong, I’m only human and I’m getting old… And after the rest of last week-end with selfmade pizza, a lot of beers and Rammstein playing live Sunday in Basle… still have a headache…

And now for the difficult part: How does it sound? What are my impressions?
I will try to be objective; but I know that this is an unachievable goal. I think I just give it a try…

First of all: We all know Frost, we will never get an album twice. So, don’t expect Apocalyptic Raids part II, TMT part II, ITP part II, MT part II or V/N part II. (Thank God we will never get Cold Lake part II ;-), definitely! )

If you listen to “Ground”, you may get a glimpse of an idea how Frost sounds these days. Maybe “incredibly heavy, dark and groovy” are the most appropriate words to describe the new songs. This is easily the heaviest stuff they did since TMT! What springs to mind or to ears immediately are the tuned down guitars. But it’s far from being “Death Metal” or something, that would be too easy of a description and wouldn’t reflect the potential of the material. A lot of slow or midtempo stuff which fits them extremely well, Celtic Frost in steamroller mood!

The material sounds very dark, straight-forward riffing, punky attitude, very radical in my eyes. Even though all the songs are far from being finished, the quality of the material is already shimmering through. Try to imagine a blend of TMT, Hellhammer (seriously, no damn joke!), a bit of ITP and a freight train. This doesn’t mean old-fashioned, it’s back to the roots but very modern at the same time. Difficult to explain, but that’s how I see it.

The sound has evolved, that’s what we all want and expect from Celtic Frost. But is it a step forward or sidewards, or both at the same time? Let’s wait and see. What I can say is: It is in no way a step backwards! I really enjoyed the music I heard last Saturday and am very excited to hear the definite versions of these songs and the whole new album! This is much more than a half-assed, 80’s-Thrash-Metal-consolation-prize-reunion! This is serious, Celtic Frost Anno Domini 2004!

But I can hear the bitching and moaning already: “Oh, this sucks, I would like to hear ITP part II”, “They sold out after MT anyway”, “I only like Cold Lake” etc. As I said, CF version 2004 is not CF version 1985 or version 1990, they evolved. (They improved, in my eyes). Let’s be realistic, they can’t satisfy everyone who likes or liked the band in the past.

The album will be released next year or not at all. We had that situation already, let’s just hope the music will see the light of day this time, it’s worth the wait!

And to finish this post: It seems that a new contract will/may be signed in the next few weeks/months and they will work on some faster songs in the near future to get a good balance on the album.

PS: Celtic Frost was dead and buried. They released great albums which are and will stay personal favourites. That could have been the end of the story…
Now they’re back, and believe me, they’re alive and kicking! I consider everything that Frost will release from now on as bonus, as a gift from a great band to us, the fans.

Are you morbid?

sincerely yours

redfish666
sounds like GREAT news to me, especially given how 'Ground' sounds...

Re: new Celtic Frost material

3
O-dot wrote:Think you'd have to consider the source. What's this guy gonna say: "Yeah, I got to hang out with the band, they were real cool and played me some awful cat-strangling shit that they laughingly referred to as 'our new album.'"

And wasn't CF more or less worthless after Cold Lake?
yes, but listening to that one song that's available for the last couple years, i've been very excited and this only confirms my excitement. grain of salt, yes, but listen to the one song for yourself and use that as a context for the review and it makes sense. :)

4
CELTIC FROST Complete Work On New Demo - May 9, 2005
CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message on his official blog:

"We finished the demonstration songs yesterday. They will be used for various industry purposes. We focused entirely on heavy material, and these songs are a clear indication of what the album is going to be like, they are dark, ferocious, sometimes very unique, and very intense. The full album will be more varied, but the general direction is obvious.

"All the recordings were made at our rehearsal studio, and we used live versions for most of the tracks. We spent Sunday mixing at Oakland Recording in Winterthur, Switzerland. Erol [guitar] engineered, and Martin [bass] and me managed to annoy him constantly with our demands/comments/immaturities.

