History of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal: Celtic Frost

Celtic Frost's impact on the evolution of European heavy metal cannot be overstated. Along with power metal kings Helloween (and to a lesser degree, the sometimes cartoonish Mercyful Fate), Frost's enduring influence on Europe's heavy metal landscape is arguably comparable to Metallica's standing in America.

Thomas Gabriel Fischer was the product of a broken home and a less than financially secure upbringing — a rare predicament in his native Switzerland, but one that instilled in him the burning ambition and outcast mentality usually required in the formative years of a rock star. Fresh out of high school, the teenager was already enamored with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and particularly high-energy trios like black metal pioneers Venom and proto-thrashers Raven.

Inspired by that movement's D.I.Y. credo, Fischer renamed himself Tom Warrior, and along with bassist Steve Warrior and drummer Bruce Day, formed his first band, Hellhammer, in the fall of 1982.

Less than a year later, and though still raw beyond description, the band's demos — now featuring bassist Martin Eric Ain and drummer Stephen Priestly — had become surprisingly popular within the underground tape-trading community.

But Warrior and Ain felt that Hellhammer had already run its course and that the group's extreme nature was too limiting for their increasingly mature compositions. Thus, with their gothic, pseudo-satanic image already coming into focus, in May 1984 they evolved into Celtic Frost.By October, the trio was in Berlin recording its first album, Morbid Tales, which cemented the group's position as one of Europe's most promising metal acts thanks to its still relatively straightforward — but nevertheless excellent — thrash metal attack.

Now growing from strength to strength, Warrior decided to replace the increasingly unmotivated Ain with bassist Dominic Steiner and Priestly with American drummer, Reid St. Mark for their second album, To Mega Therion. But he soon had second thoughts, and Ain returned after the album's completion that fall.

On To Mega Therion, Warrior had begun experimenting with different musical styles (especially classical music and electronica), leading certain journalists to describe the band's direction as "avant-garde" metal. Released in 1987, Into the Pandemonium would substantiate these claims and then some, introducing an unconventional collision of death metal brutality and symphonic overtones on its way to becoming one of the classic extreme metal albums of all time.

Now at the peak of their powers, Frost headed for America to undertake their biggest tour ever, but trouble was right around the corner. Personality clashes, egos and substance abuse saw a succession of lineup changes and unbelievable the band dumped their heavy thrash sound in exchange for a pop metal-glam look and sound.

The album Cold Lake, released in 1988, was a disaster and the group called it a day in 1992. Warrior would resurface in the mid-nineties with his group Apollyon Sun.

Warrior once again connected with Martin Ain, and quietly set about planning Celtic Frost's resurrection. Working mostly in seclusion and avoiding all external intervention or financing, the duo — plus new drummer Franco Sesa — slowly recorded enough material for a comeback album to be titled Monotheist, which they eventually licensed to Century Media and released to much well-deserved fanfare in early 2006 — just over 20 years after their debut.