Triptykon Is ‘More Positive Experience’ Than Celtic Frost for Frontman

Blackened doomsayers Triptykon just wrapped a US tour in support of 'Eparistera Daimones,' and vocalist/guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer -- aka Tom G. Warrior, late of Celtic Frost -- is emphatic that the band will return and lay waste to America in the future. "I want to come back. Hell yeah!" the singer told Noisecreep while coming down from the tour. "This was just the first break in what will be building to be even bigger."

For Fischer, Triptykon wasn't a creative disconnect or shift to the left for him, being the former creative force behind one of metal's most revered and influential bands. In fact, he picked up where Celtic Frost left off with 2006's 'Monotheist.' For all intents and purposes, Triptykon represent the logical extension of Frost.

"I was musically and creatively happy," he mused about writing for Triptykon. "I tried to create music that was as close as possible to Celtic Frost. But with this band, behind the scenes, there weren't ego problems or personal bickering -- all of which destroyed Celtic Frost. Musically, [it's] music I've been writing for a quarter of a century, so I am comfortable with it."

Fischer even went on to say that Triptykon was a "hugely more positive experience, and I am not saying that solely to promote the band." He was not shy about referring to the in-fighting and years of behind-his-back nonsense that came to define Celtic Frost for him -- all of which eventually eroded the fabric of the band and caused him to split.

"I approached people who were friends in my private life to be in the band, and it has paid off," he said about assembling Triptykon's players. "We've been touring all year. And the relationships we are enjoying are creative and constructive."

Fischer has already established his place in the metal history books with the legacy of Celtic Frost, but he feels he is not done making viable music, and that Triptykon will further the mark that he leaves on the genre.

The closer on 'Eparistera Daimones,' the 20-minute 'The Prolonging,' transcends heavy metal and is actually a mass on record. "I was losing a band that has meant the world to me," Fischer reflected. "This song is about the way I had to lose it. I wrote down my feelings ... in the shape of a prayer when I was in Norway. The song has almost a religious flavor, but, of course, in an occult sense."

The ominous darkness that marks the song is also a product of the bitter chill during which it was recorded. "It was a Norwegian winter and I was in the studio with 1349, surrounded by forests, fields of snow and always around the perennial darkness, cold and winter," he described in what sounds like a black metal album cover. "In such surroundings, it is easy to lose yourself in extreme feelings. I was already filled with extreme feelings after losing Celtic Frost."