"Almost everything came out as intended. The only song that doesn't yet work is 'Os Abysmi vel Daath'. This is a bitter pill to swallow, for it is one of our earliest dark songs for the new album, and we had a lot of faith in it. We will have to go back and put some very concise work into it. The song seems so simple, and yet it is very complex and has managed to defeat us every step of the way so far.

"The other songs of the demo sound extremely CELTIC FROST to me, in details sometimes astonishingly close to 'Morbid Tales' or 'To Mega Therion'. 'Ain Elohim' and 'Temple of Depression' are perhaps my favourites among these songs. Although it is a new song, the title and some of my contributions to 'Temple of Depression' go back to the original CELTIC FROST of many years ago.

"If all goes according to plan, Martin is going to pick up a well-known Swedish producer from the airport in just a few hours. We'll talk for a day about a possible collaboration, and he'll hear almost the entire album on Tuesday."

5
Blabbermouth wrote:CELTIC FROST Mainman: New Material Is 'More Real Than Anything We Have Done Since 1987'

CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message on his official blog:

"'Never before has the band been so heavy, never so dark…' is what the small handful of friends have said who have heard the new production demos this week. Heaviness and darkness can be expressed in a variety of ways, and while the entirety of our album will be distinctively more varied than the bandwidth of the songs our friends have heard, it really will be a very sinister collection of songs. It reflects exactly where we are at, personally, emotionally, and creatively, at this stage of our journey. And no matter what some might interpret into all of this — and while they certainly do exist, who should give a toss — it is real and sincere. More real than anything we have done since 1987.

"There is a strong chance that we will do the final recording sessions for the album this summer at Horus Studio in Hannover. Perhaps this really is home."

6
more from the same lucky-ass guy in the first post:
redfish666, in CelticFrost.com's forum, wrote:(6/27/05 2:51 pm)
The new songs and other Trivia, part II

Hi all,

Some of you may remember that I was invited back to the Celtic Frost Bunker by the guys when I met them at the Bohren & der Club of Gore concert some time ago. We finally managed to meet a Friday evening in Mid-June.

The first thing that struck me was that they had more stuff in the bunker, much more photos (including some of the photos of the session where the new band picture was shot), the Baphomet painting etc.
…and, lurking in a corner of the room, on an amp, a helmet. THE HELMET!! The one you can see on the back cover of the “Tragic serenades” EP (and the reissue of TMT). As far as I understood, this gem was lost for ages and only brought back by a fan some weeks ago… so, a good omen here!

I don’t want to bore you guy with too much trivia, let me just go straight into topic and keep it short:

How does it sound? Well: heavy, dark, groovy, atmospheric, multilayer, extreme, apocalyptic, innovative, radical, back to the roots but very modern at the same time. Nothing left of the sound of CL or even V/N, a heavy blend of MT, TMT, AR and a bit of ITP. It sounded so familiar yet so new and fresh!
But what happened in the last months since December (the first time I was invited)?

As you can imagine, the songs have developed a lot. Compared to last December, most of the ones I heard have full instrumentation including leads, vocals, guest vocals etc., the real deal!

Following the actual song list so far as written on the paper in the rehearsal studio. I tried to put a short description for the ones I heard, although it is hard to remember details of songs one heard “only”once and this 2 weeks ago, therefore I may have mixed up some facts…
BTW: the first 5 songs are the ones which ended up on the last demo… and there is more than 85 minutes of music, maybe we will get an album plus a single with new stuff. Fingers crossed!

