Response to Tom Gabriel Fischer’s latest blog post:
Tom Gabriel Fischer, former front man of Swiss Metal legends Celtic Frost, notified back in April that he had left Celtic Frost. This sent shock waves through many in the metal world since Celtic Frost had only just released it’s heavily praised return album “Monotheist” and had successfully toured all over the globe. The band themselves were skeptical of how far the reunion would go, but as time wore on all signs seemed to be pointing towards a glorious future. Talks of a future album taking the previous venture adventurous experimenting even further and into even darker territories. Plus Tom had whispered in interviews an idea for a DVD that went beyond the conventions of anything previously done by anyone. With the album the return album and the exhilarating tours as ample foundations for such wild prospects, for a while the Metal world felt giddy in a way not felt in a long time. Of course all that was hoped now lies upon the floor like shattered glass.
In the time since then, Fischer has released a string of messages on his blog about the break-up. Overall these have been disappointing by not providing any explanation, but merely giving veiled suggestions of blame projected through whines and whelps. Most mature minds can understand this though as the emotional release of a man whose lifetime work has fallen well short of his expectations. However, for his fans the tipping point is nearing where a lack of exhibited clarity upon the situation leaves us to feel like we’re being toyed around with. The latest public announcement from Tom is no different.
What we have here is perhaps the most open revelation on what caused Celtic Frost’s second downfall and at the same time we are still left grasping for what has not been provided. Tom’s hinting has started to shape a picture where it seems Frost’s troubles were rooted in the absence of Reed St. Mark in the reunion and some still unspecific conflict of interests/vision with Martin Eric Ain along with perhaps some issues with Franco Sesa. Also in an odd sense it was at least kind of Tom to reveal that another reunion (or cancellation of this secondary demise) is out of the question for him. Yet, can this even be taken serious from one musician whom among his fellow band mates has consistently used ambiguity to pull on the emotional strings of their fans?
One could even develop the cynical opinion that this teasing on about the break-up is being used to retain the attention on the band in aspirations for some novel or other to be sold, which even then may not fully reveal the physical events that created this whole mess. Yet still perhaps people are just far too demanding of other human beings, particularly of ones whose life work have recently ended. Perhaps so, but the continued absence of a clear voice in this debacle makes it seem that this band consists of overall vain men who allowed minor problems to escalate into an atmosphere of immaturity. This has been the history of rock music where golden gods are merely masked children that never learned how to cooperate with a single living human being.
There is hope that this newel titled project, Triptykon, will be able to pick up the pieces and carry on to what Celtic Frost promised. Or as is more likely, this will illustrate how the broken chemistry of talented individuals leads to lack-luster results. Isn’t Pink Floyd evidence enough of that?
note: Honestly though, in regard to Triptykon, I hope Tom proves me wrong. Monotheist was too killer to be his last mark.
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