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Event Description

The band's frontman, guitarist and singer Tom Gabriel Fischer, changed his name to Tom Gabriel Warrior early in his career. With Steve Warrior on bass, he formed one of the earliest extreme metal bands, Hellhammer, in 1982. Steve Warrior was later replaced by Martin Eric Ain. The band attracted a small international fan base, got signed to Noise Records in Germany and recorded their debut EP Apocalyptic Raids in March of 1984.
By May of 1984, Hellhammer had disbanded; Fischer and Ain, along with session drummer Stephen Priestly, reappeared with a new lyrical and musical concept under the moniker of Celtic Frost. Their 1984 debut LP, Morbid Tales was a hit in the metal scene, and the band set out on its first tour, through Germany and Austria. Their second album was To Mega Therion, with cover artwork by H.R. Giger and recorded with New York drummer Reed St. Mark. To Mega Therion was far more successful than their first release. However, their most influential recording is 1987 Into the Pandemonium. The album was one of the pivotal LPs for underground metal and inducted a new and more varied sound. With the addition of classical instruments, opera vocals and sampling, as well as the more experimental sounds found in death metal, this led to the band being credited by some as giving birth to the genre of avant garde metal.
After a subsequent North American tour (which saw the addition of a second guitarist, Ron Marks to the groups ranks), financial trouble, personal tension between the bandmembers and an ill-fated relationship with their record label led to a complete dissolution of the band. Six months later, Warrior decided to reform the band with Stephen Priestly back on drums, Oliver Amberg on guitars and Curt Victor Bryant on bass. Despite his willingness, Warrior did not take much interest in the album and producer Tony Platt and Amberg took control of the recording of Cold Lake. They mutated the death/black metal sound into radio-friendly glam rock/thrash metal sound. The album was an utter failure in both mainstream and heavy metal markets, and the band was ridiculed by its former fans as a sell-out.
Warrior fired Amberg and former live guitarist Ron Marks returned as a guest for the recording of Vanity/Nemesis in 1990. The most significant change, however, was the return of founder Martin Eric Ain. Though the album was still heavy and critically successful, Celtic Frost's reputation did not fully recover. The group's next (and, as it would turn out, last for a while) album was a collection of rare and unreleased recordings called Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying (1992). A final album titled "Under Apollyon's Sun" was never completed, although work had progressed quite far and several demos were recorded.

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