· No Thing Born
Strong song with a heavy break, it had the same “surprise!” effect to me as the one in “The Usurper” back when I heard that song for the first time, a lot of variation in tempo.
· Ain Elohim
Strong song, contains a lot of variation in tempo. A part of the solo sounded as one of the solos Tom pounded out back in 85. Tom playing a lead? Not shure if this was Tom, but I like the idea...
· Ground
· Temple of Depression
The song formerly known as “Catatonic state”, liked it already back in December…
· Os Abysmi vel Daath
Incredible, how the song evolved since December, that one turned into a Monster. Heavy vocals, a part of the song with female vocals, a part with sound effects in “Danse macabre”-style. The kind of music which is surely played in the antechamber of Hell…eerie!
· A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh
Heavy, Martin on lead vocals, he is not shure if he should sing that one or not. To me, it made perfectly sense. Martin, your turn to sing!
· I Hold Death like a Black Banner
· Incantation against You
“Transfixed” in a radical new version… although the general idea of the song is the same, it changed radically to the version of December. The idea of a cover version is dropped in favour of an original song, female lead vox all the way through. Backing vocals by the guys themselves are planned to be done in the studio. Kind of a follow up to “Tristesses de la Lune”
· Larvae before the Day of Wrath
· Obscured
The song they were working on when I was there, atmospheric, hypnotizing, reminded me a bit (relax!…only a little bit!) of Type 0 Negative. Most erm, unheavy song I heard, song profited by the changes they agreed on (drums half-time timing, rearrangements in the structure of the song etc) during that day.
· Necronaut
· Draconem Serpentem Antiquum qui est Diabolus et Satanas
I haven’t heard the song, but was told that this was a 14 minutes+ song, sounding heavily like Hellhammer. Contains 3 or 4 differents parts (even 3 or 4 different songs in one), we may get some tragic vox in that song! I insisted to get some!! Again… Tom, we want some tragic vox!!!
· Winter (Requiem, part III)



Well, I like it when things come together!

Ah, yes, recordings definitely start on 1st of August at Horus sound studios, Hannover, Germany.

Cheers!

redfish666

7
CELTIC FROST: Preparing To Record New Album - July 22, 2005
CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message on his official blog:

"Yes, I know, we're only making an album. It's not an earth-shattering event, and we never claimed it was (although, yes, this blog is quite pretentious at times). Nor will most people on this planet care. It's not even a mainstream album. Good. Nonetheless, every song on this album has a story. This is not about the lyrics, which are by themselves much more personal than anything we have written for CELTIC FROST in the past. But we have spent an unpredictably extended and emotionally and physically intense period of our lives writing, rehearsing, recording and producing this album. That's significant to us. And, judging, by the flood of reactions I am receiving on my e-mail account through this blog, it is significant to many others too, one way or another. It's our own microcosm of meaning.

"Every song is connected to events, personal or professional, that we will hardly ever forget. And there will surely be more in the coming weeks, as we are temporarily relocating to Hanover, Germany, at the end of July to conduct the final recording and mixing sessions at Horus Sound Studio. This is the studio — albeit now in a much more modern incarnation — where we produced the 'Into the Pandemonium' album in 1987. We expect to finally be finished the first week of September.

"There will be some friends who will come to see us, and — apart from a few closed sessions — the studio is also open for anybody who wants to say hello, as always.

"I was interviewed yesterday for a five-part documentary on Swiss rock history, produced for Swiss national TV. Mixed feelings. Questions were good and the people very nice, but how much do they actually know about their topic? Typical signals of a generalization and cursory approach. A surprise? No. Also seems they were a bit astonished at what I had to say. :-) But they'll include the footage of CELTIC FROST's very first public appearance, 'Into the Crypts of Rays' on Swiss TV, shot in 1985."

CELTIC FROST have selected HYPOCRISY/PAIN mainman Peter Tägtgren to co-produce their long-awaited comeback effort, tentatively titled "Dark Matter Manifest". The band willl enter Horus Sound Studio in Hannover, Germany on August 1 to begin recording their first collection of new material since 1990's "Vanity/Nemesis". Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Obscured", "Incantation against You", "Ain Elohim" and "Temple of Depression".

CELTIC FROST, who have been mixing new demo material at Oakland Recording in Winterthur, Switzerland, have yet to secure a record deal for their upcoming CD.

8
another studio report from their official website:
mike rovers
Unregistered User
(8/25/05 7:11 am)

studio report

As I said yesterday I would post my report today. It's aslo some kind of 'diary' about the day, so it's a bit long. Hope you people like it....
Also, I got a lot of impressions and information -as said, we left the studio speechless and blown away- so if I mix up facts i'm sorry.


