Tom Gabriel Warrior

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TOM GABRIEL WARRIOR’s Unique Art Exhibition at Time To Rock Festival 2023

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 1, 2023
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Antecedent Death
Aesthetics Of Mortality – A Death Mask Project By Tom Gabriel Warrior

The fury captured in the music by Swiss groups Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, and Triptykon ranks among the most pivotal influences on the extreme, black, gothic, doom and avant- garde metal genres. The common thread linking these bands is founding member and main songwriter, TOM GABRIEL WARRIOR (née Tom Gabriel Fischer, voice/guitars). Concurrently primitive yet curiously intricate, Warrior”s compositions evoke stark and compelling vistas reminiscent of writings of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Aleister Crowley, and Charles Baudelaire. Lyrically, Warrior delves into all areas associated with civilizations crumbling into decay, drawing corrosive, sinister parallels between perpetual annual seasons and the recurring collapse of human empires.

Warrior”s affinities have long been known to reach far beyond music alone, as manifested, for example, by landmark album covers adorned with work by the likes of HR Giger, Hieronymus Bosch, Vincent Castiglia, or Isolde Ohlbaum. Moreover, Warrior”s own art has adorned the covers of two high-profile Hellhammer releases, while both Celtic Frost and Triptykon are noted for ambitiously imaginative video clips such as A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh (Celtic Frost), Shatter, and Aurorae (Triptykon).

In 2000, Warrior saw his first book published, a much-lauded autobiography titled Are You Morbid? (Sanctuary Publishing, London). It was one of the very few firsthand accounts on the birth of extreme metal during the early 1980s. Warrior”s second book, Only Death Is Real (Bazillion Points, New York), followed in 2010. He is currently involved in two further book projects. Since 2004, Warrior partially opened the secretive realm of his inner sanctum to the outside world on his highly acclaimed blog Delineation II.

In early 2007, coinciding with the commencement of his activities as an assistant to his friend and mentor, HR Giger, Warrior began work in earnest on his long-intended Antecedent Death death mask project. Based on ideas originally explored during his youth, Warrior casts and adorns each Antecedent Death life-size death mask individually by hand. The mold used in the process was made from the artist”s face by Josh Turi (special makeup effects artist), Tom Denier, Jr. (special makeup effects artist), and Eli Livingston (sculptor), in New York in May 2007. A natural extension of Warriors past and present endeavors, Antecedent Death is expected to expand in various directions in the future.

Antecedent Death III, to commence on 8 July 2023 in Knislinge, Sweden, is Warrior”s third solo exhibition of his tridimensional personification. You will also be able to see THREE concerts with Tom G Warrior during the festival. More information at www.timetorock.se

The exhibition is hosted as a collaboration between Sweden”s Time To Rock festival and Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC).

Swiss Federal Music Prize 2021 Awarded To TOM GABRIEL WARRIOR

Posted by tarjavirmakari on September 30, 2021
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Photo by Marian Duven/Swiss Federal Office of Culture, used with kind permission

Four decades into his career as a musician, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Triptykon founder TOM GABRIEL WARRIOR was among the recipients of the Swiss Music Prize 2021, awarded by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in a ceremony on 17 September 2021 at Lugano’s Arte e Cultura (LAC) centre. This event marked the first time the Swiss Music Prize formally recognized the genre of heavy metal.

Statement by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture: Tom Gabriel Warrior’s bands have played a significant role in music history and influenced musicians around the globe. A metal music pioneer, Warrior is an idol not just within the boundaries of the metal scene, and as an advocate for animal rights, he aims to provide a voice to those who don’t have one.

Also among the winners of the Swiss Music Prize 2021 was legendary producer Roli Mosimann, Warrior’s past collaborator during the recording sessions for Celtic Frost’s Vanity/Nemesis album (1990) and Apollyon Sun’s Sub album (2000). Unable to attend the ceremony due to health reasons, Mosimann asked Warrior to accept the prize on his behalf.

Edited transcript of Tom Gabriel Warrior’s acceptance speech for the Swiss Music Prize 2021:

Although I was very fortunate to be granted a loyal audience already early on in my career, not least in my native country of Switzerland, the local Swiss music industry and cultural institutions either ignored me or expressed derision for my music, and sometimes they even obstructed it. In their perception, it simply didn’t conform and wasn’t commercial enough. And indeed, my music was dark, experimental, and obstinate. But exactly due to these qualities, it was noticed abroad.

