Tom G. Warrior's Monochromatic Art Metallers Return
Norman Lonhard, V. Santura, Vanja Slajh, Tom G. Warrior
( edited from an original colour photo by Christian Martin Weiss and Sylwia Makris )
In Heavy Metal circles, the name Tom G. Warrior ( real name: Thomas Gabriel Fischer ) needs no introduction. With Hellhammer in 1983, the Swiss musician pioneered a chaotic, atonal form of lo-fi thrash metal, and later, just as Hair Metal was assuming global dominance, achieved prominence with art metal outfit, Celtic Frost. Coinciding with the rise of America’s ‘Big Four’ ( Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer ), Frost brought a contrasting avant-garde sensibility to the Thrash movement.
In the 80s, Celtic Frost, Venom and Bathory’s innovative punk rock attitudes inspired the second wave of extreme metal that came out of Scandinavia in the 90s, and it was Celtic Frost’s groundbreaking use of haunting female backing vocals ( see ‘Rex Irae’ from 1987's Into The Pandemonium ), that inadvertently gave birth to the Female-Fronted Gothic Metal scene ten years later. Led by The Gathering, Nightwish, and Within Temptation, several of these groups went on to huge global success.
Sadly, Celtic Frost, notable for a singularly morbid ambience through the use of grunting vocals, heavy guitar distortion, orchestration, and ambient composition, failed to achieve its potential, due to a 'perfect storm' of record company interference, internal schisms, career mis-steps and the dawn of grunge. The band folded in 1992, but re-emerged triumphantly in 2006 with the stunning Monotheist. Frost imploded again due to internal pressures, and thus Triptykon was born, whose stable line-up of V. Santura on lead guitar, Vanja Slajh on bass, and Norman Lonhard on drums, is more like a ‘group of friends’ than a band, as Fischer puts it.
Now with Triptykon’s second album - Melana Chasmata - the band distils and indeed improves on the legacy of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, at the same time laying down the gauntlet to other groups who affect to dwell on the ‘dark’ or 'gothic' side.
The first impression upon hearing this album ( and do try to hear it direct from your CD or vinyl before transferring to your MP3 player ), is the luxurious SOUND. The trend in modern European metal is to ‘go big’ with your production, but too often than not, the end result is a computerised production-line effect that goes for sheer volume with no nuance or variation, rendering many bands indistinct. Here, the warmth and organic sonics perfectly complement the variety of human emotions so effectively portrayed on the album. Opening with a squeal of feedback, kick drums and an ominous bass rumble, Tree of Suffocating Souls is an epic, multi-layered thrasher; a mix of swirling atonal Black Metal, crunching Thrash, and Sabbathian doom, as well as a startling oriental guitar solo.
Fischer’s previous two albums ( Celtic Frost’s Monotheist, and Triptykon’s Eparistera Daimones ) - like this one - continue the vein of emotional starkness that is uncommon in rock music. It’s raw and unnerving, but at the same time, rescued by its humanity. Indeed, the nearest comparison I can think of would be Joy Division.
Where Melana Chasmata improves on the two preceding albums, is the greater balance and depth of ideas. It’s more coherent, and feels satisfying in the way that a hard-to-put-down book is. Amidst all the sturm-und-drang, you have the soaring ‘Aurorae’, the Emily Brontë-inspired ‘In the Sleep Of Death’ ( where Tom revisits his ‘Mesmerised’ vocal style from Pandemonium ), and numerous appearances by the fabulous Simone Wollenweider, who lends her eerie vocalisations to many of the songs. The album concludes with the gorgeous ‘Waiting’, an ambient piece containing vocal samples, a simple bass motif, distorted guitars, incantations, and a beautiful blues guitar solo.
Throughout, the band’s facility with a seemingly endless array of CRUSHING, minimal two-three-and four-note riffs never ceases to amaze. Here, less is definitely more.
Melana Chasmata has been carefully crafted ( see the liner notes in the booklet ) and visually complimented through the use of HR Giger’s nightmarish paintings – so that the end result is not simply that you are listening to the latest rock release - you are experiencing a work of art.
The deluxe box set ( above ), containing poster, candles, seven inch single, CD booklet, pendant and bag is available from Century Media here.
