Swiss extreme visionary Tom G. Warrior is our next guest on BraveWords' Streaming For Vengeance, which airs this Saturday, December 17th at 3:33 PM EST on the BraveWords Facebook page and the BraveWords YouTube channel. The Celtic Frost legend talks about the mega Danse Macabre box set which captures the radical ambition and evolution of the band from 1984 through to 1987.
Going back to his youthful days, Warrior talks about being alone in a cold, dark space in Switzerland which ultimately became the environment to create music that would change the world. To a certain degree, growing up in the cold yet vast expanses of Canada had a similiar effect on creativity. And there is a deep musical connection with Canada.
“I have to say, the comparison with Canada, we really followed the Canadian hard rock and metal scene at the time,” Warrior recalls fondly. “Bands like Goddo and Triumph, I mean, there were so many. Exciter, Rush - well, Rush obviously, but there was a million, and we looked up to that scene. That scene was highly developed in our minds, compared to what we had in Switzerland. There were a handful of bands that tried to copy Krokus, because Krokus was the first band to do any business outside of Switzerland. But that was really the end of it, which made it very difficult for us to find musicians to play extreme metal. But if you ask me what were the drawbacks or the advantages of Switzerland, back then we thought it was all drawbacks. We felt we were isolated, like I said earlier, we didn't have any peers we could talk to, gain experience from. Nowadays, I think being forced to rely on our own ideas and basically having to create everything from scratch the way we imagined it is being done, actually made us sound like nobody else. So nowadays, in latter days, Martin (Ain) and I always looked at it as an advantage, but back then we perceived it as a severe hindrance."
BraveWords: Were you paying attention to the other extreme pockets around the world like The Big Four in the US, or our extreme scene led by Anvil, Razor, and Exciter?
Warrior: "I loved Anvil from the first album. I absolutely worshipped Anvil. And Goddo was one of my - still is one of my favourite Canadian bands. I still listen to Goddo all the time. Yeah, of course we paid attention to it. Maybe not The Big Four, they weren't titled like that, and we viewed the order quite differently than it's perceived now. To us one of the most important bands of the thrash metal movement, for example, was Exciter. The first album by Exciter, for example, changed our lives. It was absolutely amazing and I still worship it to this day."
BraveWords: And you inspired some kid in Ontario to start a magazine called Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, so thank you. How does it feel when you meet people that are like, "You changed my life"? Because you know what really changed my life? Who we first saw the “Circle Of The Tyrants” video it was life-changing.
Warrior: "Exactly, and it had quite a magical aura to it because back then videos weren't just available like today. You really had to go look for videos. Some friends maybe had a bootleg, or a bad VHS copy, or if you were lucky some TV station would play one or two metal videos occasionally. It was very rare and like you just described it, there was much material that changed our lives, too. Beginning with the obvious, some of Black Sabbath's material changed our lives completely, forever. Then Angel Witch or Venom or Discharge, and like I said, Exciter, for example. Or receiving the first Megadeth demo in the era of tape trading, and hearing how they are pushing the technical envelope in North America was an eye-opener to us, and so on."
BraveWords: You've mentioned Krokus a couple of times. Were you ever a fan of Headhunter?
Warrior: "No."
BraveWords: Okay.
Warrior: "The only album by Krokus that I still think is quite fantastic and I have to say this in hindsight because nowadays it is probably no longer so innovative, but when it came out in whatever it was, 1980 or 1981, Metal Rendezvous was quite a strong hard rock album. And actually I also went to see that tour and Krokus were phenomenal on stage, at the time. Unfortunately they lost a bit of that spark later on and they had ten million lineup changes. It's a shame because when I saw them back then, they were maybe not an original band because they sounded very much like AD/DC, but they had the spark so it actually worked."
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 colour vinyl box set also includes the Emperor’s Return, Tragic Serenades and I Won’t Dance EPs, along with The Collectors Celtic Frost compilation, a 7” of "Visual Aggression" and a cassette of rehearsals recorded at the band’s Grave Hill Bunker. A 12” x 12”, 40 page book, brings together photography - some previously unseen - from the era and brand new interviews with Tom Gabriel Warrior and Reed St Mark. A Heptagram USB drive contains MP3 audio of all the albums, including bonus tracks. A Danse Macabre woven patch, a double sided poster, and a Necromaniac Union fan club enamel badge complete the set. Danse Macabre is also available as a 5 CD box set, with 40 page book, badge, poster and patch.
A new unboxing video video can be found below.
The LP Box Set includes:
- Morbid Tales (1LP red & black galaxy vinyl)
- To Mega Therion (1LP gatefold Silver & black swirl vinyl)
- Into The Pandemonium (1LP gatefold on orange and beige galaxy vinyl)
- Emperor’s Return (Back on vinyl for the first time in 37 years. Green & black galaxy)
- Tragic Serenades (12” EP on pink and black swirl vinyl)
- I Won’t Dance (12” EP, back on vinyl for the first time in 35 years. White & black swirl vinyl)
- The Collector’s Celtic Frost (12” single, back on vinyl for the first time in 35 years. Marble vinyl with silk screen print on Side B)
- "Visual Aggression" (7” single with new artwork and on grey vinyl)
- Grave Hill Bunker Rehearsals (Four track rehearsal demo cassette from 1984)
- 12” x 12” 40 page book of brand new interviews with founding member Tom G Warrior and drummer Reed St Mark. Contains rare and previously unseen photos from the era.
- ‘Heptagram’ figurine USB drive containing MP3 audio of all the albums, including bonus tracks.
- Two sided, A2 poster.
- ‘Necromaniac Union’ fan club enamel badge.
- Danse Macabre sew on woven patch.
The CD Box Set includes:
- Morbid Tales (Full album, remastered)
- To Mega Therion (Full album plus Tragic Serenades bonus tracks, remastered)
- Into The Pandemonium (Full album plus I Won’t Dance bonus tracks, remastered)
- Emperor’s Return (Full EP plus bonus tracks, remastered)
- Grave Hill Bunker Rehearsals (1984 rehearsal tracks)
- 40 page book of brand new interviews with founding member Tom G Warrior and drummer Reed St Mark. Contains rare and unseen photos from the era.
- Two sided poster.
- ‘Necromaniac Union’ fan club enamel badge.
- Danse Macabre sew on woven patch.
A very limited edition Glow In The Dark vinyl variant edition of the LP box set will be available via EMP and Nuclear Blast online. This is limited to 1,000 units.
In addition to Danse Macabre, Triptykon have announced for the first time ever they will perform a full tribute set of early Celtic Frost songs from Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion at Hell’s Heroes festival on March 25m 2023. This is being held at White Oak Music Hall in Houston, Texas.
(Top photo by Henryk Michaluk )
