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Tom G. "Warrior" Fischer: TRIUMPH OF DEATH have been talking about trying to write music in HELLHAMMER style

29-08-2025

In a new interview with PowerOfMetal.cl, former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON singer, guitarist and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior) spoke about his upcoming December 2025 performance at the Chile Terrorfest where he will perform the music of HELLHAMMER with his TRIUMPH OF DEATH project and the music of CELTIC FROST with TRIPTYKON. Asked if he  ever considered going beyond performing the music of HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST with his current projects and possibly reviving either band with new material, he responded: “Well, in the case of CELTIC FROST, we are doing this with TRIPTYKONTRIPTYKON is basically a continuation of CELTIC FROST without some of the personal problems that we had. But even on the next TRIPTYKON album, there’s gonna be some music that I wrote when I was still in CELTIC FROST, and there’s also new music that’s very much just my music, the way I write it and the way I would’ve written it, even if CELTIC FROST would still exist. As far as HELLHAMMER and TRIUMPH OF DEATH is concerned, there’s, of course, only two years’ worth of HELLHAMMER music; HELLHAMMER only existed for two years. And yeah, we have been talking about maybe trying to write some music in the HELLHAMMER style, but I’m very careful about this. I don’t wanna do something wrong. To me, HELLHAMMER is something very important by now in my life. And if you ever do this, we will be very, very careful to do it the right way. And if it doesn’t feel right, we’re not gonna release it. And we don’t have to do it, so there’s no pressure. We can do it only if it’s right.”

Asked what the “turning point” was that made him finally “embrace the idea” of performing CELTIC FROST and HELLHAMMER music with his current projects, Tom said: “For Martin (Eric Ain, late HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST bassist) and me, the turning point was when we reunited CELTIC FROST in 2001. Talking about the old days, and it was not just in a nostalgic manner, we really tried to revisit the reasons why we formed HELLHAMMER, why we formed CELTIC FROST and so on, and talking about this, of course, made us listen to the old music and made us understand it maybe a little more deeply than we could when we were young. When we were young, we were full of adrenaline and full of testosterone, and we were just thinking in the now, but when we reformed CELTIC FROST, we were older, we were hopefully a little more mature. We were adult men. We listened to this music and we said, ‘Wow, some of this music actually has aged quite well.’ And we actually began playing some HELLHAMMER songs during the rehearsals for (CELTIC FROST‘s) ‘Monotheist’ album (in 2006). We had the intention of playing some HELLHAMMER songs on the ‘Monotheist’ tour. The reason why we didn’t do this in the end was because the drummer we had at the time really didn’t click with this music. We tried to play these songs in the rehearsal room and they just never sounded right with the drummer we had. But then I did the book about HELLHAMMER — around 2010, I wrote the book ‘Only Death Is Real’ with just the HELLHAMMER history — and this really inspired me to try it again, but to try it with a band specifically formed for that. So I formed TRIUMPH OF DEATH with some very good friends of mine who I know understand the music of HELLHAMMER. And that’s when it happened.”

In 2023, Tom and the rest of TRIPTYKON also played several other concerts during which they performed a set of early CELTIC FROST songs celebrating the influential Swiss metal band that he co-founded more than 40 years ago.

Ain, who played with Fischer in both HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST, died in October 2017 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 50.

CELTIC FROST reformed in 2001 and released its comeback album “Monotheist” via Century Media/Prowling Death in 2006. The band broke up in 2008, with Fischer going on to form TRIPTYKON.

TRIPTYKON has released two full-length albums, a live LP, an EP, a single and two box sets in its 17 years as a band.

TRIPTYKON 2025 is Tom Gabriel Warrior (voice/guitar),Vanja Slajh (bass),V. Santura (guitar/vocals) and Hannes Grossmann (drums/percussion).

TRIPTYKON‘s previous album releases are “Eparistera Daimones” (2010),“Melana Chasmata” (2014) and “Requiem – Live At Roadburn 2019” (2020).

Due on November 10 via Noise/BMGTRIUMPH OF DEATH‘s debut live release, “Resurrection Of The Flesh”, is the culmination of three concerts. Recorded in the spring of 2023 at Hell’s Heroes festival in Houston USA, Dark Easter Metal Meeting in Munich, Germany and SWR Barroselas Metal Fest in Portugal, the album was produced by Tom Gabriel Warrior and TRIPTYKON‘s V. Santura. The record captures the band at their primeval finest; raw, foreboding and heavy. The songs may date back four decades but here they are revealed to be still just as vital today as when they were written in the band’s infamous rehearsal bunker in the rural village of Birchwil, Switzerland in the early 1980s. From the thunderous opening chords of “Third Of The Storms (Evoked Damnation)” to the malevolent, morbid feedback of set closer “Triumph Of Death”, this album is a sixty-minute document of the overwhelming power of the live performance of TRIUMPH OF DEATH, and it captures the spirit and intensity of these historic songs that have transcended decades to become revered and timeless.

Warrior says: “This album is, most importantly, testament to the unique connection that exists between the audience and this band. hellhammer’s music was an underground token in 1982 to 1984, often ridiculed and shunned, and we owe the fact that we are now able to perform it all across the globe entirely to grace, openness, and enthusiasm of those who make exactly these concerts possible. They give us as much as we given them, and my gratitude to them knows no limits.”

TRIUMPH OF DEATH is:

Tom Gabriel Warrior – voice/guitar
André Mathieu – guitar/vocals
Jamie Lee Cussigh – bass
Tim Iso Wey – drums

“Resurrection Of The Flesh” track listing:

01. The Third Of The Storms (Evoked Damnation)
02. Massacra
03. Maniac
04. Blood Insanity
05. Decapitator
06. Crucifixion
07. Reaper
08. Horus/Aggressor
09. Revelations Of Doom
10. Messiah
11. Visions Of Mortality
12. Triumph Of Death

Bonus 7″ song (super deluxe edition only)

13. Decapitator(Live In Houston)

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