Former CELTIC FROST Frontman: TRIPTYKON's Debut CD Will Be Dark, Heavy, And Fiercely Unique

Former CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer has issued the following update on his current TRIPTYKON project:

"We played CELTIC FROST's 'Babylon Fell' for the first time with TRIPTYKON yesterday evening. I last performed this song with CELTIC FROST on the tour to support the 'Into The Pandemonium' album, an eternity ago. Many years later, I attempted to add 'Babylon Fell' to the resurrected CELTIC FROST's live repertoire for the concerts and festival appearances that were planned to complement the 'Monotheist' tour in 2008. I had relearned the song in late 2007 and transcribed arrangement and tabs for Martin. Alas, it was never to happen. By that time, CELTIC FROST was no longer a band that played music but rather a congregation of enemies, and I ended up practicing 'Babylon Fell' on my own at our rehearsal room.

"It was to take another year until I was finally able to play 'Babylon Fell' with a band. After a couple of trial run-throughs, TRIPTYKON made the song come truly alive. It served to make an already very strong rehearsal session even more exceptional. TRIPTYKON's growing repertoire of original material had never sounded so heavy and organic before, and playing 'Dethroned Emperor' and 'Babylon Fell' alongside made the experience almost intoxicating. After the months spent assembling this group and the framework around it in the face of a variety of significant obstacles, a session like last night's reinforces commitment and confidence infinitely. TRIPTYKON's debut album will be dark, heavy, and fiercely unique."

TRIPTYKON's lineup also features Reed St. Mark (ex-CELTIC FROST),V. Santura (DARK FORTRESS) and Vanja Slay. The first audio sample, a track called "Crucifixus", can be heard on TRIPTYKON's official MySpace page.

Commented Fischer: "TRIPTYKON will sound as close to CELTIC FROST as is humanly possible, and the album I am working on will feature all the material I envisioned for the successor to [CELTIC FROST's] 'Monotheist'. I desire the album to be a darker, heavier, and slightly more experimental development of 'Monotheist'.

"'Crucifixus' is but one of many compositions to that end. TRIPTYKON is not defined by just this one song, however, just like CELTIC FROST was not defined by 'Totengott' alone."

Fischer announced his departure from CELTIC FROST in April 2008, citing "the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious."

Fischer recently spent time in Norway as an invited guest of the Norwegian black metallers 1349 while they were recording their new album. He previously joined 1349 on stage during the band's appearance at the Inferno festival on March 22, 2008 in Oslo for a rendition of the CELTIC FROST classic "The Usurper".