A year later the band has been on the road all over the world touring in support of the album. After doing mostly headlining shows, Celtic Frost did a U.S. tour with Type O Negative. The tour rolled into Charlotte, North Carolina where I had the chance to interview Fischer again, this time in person. He’s a very intense and passionate artist, and was very frank and candid with his answers and opinions. He’s also newly engaged to be married. We talked about the reception of Monotheist, the future of Celtic Frost, the album that he thinks has best stood the test of time, the problem with today’s heavy metal, and much more.
Chad Bowar: You’ve been on the road with Type O Negative for about a month. How has it been going?
Tom Gabriel Fischer: It's fantastic. Both bands are mutual fans of each other. We have a very good relationship with them. The only thing that's difficult sometimes is that since we are not playing huge places a lot of times, the stage size is really small. Sometimes we have to make do with very little stage space. That's the only detrimental thing. Everything else has been fantastic.
On this tour, have the fans been mostly Type O Negative fans, or are there a lot of Celtic Frost fans as well?
There are always Celtic Frost fans, but make no mistake, it's a Type O Negative audience. But that's exactly why we took the opportunity. We've done 140 shows so far, and only 25 of those are special guest spots. All the rest were headlining shows. We got this offer two months ago to be special guests for Type O Negative. We all love Type O, so we decided to do it. It's an opportunity to expand this tour to an audience that we would otherwise not get.
What are your tour plans for the summer?
We will conclude the Monotheist tour by playing some festivals all across Europe. It's about time we wrap this up. We've been on the road for a year now. We're ready to get back home and write the new album.
You have a touring guitarist. When you go back into the studio, will you go back to being a three-piece?
Yes. We will do the album as a three-piece.
Monotheist has been out for over a year now and has received great response. Did the response meet your expectations?
I had no commercial expectations. I know people might not believe that, but I really did not have any commercial expectations. Musical expectations I had. I wanted to do a true Celtic Frost album. When Martin (Eric Ain) and I decided to do this in late 2000, we placed no financial or time limits on this album. We would leave the studio when it was a true Celtic Frost album. So we did. It took 4 1/2 years. It could've taken three months, it could've taken 10 years. We didn't know. It took 4 1/2 years until we had the feeling that this is the album we always wanted to do. So my expectations have been fulfilled, even before the album came out. Nobody else put pressure on us. There was no record company, no management to tell us when to finish it. We took control and formed our own record company. Martin and I called the shots. We were in the fantastic position to say expectations have been fulfilled. I had done a tremendous misstep in the past with Celtic Frost, album wise, and I was never going to do that again. My primary goal was to make an album that I could live with until the day that I die. And I did that.
There was absolutely no concession made to fans or media to connect with that album. As it turned out, they did, but you cannot plan that. We left the studio with a feeling that we had done a Celtic Frost album. That's what really counted at this point in our lives. We are grown men and not driven by puberty testosterone like in the early days. In the old days we wanted to prove ourselves, that we can be heavier, that we can be faster. That didn't matter as a 43 year old man. I wanted to do an album that I can be proud of.
Have you done any writing for a new album?
I have a notebook where I put tons of ideas. I've written some music on the off days when I was home. Everybody in the band is working on things, but we haven't really worked as a band yet.
Do you anticipate that the new album will come together quicker than Monotheist?
I have no idea. I would like it to. I definitely don't want to take another 4 1/2 years for another album, but I don't even know if there's going to be another album. The characters involved in Celtic Frost are very volatile, and that includes me. It's not an easy band to be in. I would love to see another Celtic Frost album. I believe we can top Monotheist easily. I think we can make an album that is even more dramatic and honest and emotional. However, the path there is very difficult. And so I cannot predict to you whether there is going to be another Celtic Frost album. I would like there to be, I think we all would, but nobody knows if we are going to get there.
Are you satisfied with Century Media's promotion of Monotheist?
By and large, very much so. That has to do with the fact that we are our own record company. We licensed the finished product to them. They are not even allowed to take photos of us. Everything is supplied by the band. Every sentence in a press release has to be approved by us. That is the advantage of having our own record company and licensing a product to them for distribution. So they haven't been able to screw up anything and we've had a really good relationship. So far it's been really good. This is the most successful and widely distributed album we've ever had. I don't think we've ever had an album has been so successful and so successfully promoted and distributed.