Wednesday August 24, 2005

Got up at 6 o'clock, to "Roadhouse Blues" by the Doors; "keep your eyes on the road...", well, that certainly was an omen for things to come.

It was on monday when I decided to go to Hannover this wednesday. Tom had recently e-mailed me and explained why he couldn't precisely say when the closed sessions would be. Because I didn't want to miss this oppurtunity I decided to just go there and see what would happen. My girlfriend Martine decided to not only come along, but also drive the whole way! A good friend of mine and long-time Celtic Frost fan (Chris) was excited to go there as well, so we picked him up from the train-station at 7, and went off on our journey 'into the crypts of Hannover'.

4,5 hours later we arrived in Hannover. Still not sure if we'd get in or not we decided to have lunch first and then go to the studio. Martine is not very familiar with Celtic Frost (although she knows the song "Ground" very well, since i've been playing it over and over, and she sees the heptagram on my arm every night), so she went into town. We figured we'd have a short 'i love your music' chat, have our records signed, and maybe have a look at the studio and hear a glimpse of the new album, so we agreed that if we'd meet in 1,5 hours, we would surely have time enough.......

The Horus-sound studio is in the shopping-centre of Hannover, in a street filled with stores, restaurants etc. Definitely not the place where you'd expect a dark metal album would be recorded. We walked through a small passage, and already heard some loud music, and a moment later we could also look into the control room, and the first thing we saw was a replica of the "Satan I" painting (if you look carefully you can already see it from the street!). We were welcomed by an egineer of the studio, and he told us he wasn't sure if Celtic Frost were there. He walked into the control-room (we couldn't hear what he said, because the music was too loud), and then told us he would look in the house above the studio, we should just take a seat and wait.... While we sat there we could hear Peter was working on a song, a very aggressive song. Double bass-drums, fast drumming, a dark guitar-riff, death grunts (yes! or shoud i say UH) and then Tom's voice, definitely not 'tragic' , were the first things I noticed. Peter was working on some effects (I think) so he played the same part over and over, but there we were, at the Horus studio listening to some new CF-material!

The first one to come downstairs was Martin. He introduced himself and got us something to drink. He was soon followed by Tom, who also introduced himself, and asked me if I was the one complaining at the forum (was I complaning?). He then explained why it took some time for him to answer his mail, as if he owed me an explanation. I said i was sorry, to which Martin said "don't be". He suggested we went outside because of the noise (the soundlevel that is, not the record-label). I actually didn't mind hearing the material, but we went outside anyway. We later found out everybody goes outside when Peter's at work, because he mixes so loud. I wouldn't be surprised if he's got the spinal tap 11 button added to the mixing desk, because "you always have 1 more".

We were just talking for a few minutes when the engineer (I actually didnt catch his name, but his chair said Ms. Tatgtgren.....) asked Martin and Tom to come into the control room to hear the first mixed version of this song. Tom suggested we'd come along (!!!!) and hear the complete song (unfortunately I forgot the title, I told myself not to forget the title, but here I am, not remembering it after all). We were introduced to Peter and Erol, had a look at the Satan I-reproduction and all the other stuff you can see in the "Haven" picture by Tom, which had all moved to the control room, and then it was time for some music.

What we heard was very aggressive and intense and definitely a celtic frost song, combining everything from Hellhammer to Into The Pandemonium, but at the same not sounding old-school at all. Tom referred to it as a modern "Into The Crypts Of Rays" kind of thing. I can understand where that comes from, as far as the energy and intensity of the song goes, but this was far more experimental and diverse. Lots of tempo changes, some of the most aggressive and fast drum parts in the history of CF (if not the fastest), but also haunting voices and a doomy middle part with guitar-feedback that takes you back to "Triumph Of Death" (the song). It's quite likely this song will be the opening track, and if the band want to make a statement "Celtic Frost is back" (and I know they want to) this killer-song will surely do the trick. (I even get excited again as i write these lines!)

