CELTIC FROST Frontman: 'I've Always Hated Festivals'

Steve Saks of LivingForMetal.com recently conducted an interview with CELTIC FROST frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

LivingForMetal.com: I have been listening to "Monotheist" a lot these past few weeks to get a real feel for it, and there's three words that come to mind that I would use to describe it: death, tragic and darkness. Do you find those words accurately describe it or your interpretation of how it came across?

Tom: "Very much so, yes it's by far our darkest and heaviest album and none of that is contrived. This album more than any other album that CELTIC FROST have ever done; it's intimate, private and emotional and it's derived from darkness from the state of mind of the mutual band members at the time of writing. If you can imagine we've all had kind of eventful lives and a lot of that's reflected in the darkness of these new things we've either been carrying with us for a number of years or things that took place immediately before the recording of 'Monotheist'. Not always things in the context of CELTIC FROST but sometimes things that were entirely unconnected with the band and occurred within our private lives."

LivingForMetal.com: How do you feel about how your fans have interrupted your lyrics that you have written and have connected with your visions as well? Do you think they "get it" and have connected with it or do you think it goes over some of their heads?

Tom: "It really depends on the fan. We've had over the years numerous fans who have discussed the lyrics with us in great detail, that in the early days were by letter or by email or in person, it happens all the time. On the other hand there are days when I go as a fan to heavy metal concerts and I just wanna feel the energy and I wanna headbang and I really don't give a shit about listening to lyrics and we're an extreme metal band at the end of the day and that's what counts our power and our energy. So I don't think it's mandatory...If somebody's moved my music it doesn't really matter if it's intellectually or physically moved. There's days when we simply put physical energy into our music 'cause we simply don't feel like working intellectually and we are not in that frame of mind, and there's days where we put almost all of our energy into the song intellectually. So I think both approaches are legitimate. And I think it's as satisfying on stage when you see the whole crowd pumping to you, your beats. As it is when you meet backstage and somebody has really researched the words and talk to you about all the details. I really don't separate the two."

LivingForMetal.com: What are some of the places and shows you look forward to playing on your upcoming tour?

Tom: "That's very difficult to say. I'm certainly not looking forward to the festival size. I've always hated festivals. Unfortunately, they have become much more important now then our first time around. We need to play Europe, we haven't played for our fans for 16 years and there's just no way around that CELTIC FROST play the festivals. But I personally am much more looking forward to the proper tour which starts in America in September. I love to be in contact with the fans. I love even if it's a big hall, you're still kinda close to the fans and you can actually look into their eyes."

LivingForMetal.com: And you can feel the electricity from the crowd as well.

Tom: "Yeah, and when you are on a festival stage sometimes the fans are like 20-30 meters which is like 100 feet away from you...I don't like that, so I'm really looking forward to the U.S. tour. There's like a million new halls that we're gonna play that I haven't played at yet in my life so it's kind of difficult for me to say what place that I'm looking forward to."

LivingForMetal.com: What do you think about bands covering your songs? I recently heard an excellent version of "The Usurper" by PROJECT: FAILING FLESH and I was wondering if you have ever heard it?

Tom: "No, I actually try not to involve myself to much with that. Not out of arrogance or something like that but I'm the writer of these songs and I feel very particular about them, and it's already difficult for me to rehearse a new guitar player. I'm very impatient with that — I have these songs in my blood and it's very taxing on me to hear them played the wrong way, what I think is the wrong way. I mean I'm the one who wrote them, these are my private emotions which it's difficult for me to hear a different version. To be quite honest I rarely like a cover version. The one that really blew me away for example is the SEPULTURA cover of 'Procreation of the Wicked' which I believe is better than our own version."

LivingForMetal.com: Oh wow, I didn't know that.

Tom: "But that's a rare occurrence."

Read the entire interview at LivingForMetal.com.