Time To Rock 2023: Triptykon revives the first stage of Celtic Frost with a total delivery
Tom G. Warrior and Triptykon’s band members astonishing tribute to Celtic Frost’s in Time To Rock Festival 2023.
Good old Tom G. Warrior knows very well the public that consumes his work, especially those who once fell under the spell of Swiss pioneers Celtic Frost with the release of their everlasting debut EP in 1984, Morbid Tales. The release of this first work originally composed of eight songs – if we take into account that Human (Intro) and Into The Crypts Of Rays is counted as the same audio track – revolutionized the general panorama despite the refusal that its members had received with his previous musical project, Hellhammer, whom Warrior himself also honored at Time To Rock the previous night.
The fact is that Morbid Tales was erected as one of the key releases in the future development of extreme metal, providing some recognition to the new project formed after the dissolution of Hellhammer a few months before its launch, composed of Tom G Warrior itself as a vocalist and guitarist, the sadly missing Martin Eric Ain in the bass guitar and, in the recordings of the aforementioned EP, drummer Steve Priestly. In just over a year they released a short trajectory of iconic albums that would begin with the timeless classic To Mega Therion, another of the albums that revolutionized the scene and influenced a huge amount of bands and musicians around the world.
With these two albums as reference, Tom G. Warrior‘s current project known as Triptykon, which has been active since 2008 – specifically since the dissolution of Celtic Frost – and formed by guitarist V. Santura (ex-Dark Fortress), bassist Vanja Šlajh (ex-Freitod) and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Alkaloid, Howling Sycamore) offered a special set at Time To Rock on June 9, made up solely and exclusively of songs from Celtic Frost‘s first two albums as a tribute , like Triumph Of Death did the night before with a most heartfelt and profound result.
Obviously, one of the main attractions of this show is that Triptykon focused solely and exclusively on the material from Celtic Frost‘s first two works, completely leaving aside works as essential as Into The Pandemonium (1987) or Monotheist (2006), which seems to be a very good decision to me.
The most notable thing about Triptykon‘s performance is how carefully staged it is. Its four members manage to play their roles with surgical precision, and give their all in each of their concerts. The rage and energy that Vanja gives off on bass is something that I cannot compare with any other musician, his technique is so aggressive that he commands considerable respect on the stage. I still remember the first time I saw her hitting the strings of her Ibanez ICB300EX-BK Iceman in the Tree Of Suffocating Souls video, but until I saw her live for the first time at Leyendas del Rock (Spain) in 2016 I couldn’t corroborate that her way of playing the bass is something from another world.
The rest of the band is completed by the outstanding V. Santura (Victor Bullok) whose work on Dark Fortress has always fascinated me. His incredible mastery of the six strings manages to captivate the viewer in an unmatched way, even in the moments when he seems to be in a trance. The same thing happens with Hannes Grossmann on drums, and good old Tom has managed to surround himself with three great musicians to revive the Celtic Frost classics that today sound even darker than when they saw the light almost four decades ago..
The evening started with the aforementioned Into The Crypts Of Rays after the band had finished preparing their performance while the eclectic Danse Macabre played. As expected, the classics fell one by one in an overwhelming way, with Dethroned Emperor and Morbid Tales shaking our bodies before the powerful The Usurper fell prey to an unleashed public that could only surrender to the magnetism of Triptykon. From there they gave way to a dark and dense Jewel Throne which was followed by Return To The Eve and the iconic Procreation (Of The Wicked) before facing the second half of their performance.
The final part of this heartfelt tribute was starred by gems such as Nocturnal Fear or Dawn Of Megiddo, highlighting a true anthem like Circle Of The Tyrants which, to the surprise of the audience, was not the last one that was played that night. In fact, they had a very pleasant surprise in store: the almighty Necromantical Screams as the closing of their excellent performance. Although everyone said goodbye to the audience, we were all going to meet again the next night for a good dose of more darkness, although this time we could enjoy the teacher of teachers Tom G. Warrior with a black shirt rolled up with his sleeves and a Hellhammer t-shirt as clothing chosen for the occasion, so that it was totally different from his performance the night before with Triumph Of Death and the one the following night as Triptykon.