I already noticed Tom was holding a CD when he came downstairs, and this appeared to be a CD from the day before when they finished mixing "Temple Of Depression". This was the next song we were going to hear ! Less aggression in this one (as far as energy and speed is concerned), but still a very intense and heavy song, this one reminded me a bit of apollyon sun by the way the vocals sounded. But I had to agree with Tom that none of the A.S. material comes close to this one in heaviness, and obviously there are NO electronics in this song. Actually there's going to be only one keyboard/synth part on the whole album in a song Tom wrote for this album (I suspect this is the song called "Drown In Ashes", but i'm not sure), everything else is made with real instruments and voices...

After we heard "Temple of Depression" we left the control room, so Peter could go to work again, and sat down outside again. we soon found out that both Tom and Martin were very open (Tom even more than on this forum and his blog, and when you read the post he did yesterday, you'll get an idea as in how open) about how they felt, about the album, how emotionally involved they were with the project etc. I will not write anything more about this here, I think it's up to Tom to decide what he wants to share (or not) with everybody else on the web.
But the afternoon turned out to be more than a 'fanboy-chat'. There was more of a conversation going on, on things like how open-minded or close-minded the metal scene, and the dark-muisc scene in general are at this moment. We talked about all things connected to Celtic Frost. From members and ex-members, through albums and tours, from the Hellhammer demo-sessions, to the final "Slow Freeze Campain" tour. Bout the break-up in 1987. About Martin's first lead vocals for Celtic Frost, 'bout Apollyon Sun and Tom's solo-album (see news-section from 2004) etc. About our own musical history, and how we got into Frost. About the future of Celtic Frost and the fact that this is not a project, but a band, with plans of touring and future albums. They even suggested we knew too much and had to be either killed or sacrificed :) .... We had a lot of laughs as well.

Ofcourse this all took way longer then 1,5 hour so when we said we had to leave to meet up with Martine (my girl) Tom suggested we should bring her to the studio as well. I like to think both Tom & Martin were a bit impressed by the effort and risk we had taken by driving 4,5 hours from holland to germany, without even being sure if they'd be there. Chris said he would walk to the meeting point, and while he was away and Martin was on the phone Tom and I even talked about songs that might appear on the setlist of the upcoming tour ! I can't wait....

Anyway, as conversation continued they said it was a shame we couldn't hear more material. Tom and Martin talked a bit about it not being possible because Peter was very busy etc. "Can we do that?" "No, Peter's too busy" "Yes he is, isn't he?" Martin walked to the control-room and when he came back he asked Tom which (not yet mixed) song we would get to hear, besides " A Dying God"!!! They decided that, if we wanted to hear something we would remember, it should be "Draconum.....". But first tings first:

"A Dying God (Coming Into Human Flesh)"
This was the song that Martin was going to sing, but after experimenting with it in the studio, they decided to both do a part of the lead-vocal (but not in a Jermaine Jackson / Pia Zadora kind of way ;) ). This song was quite dark and atmospheric, and then suddenly the guitars kick in and hit you in the face like a hammer. Impressive and again HEAVY.

and then we prepared for the epic 15 minute long "Draconum..." or more precisely "Draconum Serpentum Antiquum qui est Diabolus et Satanas", and that title is not a single word to long for this song. It's heavy, it's slooow, it's heavy, it's intense, it's scary, it's celtic frost, it's hellhammer, it's into the pandemonium, it's extreme, it's radical, to put it short "you're life won't be the same after you've heard this song". Did I mention it was heavy ? After hearing it we just sat there in the studio, mouths wide open, nothing left to say, but "Wow!" Martin stayed in the room while we heard it, Tom was in another room. When we came back he asked us if something was wrong.... No, we were totally BLOWN AWAY!!! Martin told us this song would be the last one on the album, except for the classical instruments only "Winter (Requiem part III)". Honestly spoken i think that's the only thing you can still listen to after this 'monster'.

