CELTIC FROST's FISCHER Speaks Out On SANCTUARY, Upcoming CD

Reunited Swiss avant-garde metallers CELTIC FROST are continuing work on their long-awaited comeback CD, tentatively titled "Probe". The group, who have yet to sign a label deal for the new effort, are self-financing much of the recordings, which are tentatively set to surface later this year.

Among the working titles that are expected to appear on the upcoming CD are the following:

01. November
02. Lore
03. Totgetanzt
04. Patriarch
05. The Dark
06. Human Dirt (formerly "Wanker God")
07. Requiem (Part III: Winter)
08. Seed of Tranquility
09. Leaves and Hunger
10. The Dying I
11. Transfixed
12. Forsaken

In a series of recent postings to the group's official message board, CELTIC FROST mainman Tom Gabriel Fischer touched upon a number of topics, including the original lyrics for "Human Dirt" (then called "Wanker God"),the deterioration of the relationship between Tom's post-CF group APOLLYON SUN and former label Sanctuary Records, the recording process for the new CELTIC FROST album, and his plans to publish further books following the success of his "Are You Morbid?" autobiography.

On "Human Dirt":

" 'Wanker God' was the title of draft lyrics [for 'Human Dirt'] we tried in about ten million versions for one of the heavier, old-school-type of songs for the new album. These lyrics were about [Sanctuary Records label head] Rod Smallwood.

"However, none of the rewrites of these lyrics ever came to fit the music, and we eventually wrote entirely new lyrics for that song. I guess we felt the same way as you did. The song is now called 'Human Dirt', and it is a rather aggressive personal statement on the human psyche.

On Sanctuary's Rod Smallwood:

"Rod Smallwood has absolutely nothing to do with the new FROST project. He had a number of meetings with me about CF when APOLLYON SUN were still signed to Sanctuary in early 2000, and I know he was eager to get CF. However, after what in our opinion was an unprecedented botching up of any and all AS affairs and after the intense personal betrayal we all felt, there was no way in hell I was ever going to give the new CF album to him.

"I have not commented on Rod's job with IRON MAIDEN in my post, and I know and would never dispute that Rod was a cutting-edge manager when he discovered IRON MAIDEN 649 years ago. Why do you think we signed to Rod and his company in the first place? The signing was preceded by a number of very thorough and extensive meetings within AS.

"Nobody outside AS will ever truly know what took place in the period between 1998 and 2000, and if they did they would never believe it. It's too outrageous and too far-fetched to seem possible. It made us wish we were back on Karl Walterbach's 1980s-era Noise Records, enjoying what out of the blue seemed like the good-hearted charity and kind artistic understanding Noise Records extended to CF in 1987.

"Rod, on the other hand, signed AS explicitly because he wanted a state-of-the-art, cutting edge group for Sanctuary, to modernize and rejuvenate their roster. At least that's what we were told in 1997.

"I have not commented on Rod and IRON MAIDEN in my post, and perhaps any comment on us and Rod should be reserved to those who were there and saw what took place. I for one could write an album full of songs with titles such as the one that generated this discussion, and so could everyone else in AS.

"By the way, the only person from IRON MAIDEN who ever even acknowledged our presence at Sanctuary was Bruce Dickinson.

"I have only the best things to say about Bruce Dickinson. And I understand that some of his own, unreleased, music resembled AS's."

On having up-tempo, aggressive songs on the new album:

"As far as 'Circle of the Tyrants', Part 2 tracks are concerned, even though the new CF album will be as modern and adventurous as 'Into the Pandemonium' was in 1987, there will of course also be plenty of CF-typical very heavy and dark songs. It's not only the fans who love those songs - we do too. As a matter of fact, that's all we are currently working on."

On the recording process:

"We have a number of options for recording music in our rehearsal studio. We do have APOLLYON SUN's full ADAT system (which we have not yet used for CF, however),and we have Logic on PC. We also do quite some work on Fruity Loops, which perhaps might surprise some.

"We have used the truly excellent Macky recording system extensively for some tracks, although CF's work on Macky is done externally, in a studio we frequently work at (Oakland Recording). When the time comes to do final recordings and mixing, we will most likely transfer all the music to either Macky or Protools, depending on the location and facilities of that final work/mixing.

"We have yet to record anything on tape for this new project, and I don't know if we ever will. When we transfer music from our homes to our rehearsal studio, we usually utilize mini discs, zip discs or our brains..."

On upcoming book projects:

"The continuation of my life permitting, there will be at least two more books from me, and one of them will be a loose continuation (and much, much more) of events since the conclusion of 'Are You Morbid?' in 1993."