Former CELTIC FROST Mainman Mixing New Black Metal Album

Former CELTIC FROST mainman Tom Gabriel Fischer has posted the following message on his official blog:

"For the fourth time this year, I will return to Norway tomorrow to contribute my share to the mixing of the black metal album production commenced this past January. I will thus be online infrequently for a few days, but I will tend to the numerous pending e-mails in my inbox upon my return to Switzerland in early May. This will include the substantial backlog of mail caused by my departure from CELTIC FROST."

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

"I have always seen the 'Monotheist' album as a mere beginning, and a tame one at that," he explained. "My mind and spirit are full of energy, creativity, and ideas. CELTIC FROST had become the unreserved focus of my life for the second time. I was looking forward immeasurably to working on the next CELTIC FROST album. To me, it needed to be darker, heavier, and more experimental than 'Monotheist'.

"And yet, CELTIC FROST consisted of three individuals, and I was only one of them. In the end I had to concede to myself that there was no other option."

Fischer added, "Artistically, I did not want to leave CELTIC FROST at all; I have never been happier with the music and creativity in the band. I saw 'Monotheist' as only the first of hopefully several distinctive albums by this group. I thus plan on continuing exactly in the artistic vein of CELTIC FROST. I had very a distinct vision of what the next two CELTIC FROST albums might consist of, and I intend to eventually fulfill this vision and complete these albums with a new group. I would also like to continue touring and perform the music I have written in CELTIC FROST over the years for audiences all across the globe."

It was reported earlier in the year that CELTIC FROST was putting together an album tentatively titled "Monotheist Companion" that will feature unreleased songs from 2006's "Monotheist" sessions and rearrangements of tracks from the album. The disc is tentatively due in the summer.

A video interview with Tom Gabriel Fischer which originally appeared on the "Xtreme Soundscapes Vol. VI" DVD (web site) can be viewed below.

CELTIC FROST's video for "A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh", a song taken from their first album in 13 years, "Monotheist", was filmed in mid-August 2006 by up-and-coming Swiss director Jessie Fischer (no relation to Tom Gabriel Fischer) in Zrich, Switzerland.