After this we had nothing more to say and it was time to leave, so went over to the odd pictures and autographs part of the day. I actually conscidered skipping that part, because I felt there was no need or reason for it. But knowing I would regret it, we went through the motions; Chris had his records signed, Tom and Martin wrote on my "Morbid Tales", "Tragic Serenades", "Collector's Celtic Frost" and "Parched With Thirst" vinyl's, Martine took some pictures of us trying to look evil, but we all had to laugh.....
We thanked Peter for the time, we thanked Tom and Martin 10 times and then went back to the car. The journey home took forever, a lot of traffic problems and construction going on, it took us no less than six hours to get back home, where we arrived at 22:30, but it was definetely worth it.

As for the title of the album, that's the only think we didn't talk about (I'll probably think of a 1000 things i wanted to ask in the next few days), so for all I know, it's still "Dark Matter Manifest"

I won't try to take conclusions, I've heard a demo for "Ground" , and I've heard 4 songs 1 time each. But what I've heard is very exciting, very impressive, very heavy and very intense. It's very much Celtic Frost, but they're not rehashing old riffs, and they're certainly not trying to sound like it's either 1984, 1987 or 1990.

Well that's all I have to say for now, to me this describes the day perfectly. Hopefully this doesn't look like I'm trying to be to interesting. I just hope you can get as excited as I am !!!!

Thanks a lot to Tom, Martin and Peter for your time, and to all the people at the studio, we had a great time....

CELTIC FROST RULED AND STILL RULES

9
Blabbermouth is reporting that the band's been signed to Century Media, which should ensure the new record will at least get into stores.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

10
CELTIC FROST: Special Report From 'Monotheist' Listening Session In Berlin
Timo Isoaho has filed the following report:

There's a sign outside the old church in Berlin saying "Today: CELTIC FROST listening session." I would call that dark humor, no question about that.

Inside the God's temple, there's whole bunch of European metal journalists waiting to hear the long-awaited new effort by CELTIC FROST. Most of the journalists look excited; it's clear that this isn't "typical" listening session at all. No, it's the new and long-awaited album by Switzerland's finest. I am excited, too, as CELTIC FROST has been one of my favorite groups since the mid-Eighties. Everybody knows that the band evolved from HELLHAMMER's grim black metal to CELTIC FROST's avantgardism ("Into the Pandemonium") and later even hard/glam rock ("Cold Lake"). So, after all these years, what should I expect from the new album "Monotheist"? Well, I have heard the demo track "Ground" but otherwise, I have no clue.

Some minutes later, CELTIC FROST's Tom Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain enter this devoted place of God. With the dark make-up around his eyes, Tom looks calm and mysterious. He decides to stay in the shadows by the side when bearded Martin rises on the shrine and start talking. The next few minutes, he tells us about the process of making the new album and lyrical concept (there's a fascination with death, for sure!). Suddenly, the bass player is gone and the first track "Progeny" starts pounding from the PA after we have been given hymn-book (with CELTIC FROST's new lyrics on the pages of it). Over hour later, the album expires with "Winter (Requiem, Chapter Three: Finale)".

Well, it's difficult to describe exhaustively, but some things... The sound of the album is absolutely massive but at the same time, very raw. Most black metal bands can only dream of getting a sound like this. Guitars and bass are extremely, and I truly mean extremely, sharp and heavy. Now and then during the album you are able to hear some fateful gothic influences and moody female vocalists and even legendary "UHH!" screams too. Most of the tracks are really slow, menacing doom metal. Or in this case, maybe term "doomed metal" describes the sound even better. However, there's some really fast parts too. And the riffs are just punishing, Tom's vocals vary from magnificent death metal grunts to something utterly beautiful, and the whole atmosphere just takes the listener into the pure darkness. And it's a haunting feeling! This is as close as you can get total death in musical terms...

Some newer bands that could be mentioned in the same sentence as new CELTIC FROST might be TYPE O NEGATIVE (when they are at their heaviest and most atmospheric), MY DYING BRIDE and even NEUROSIS plus SUNNO))). And maybe a group like FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM too. None of those are not like this, not even close, but there's slight similarities here and there.