I do of course understand that receiving this prize is an honour, and I do feel grateful for it. But given that an inconceivable fourty years have passed since I first became a musician, this prize is also quite irrelevant to me by now. I have pursued my path regardless, without subordinating myself to any of the customary inbreeding rituals of the Swiss music scene, and without ever applying for any kind of cultural funding from the Swiss state or the relevant institutions.

The support granted to me throughout the years by the following individuals was absolutely essential, however, and my gratitude to them is limitless:

Antje Lange
Vanja Slajh
Alois Wendelin
Urs Sprenger
Maya Ghirardello
Martin Eric Ain
Michelle Fischer
H.R. Giger & Carmen Giger
Jörg Michael
Denise Mathieu
Corinne Kühne
Kathy Lenze

And there are many more.

Moreover, I would also like to express gratitude to those who do not kill animals, do not enslave them, and do not mistreat them, but instead respect and protect them. I bow to you.

More information at this location.

Tom Gabriel Warrior’s TRIUMPH OF DEATH Announce Line-Up, Stage Debut Shows & Summer Festivals

Posted by tarjavirmakari on April 4, 2019
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TRIUMPH OF DEATH, Tom Gabriel Warrior‘s tribute to the group HELLHAMMER, intended to bring to the stage for the very first time a large part of the music HELLHAMMER recorded from 1982 to 1984, are delighted to announce that two warm-up club concerts in Germany have been added to the band’s concert schedule of 2019. These two concerts, on June 19 and 20 in Frankfurt and Essen, will mark TRIUMPH OF DEATH‘s stage debut, and thus finally the realization of an idea that has existed for many years.

TriumphOfDeath2019-Photo JozoPalkovits

Photo by Jozo Palkovits

Moreover, TRIUMPH OF DEATH are proud to announce the group’s definite line-up, reflecting a change necessary some time ago due to irresolvable scheduling conflicts.

Triumph Of Death are:

Mia Wallace (Abbath, Niryth, Kirlian Camera) – bass
Alessandro Comerio (Forgotten Tomb, The True Endless, Hiems) – drums
André Mathieu (Punish, Unlight) – guitar/vocals
Tom Gabriel Warrior (Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Niryth) – voice/guitar

Confirmed Concerts

June 19, 2019: Nachtleben, Frankfurt, Germany (warm-up concert)
June 20, 2019: Zeche Carl, Essen, Germany (warm-up concert)
June 21, 2019: Hellfest, Clisson, France
June 23, 2019: Kilkim Zaibu Festival, Varniai, Lithuania
August 1, 2019: Wacken Open Air, Wacken, Germany
August 8, 2019: Party.San Festival, Obermehler-Schlotheim, Germany
August 9, 2019: Brutal Assault Festival, Jaromer, Czech Republic
August 17, 2019: Psycho Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA

Further concerts will be announced in due course.

More information at https://fischerisdead.blogspot.com

Tom Gabriel Warrior’s Newly Launched TRIUMPH OF DEATH To Perform HELLHAMMER Music Onstage In 2019

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 27, 2018
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triptykon-TomGabrielWarrior

HELLHAMMER existed for a mere two years, from May 1982 to May 1984. During this time, the band wrote material for three demos, one 12″ EP, and the legendary Death Metal compilation album, along with a number of unrecorded songs.

In light of Hellhammer‘s now mythically iconic status in the global metal scene, it is almost inconceivable that most of this music has never been performed life. Hellhammer‘s successor group, Celtic Frost, formed by ex-Hellhammer members Tom Gabriel Warrior and Martin Eric Ain, initially played two of Hellhammer‘s songs but soon abandoned this habit due to the band rapidly developing its own material. Tom Gabriel Warrior‘s Triptykon, founded in 2008, have played one or the other rare Hellhammer song during special occasions. The vast body of Hellhammer‘s work remains unperformed, however.

Until now.

