Triptykon with the Metropole Orkest: “Requiem: Live At Roadburn 2019” (2020, Century Media Records)

The genius of one of the most prolific minds in the world of music, Thomas Gabriel Fischer, also known as Tom G. Warrior, knows no limits. The Swiss musician has been the center of many eyes during his extensive and varied career since he began his path in the world of music in 1982 with the formation of Hellhammer, one of the pivotal bands of extreme metal and one of the greatest exponents of influences from a good handful of bands from then and now.

The futuristic and devastating vision of the mind of bands like Celtic Frost, Triptykon and even Apollyon Sun has meant that their music was always ahead of its time, something that has marked the success and failure of their projects to this day. Failure is subjective, since today I consider that as a musician he has not failed at all, but rather he has grown faithful to his vision and has always done what he wanted, to a greater or lesser extent. Warrior has had the odd slip-up and he himself admits that works like Cold Lake (1988, Noise Records) are a true abortion and should never have seen the light of day.

The iconic and visionary musician has generated authentic pieces of modern art within music such as To Mega Therion (1985, Noise Records) and Into The Pandemonium (1987, Noise Records). Their magnanimous debut, Morbid Tales (1984, Noise Records) is one of the key pieces in the development of extreme metal that took up the baton of Hellhammer, a band that few audiences knew how to understand at the time and that today is considered one of the fundamental pieces that would give life to a series of musical genres such as black metal and death metal, among others.

In the disastrous Into The Pandemonium released by Celtic Frost in 1987, an album that was unfairly criticized and that few understood at the time, Warrior himself already had in mind a large-scale project like the one we have in our hands today. His particular vision and total dedication to his music gave life to the excellent Rex Irae (Requiem), which would be the first piece of Celtic Frost‘s requiem, a demanding piece of music that has remained unfinished for thirty-two years. I say thirty-two years because Celtic Frost’s Requiem was shown for the first and only time at the Roadburn Festival last year and is, quite simply, masterful.

The third part of his requiem is titled Winter (Requiem, Chapter Three: Finale) and was published on Celtic Frost‘s last album, an underrated Monotheist that was released in 2006. The third part of this journey saw the light nineteen years after its first part, but Celtic Frost‘s path came to an end in 2008 and the piece remained incomplete indefinitely. Warrior continued composing his masterpiece all this time hoping that at some point it would see the light.

2019 was the year that Warrior had chosen for two interesting projects to see the light of day. On the one hand, he started Triumph Of Death, a new band that pays tribute to his first formation, Hellhammer. On the other hand, a single evening was proposed for the presentation of an ambitious and long-standing project, the complete interpretation of Celtic Frost‘s Requiem together with the Metropole Orkest within the Roadburn festival, a festival that takes place in the city of Tilburg, in the Netherlands.

Triptykon’s Requiem is made up of three clearly differentiated acts. The first and last are the ones we already know, so it is important to emphasize Grave Eternal (Requiem Chapter Two: Transition). The song is divided into several passages throughout the thirty-two and a half minutes of duration, among which the instrumental of Triptykon stands out, formed by Vanja Šlajh on bass, V. Santura on guitar, Tom G. Warrior on guitar/vocals and Hannes Grossmann on drums, this being his first work with Triptykon after the departure of Norman Lonhard in 2017.

Triptykon’s work is impeccable, it is an authentic journey to the most hidden places of the human soul, exploring painful and narrow passages that cause a feeling of overwhelm and extreme suffering, all seasoned with a classical instrumental by the Metropole Orkest, a perfect combination of jazz, big bang and symphony orchestra that give the composition an astonishing depth. The feelings that Triptykon manages to convey with the Metropole Orkest are closer to extrasensory perception than to the actual action of listening to an album as such. You could even say that it is the soundtrack that accompanies death.

The combination of classic elements together with a slow and heartbreaking instrumental to which we add Warrior‘s sparse but imposing vocal line gives this album a cold and heartbreaking atmosphere that completely captures you and plunges you into the shadows. It is difficult to convey what a person can feel with an album like Requiem in a few words. Requiem (Live At Roadburn 2019) is the perfect farewell to Celtic Frost‘s legacy, a letter in which any lost soul expresses its sour perception of life to abandon the world of the living and join the void. Warrior signs one of his best roles as a leader, vocalist, guitarist and elemental figure in the world of metal with an excellent live album that cannot be missing from the discography of any self-respecting music lover. Put your pride aside and completely forget any mistake that Warrior may have made in the past, here you will only find the unconditional love he feels for his music and in which he believes with all his being. I can only take my hat off to this wonderful release.