One thing is for certain: the album is not similar to anything this band has released earlier. As Martin tells me later, "We don't want to look back. When we were creating this album, we didn't listen to the old albums and think like, 'Hey, there's cool riff in 'Procreation (Of The Wicked)', let's use that" or 'Circle Of The Tyrants' is great, let's write another track like that.' No way. This is new CELTIC FROST."

Later that afternoon, it's great to notice that Tom is really satisfied with the new album. Of course, bands are always satisfied with their latest release (or at least they pretend to be) but it's easy to sense that there's no bullshit going on this time. No, he is seriously proud of Monotheist". But he already has new plans.

"It's my goal to make the next record even heavier and gloomier," he points out.

"If that's possible..." is my reply.

"Yes it is," he says assuredly.

What about live shows? What tracks are we going to hear?

"Of course, some new tracks and then older ones from 'Morbid Tales', 'To Mega Therion' and 'Into The Pandemonium'," Tom reveals. "We don't play anything from 'Cold Lake' or 'Vanity/Nemesis' as they are not 'real' CELTIC FROST albums. And maybe it's time to play 'Triumph Of Death' by HELLHAMMER. We will see."
now that sounds exactly like i pictured it would. i can't fucking wait for this.....

11
Type O is a "newer" band? Compared to CF, I guess.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

12
Here ya go, TC: Celtic Frost coming to a venue near you. Mark your calendar.
Oct. 17 - St. Louis, Missouri - Pop's
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

14
TC wrote:CELTIC FROST's avantgardism ("Into the Pandemonium")
This is a hell of a screwy album. Especially after only having Morbid Tales to listen to the last couple of years...
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

15
"We don't play anything from 'Cold Lake'
OK, I've only heard the first song or so but.... Oh man. Did I get drunk and find some Ratt songs by mistake?
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

16
Opening night setlist, courtesy Blabbermouth:
01. Totengott (Intro)
02. Procreation (Of the Wicked)
03. Ground
04. Dethroned Emperor
05. The Usurper
06. Jewel Throne
07. Ain Elohim
08. Necromantical Screams
09. Dawn of Meggido
10. Mesmerized
11. Sorrows of the Moon
12. Return to the Eve
13. Visions of Mortality
14. Into the Cryps of Rays
15. Progeny
16. Inner Sanctum
17. Circle of the Tyrants
18. Synagoga Satanae
Not too shabby! I'd pay to see this show.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

18
Ol' Tom has a way with words, no?
CELTIC FROST Frontman: 'Collapsed And Paralyzed In The Smeary Puddles Of Urine And Excrements' - June 6, 2006
As BLABBERMOUTH.NET first reported over the weekend, CELTIC FROST cancelled their scheduled appearance at the Rock Hard Festival in Gelsenkirchen, Germany Saturday night (June 3) after mainman Thomas Gabriel Fischer was rushed to the hospital as a result of suffering from "acute kidney problems" and was flown back to Switzerland on Sunday. He has since posted the following message on his official blog:

"From an intoxicatingly enjoyable and exultant show in Zaandam, Holland, to finding myself collapsed and paralyzed in the smeary puddles of urine and excrements on the floor of the backstage toilet just an hour later, to the ambulance ride to the emergency room at the Evangelische Kliniken hospital in Gelsenkirchen with an acute renal colic, all in just a couple of days. It seems so typical. A further emblematic page in the history of CELTIC FROST.

"And yet the excruciating physical pain pales when compared to what really matters. The shame of having to cancel a show, a truly special and unique show, is infinite. The disgrace and humiliation of having let down all those who have waited for so long — and also having so disappointed the other members of the band — is unbearable."
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

19
Didn't make the charts, but still not that bad a first week for a metal band that hadn't released an album in over a decade. My copy at Best Buy last Tuesday was the only one on the rack.
CELTIC FROST: 'Monotheist' First-Week U.S. Sales Revealed - June 7, 2006
CELTIC FROST's "comeback" effort, "Monotheist", has sold just under 2,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The group's first album in 13 years was produced by the band with Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN) and features 11 songs. ...
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.