The resurrection of the music of Hellhammer has been an idea Tom Gabriel Warrior and Martin Eric Ain have discussed for many years, sparked not least by their renewed collaboration in the reformed Celtic Frost in the 2000s and by the years of work on Warrior’s second book Only Death Is Real (2009), which details the history of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost.

Tom Gabriel Warrior: Hellhammer will never return and will never be reformed. It is absolutely impossible to reform a band so closely linked to a very specific and unique period in time. I never considered it, no matter how substantial the offers that were pitched to me over the years. But Hellhammer’s music exists, and it is an extremely important part of my life’s path. And I would like to play it onstage before my demise.

The first step towards the realization of TRIUMPH OF DEATH, named after Hellhammer‘s most infamous song and intended to be a very respectful and authentic tribute to Hellhammer, were taken years ago. Triumph Of Death consists of some of Warrior’s closest friends; individuals who not only love this music but truly understand it. The line-up emulates Hellhammer‘s final incarnation of April/May 1984, when the group had added an additional guitarist.

Hellhammer-tribute-TomGabriel-TriumphOfDeath

Triumph Of Death will commence playing Hellhammer‘s music onstage in 2019. It is a an open-ended project, but the band will only play select concerts. Apart from considerations regarding the release of an occasional live EP, Triumph Of Death will not record any new music but is solely dedicated to performing both well-known and obscure Hellhammer songs. The project is based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Triumph Of Death

Tom Gabriel Warrior (Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Niryth) – voice/guitar
Mia Wallace (Niryth, The True Endless, Kirlian Camera) – bass
Michael Zech (Secrets Of The Moon, Odem Arcarum) – guitar/vocals
Alessandro Comerio (Forgotten Tomb, The True Endless, Hiems) – drums

 

HELLHAMMER ‘Blood Insanity’: Prowling Death Records, Century Media Records To Release Previously Unissued Single

Posted by aliblackdiamond on July 6, 2016
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Century Media Records and Prowling Death Records are proud to announce the joint release of the HELLHAMMER ‘Blood Insanity’ 7″ vinyl single, originally conceived by the band in 1984.

The worldwide release date for the ‘Blood Insanity’ 7” (Which comes packaged in a gatefold sleeve) will be August 19th, 2016 and the pre-sale will begin via CM Distro / www.cmdistro.com on July 22nd, 2016.

Tom Gabriel Warrior: “In early 1984, after Hellhammer’s third demo Satanic Rites, Hellhammer bassist/singer Steve Warrior, Hellhammer roadie Marco Dinosaur Suremann, and I contemplated properly releasing some of the music Hellhammer had recorded the year before. We planned a NWOBHM-style 7″ vinyl single, containing two songs taken from the Triumph Of Death demo recording sessions of June 1983.

The single was to feature Blood Insanity as a title track, and Maniac as its b-side. The cover of the single was to be a photo taken by Hellhammer photographer Martin Kyburz in early 1983. We drafted a brief typewriter memo, recording the outline for this single proposal.

At the time, it was difficult and prohibitively expensive for a band to directly contract a manufacturing plant to produce a vinyl record without the involvement of a record company, so the single eventually remained a mere idea, while Hellhammer ultimately signed with Noise Records in West Berlin. The Blood Insanity single project thus languished in an unrealized state until the eventual dissolution of Hellhammer rendered any plans for further Hellhammer releases redundant.

Nonetheless, the unrealized single never really faded from my memory throughout all the commotion associated with Hellhammer’s past existence during the many years since the band’s termination. Moreover, Prowling Death Records, founded in my bedroom in 1983 to release the Hellhammer demos, had in the meantime become a proper record company. When I presented the idea to Century Media Records, the long-standing licensing partner of Prowling Death Records, they immediately pledged their support.

The original single was to be issued in a simple card sleeve; but the gatefold format now chosen allows us the luxury to expand the visual presentation: the outside representing the single exactly as it was to be in 1984, the inside adding information about the project’s history.

The result is this single, produced in full coordination with the Hellhammer members who played on these songs and designed as faithfully as possible in accordance with the original concept we devised 32 years ago. It features the Prowling Death Records number we originally assigned to it: PDR 007.”

