Danse Macabre

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Wolf Van Halen Plays Eruption: "Here’s me playing part of it, on the guitar it was recorded on" - WATCH VIDEO - 2022 New Yorker Reed St Mark joined Celtic Frost as a permanent member in February 1985, replacing session drummer Stephen Priestly, and the trio recorded the ‘Emperor’s Return’ EP in April ‘85, at Noise’s request. Featuring the first recording of the essential ‘Circle Of The Tyrants’, the EP is a solid snapshot of the sheer fanaticism that was the lifeblood of Tom and Martin in particular. Over the course of little more than three years between 1984 and 1987, Celtic Frost established themselves as one of the most important bands in extreme and experimental music of that era. ‘Danse Macabre’ brings together the band’s recordings from those years, capturing their boundary-pushing ambition and creative zeal.

Over the course of little more than three years between 1984 and 1987, CELTIC FROST established themselves as one of the most important bands in extreme and experimental music of that era. Due on October 28 in Europe and November 25 in the U.S., "Danse Macabre" brings together the band's recordings from those years, capturing their boundary-pushing ambition and creative zeal. Morbid Tales announced the new band. But it was on To Mega Therion where the band’s wider vision properly came into focus. Becoming “even more fanatical” about what they were doing in their bunker, the music was staggering, despite Tom insisting their own skills were nothing special ("If we'd had musical training, we wouldn't have made the music we did. But that meant we could create things by getting it wrong"). When they got to the studio, they began adding in classical instruments. Having to explain such ideas made things difficult. Only having short opportunity to do it more so. And their label weren’t keen. “But we were so pumped on testosterone and youthful energy, we just staked everything on it,” says Tom. “We set up timpanis in the in the large freight elevator, because that would give it this metallic reverb.” We hated these unwritten limitations in the metal scene,” he continues. “‘You cannot do this on an album, otherwise it's not metal…’ We thought, ‘Who writes these laws?’ Once we embarked on that path, Martin and I basically egged each other and continuously made each other more extreme in our endless discussions about these things. We just decided to abandon any restraint and not recognise any limits.” The pace is generally quite frenetic, but here are heavier and slower numbers like “Dethroned Emperor” which demonstrate the band’s willingness to keep their wings well spread. Emperor’s Return (1985)

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Ginger Wildheart's Daughter Jazmin Bean: "I have been in rehab for the past couple of months....RECOVERY IS C*NT!!!!!" - 2022 To Mega Therion" was CELTIC FROST's next album, recorded in September '85. Due to personal difficulties, Martin was not in the band at that point, and so bass duties for the recording were carried out by session player Dominic Steiner. Martin's absence also meant that Tom was responsible for the music and virtually all of the lyrics. But despite difficult circumstances, the resulting album, however, was a triumph. Replete with iconic cover art by HR Giger, "To Mega Therion" imposes its dark majesty from the off with the orchestral bombast of "Innocence And Wrath", before launching into the savagery of the hook-laden "The Usurper". Daring, dark and superlatively heavy, "To Mega Therion" is a sophisticated expression of CELTIC FROST's inherent drive to eschew genre limitations and, instead, define art on their own terms. In late 2001, Fischer and Ain began to write music along with Unala on guitar and, soon after in 2002, with Swiss drummer Franco Sesa. The aim was to develop and record a new dark and heavy album. The completion of the project took longer than anticipated -in part due to the DIY nature of the project and the project's financing- but finally resulted in what Fischer and Ain would describe as "perhaps the darkest album Celtic Frost have ever recorded." Returning to the studio to make Into The Pandemonium, any set of rules were firmly out the window. Describing the mood as “irrationally confident”, Tom also says that the surge of music from all over at the time, inside and out of metal, meant that it was easy to become inspired with every new thing he heard. It all went in, whether it came out metal or not.

To Mega Therion’ was Celtic Frost’s next album, recorded in September ‘85. Due to personal difficulties, Martin was not in the band at that point, and so bass duties for the recording were carried out by session player Dominic Steiner. Martin’s absence also meant that Tom was responsible for the music and virtually all of the lyrics. But despite difficult circumstances, the resulting album, however, was a triumph. Replete with iconic cover art by HR Giger, ‘To Mega Therion’ imposes its dark majesty from the off with the orchestral bombast of ‘Innocence And Wrath’, before launching into the savagery of the hook laden ‘The Usurper’. Daring, dark and superlatively heavy, ‘To Mega Therion’ is a sophisticated expression of Celtic Frost’s inherent drive to eschew genre limitations and, instead, define art on their own terms.

Danse Macabre’ captures the radical ambition and evolution of Celtic Frost from 1984 through to 1987. In addition to the albums Morbid Tales’, ‘To Mega Therion’ and ‘Into The Pandemonium’, the 7 marble color vinyl box set also includes the ‘Emperor’s Return’, ‘Tragic Serenades’ and ‘I Won’t Dance’ EPs, along with On paper, the story of Celtic Frost’s early years is as unlikely as it is extraordinary: a tale of how teenagers from rural Switzerland, at once audaciously ambitious and ferociously uncompromising, took heavy metal into new, exciting and unquestionably extreme territory. That they did so in the face of adversity at almost every turn makes this story even more incredible. New wave that had arisen from punk was extremely ambitious,” he says. “Every time we would go to a record store and listen to a new wave album, there would be ideas we had never heard before. Every new wave album opened new horizons and showed you what was possible. And simply by that, it was extremely exciting, even if you didn't really like a particular album, you’d always go, ‘Wow, I never heard something like this before.’

Rosenberg, Axl; Krovatin, Christopher (2017). Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem. Race Point Publishing. ISBN 9781631064302.

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In 2015, Corpse Flower Records released a tribute of their own entitled Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost. It too compiles a number of Celtic Frost covers by other bands, including Child Bite, Acid Witch, Municipal Waste, and Hayward, among others. [32] KISS's Gene Simmons on Peter Criss: "His health isn’t what it should be. I don’t want to get too specific because it’s part of his private life." - 2022 Interview - The End of the Road Tour