Former CELTIC FROST Mainman Interviewed For New TV Documentary

Former CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message on his blog:

"In the course of the production of a new documentary series about the evolution of music in the 1980s, German/French TV station Arte contacted me some time ago to arrange an interview on the topics of HELLHAMMER and early CELTIC FROST.

"The resulting footage would be used as part of the episode on metal, industrial, and gothic music.

"Last week, a small team lead by author Tom Theunissen thus arrived in Zurich to film the segment at TRIPTYKON's rehearsal bunker on the north side of Zurich. It turned out to be a very candid and explicit interview, although only a few brief seconds will, of course, make it into the final documentary.

"Following a spontaneous and rather unexpected suggestion by Tom, we wrapped up proceedings by driving out to Nurensdorf, where I lived as a teenager and wrote all of HELLHAMMER's music, and Birchwil, location of the bunker in which HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST used to practice all these years ago. Such occasions feel explicitly surreal. The music we created back then was an unreservedly personal refuge from a despondent reality, and none of us would have envisioned such attention to ever be cast upon our underground universe.

"The documentary, a joint production by German TV station ZDF and Arte, it is to be broadcast in autumn."

TRIPTYKON's lineup also features V. Santura (DARK FORTRESS) and bassist Vanja Slajh. 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 recently spent time in Norway as an invited guest of the Norwegian black metallers 1349 while they were recording their new album, "Revelations Of The Black Flame". 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".