The ‘Blood Insanity’ 7” release is limited to a one-time only pressing of 3,000 copies and will be available in the following vinyl editions:

Picture 7“ / 500 copies

Silver 7” / 300 copies (Century Media exclusive)

White 7” / 300 copies (Nuclear Blast exclusive)

Clear 7” / 300 copies (High Roller exclusive)

Transparent Red 7” / 600 copies

Black 7“ / 1000 copies

All 7“ vinyl single copies will be shrink-wrapped in plastic and marked with a colour sticker (Golden colour for the Picture 7”) to indicate its respective edition.

In related news, Tom Gabriel Warrior’s current band TRIPTYKON have just announced two special warm-up concerts in Germany before their appearance at the 2016 edition of the legendary Wacken Open Air festival. The two intimate warm-up concerts will take place in the week before the festival, on August 3rd (Freiburg) and 4th (Essen). Here is a list of the upcoming concerts for Triptykon:

Triptykon Live 2016/2017:

03.08.2016 Freiburg, Germany – Crash

04.08.2016 Essen, Germany – Zeche Carl

06.08.2016 Wacken, Germany – Wacken Open Air

13.08.2016 Kortrijk, Belgium – Alcatraz Hard Rock & Metal Festival

08.09.2016 Hüttikon, Switzerland – Meh Suff! Metal-Festival 2016

03.03.2017 Tilburg, The Netherlands – Netherlands Deathfest II

More news about Hellhammer and Triptykon to follow soon.

Hellhammer Blood Insanity

 

TRIPTYKON Working On ‘Very Ambitious’ Concert Film

Posted by aliblackdiamond on September 23, 2012
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T-Mobile-Music.pl conducted an interview with former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Warrior after TRIPTYKON‘s June 1, 2012 performance at Metalfest at Zalew Sosina in Jaworzno, Poland. You can now watch the chat below.

On TRIPTYKON‘s forthcoming DVD:

Tom: “It’s a very ambitious project. It’s not just a live DVD, it’s a concert film. It’s also an expensive project and we’re working on it. It’s definitely a plan that we wanna realize, but I can’t give you a definite release date yet. But we are working on it — very definitely — and eventually it’s gonna happen. And there’s also a second DVD in the planning.

“There’s a million projects, but sometimes you have to be a little patient.

“I don’t like to do quick things; I like to do things right and to do them appropriately. To me, what counts is not the speed, what counts is the quality of the product, and sometimes quality takes a little more work.”

On TRIPTYKON‘s current lineup:

Tom: “Right now we are so happy to be in this lineup; this lineup has already worked together for almost four years. So we all hope that it’s gonna stay like this. We are four very different people — we have different ages, different lives. Hopefully, we will develop together, so we can stay together for a long time; we all want that. But, you know, life is unpredictable. But I can tell you: yes, we love playing in this band and in this lineup — very much so. All four of us are very close friends.”

On being considered an extreme-metal “icon”:

Tom: “I’m a human being. I mean, what’s different about me? That’s a huge word, and [people] put that on me all the time. But I come from a very simple background. I grew up extremely poorly, I was abused, I had to fight violence. I had no connections, no friends or whatever.

“HELLHAMMER was formed in a tiny little village with nothing — no talent, no contacts, no money, no nothing. And I remember that very, very well — every day. So I don’t see what should make me an icon. I’ve just been very lucky to create music and that people listen to my music. And if anything, it’s the people out there, the audience like today, that makes a band an icon, but certainly not the musicians. You can play all the music that you want, if nobody listens to it… It’s the fans, it’s the audience that makes a band big, or makes a band special.

“I hate when musicians walk around — and there’s one or two bands on this festival, too, that I know personally — I hate when it gets to their heads and they think they’re geniuses or whatever, because it’s not true. It’s the people out there — they give you the platform, they are open, they give you the chance, they listen to your music, they create what you are, not the musicians. I’m a human being; I’m a metal fan like you. What makes me different? We both are passionate for this music. That’s really all there is to it.”

TRIPTYKON consists of V. Santura (guitar, vocals), Norman Lonhard (drums, percussion), Vanja Slajh (bass), and Tom Gabriel Fischer (voice, guitars). The group has unambiguously stated that it pursues the continuation and further development of the path Warrior began in HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST.

 

Source: Blabbermouth.net