CELTIC FROST Frontman Talks About Upcoming Solo Album

Lord of The Wasteland of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal-Rules.com: A couple of years ago, a tracklist for the new album even showed up. I think it was something like 14 or 15 tracks complete with song titles and everything…

Tom: "I suppose Blabbermouth took it upon themselves to release information that… Blabbermouth always knew better than we did (laughs)! It's got its advantages and its disadvantages but during the making of this album, they released so much information that had absolutely nothing to do with reality, so we can laugh about that. But I know which list you refer to."

Metal-Rules.com: So "Dark Matter Manifest" and "Probe" were never going to be titles?

Tom: "'Dark Matter Manifest' was simply the title we released because we didn't want to release the actual album title for quite a while. We knew we were not going to release the album tomorrow so we wanted to keep it confidential at the time. 'Probe' was actually the work title when we first started with the album. It was what Martin [Ain] and I referred to when we first sat down talking about the album in 2001."

Metal-Rules.com: I'm going back to Blabbermouth again here, but former CELTIC FROST guitarist Ron Marks appeared from out of nowhere and did a thinly veiled attempt to get back into the band a few months ago. Did it surprise you that he showed up?

Tom: "(Sighs) I don't even know if I should get into this. It's not just me, we all feel kind of tired that somebody who was in the band for five months on a tour, who didn't even write anything for the classic three albums and who left CELTIC FROST at the end of those five months by his own wishes, then spends his next twenty years promoting himself as ex-CELTIC FROST…I find that kind of sad, for lack of a better word. He's not a bad person and he's a guitar player who blows me away technically. I think he undersells himself with this ex-CELTIC FROST tag, which is based on nothing. The only time he recorded with CELTIC FROST was a few riffs and a few solos on an album that's not considered one of the classic CELTIC FROST albums. Does that warrant his twenty year conquest of claiming he's ex-CELTIC FROST? He's written a letter to me in response to my reply about that: 'I will damn well continue to promote myself as ex-CELTIC FROST for as long as I want to,' which made me feel that, alright, if it has to be, that's sad. It's like I would walk around saying, 'I'm ex-HELLHAMMER, I'm ex-HELLHAMMER, hello!' I mean, I did more in HELLHAMMER with one EP than he did in CELTIC FROST! (laughs)"

Metal-Rules.com: What about some of the other band members? Like Reed St. Mark, he was certainly on the classic albums, was he ever considered to come back into the band again along with yourself and Martin?

Tom: "He was the drummer we wanted to work with. But I went to New York and encountered a drummer who, at the time, was definitely not able to play with us for a variety of personal reasons, which was a huge shock to me and Martin. Eventually we turned it into an advantage, but at the time it was shocking and sad. I just talked to him before, we're in regular contact and he's still a very good friend to us. As far as the other members are concerned, I really don't know and I really don't care."

Metal-Rules.com: So besides Ron Marks, nobody else has come out of the woodwork?

Tom: "They've all come out of the woodwork but I really don't give a shit (laughs). You know, after CELTIC FROST I did APOLLYON SUN and if I hadn't bumped into Martin and we hadn't developed this chemistry and these ideas, I wouldn't have had a problem going on without this ex-CELTIC FROST all the time. I have new creative ideas. I don't have to rely on that for the next fifty years or come out of the woodwork every time I know there's a project that I think I can capitalize on. I think it's cheap. I have quite a few friends in the industry who occasionally do something and I don't have to call them and say 'Hey, remember we're friends?' That's so fucking pathetic."

Metal-Rules.com: You mentioned you have a solo album that may or may not be out next year. What direction are the songs going to be? Is it going to be vastly different from CELTIC FROST?

Tom: "Martin, who has heard a lot of the material from it, says it sounds like CELTIC FROST played electronically. It's extremely dark electronic music. It's like rave music but much darker than you usually hear it. Of course you can hear who composed it probably, but it's all electronic with very few real instruments. I certainly will try to release it in 2007. I actually wanted to release it this year but with CELTIC FROST absorbing all my time, I haven't been able to work with it. I would like to finish it later this year and release it next year."

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.