Tom Gabriel Fischer: We disregarded any label offers just like we disregarded all the reunion offers. We wanted to have full control of this based on some really bad experiences we had in the '80s with record company interference. We are a much stronger, confident and capable band now, so Martin and I formed our own record company and financed the album entirely on our own. When it was finished we approached a number of labels for a licensing deal. What was important to us is that there would be a personal connection, that the band would not be handled as simply an item on a financial spreadsheet at the end of the year, but that there would be an attempt to understand our art, our music and that there would be personal enthusiasm for the music. From all the offers we received, only two labels in our opinion could fulfill that, and we eventually decided to go with Century Media because it seemed to be the perfect combination of personal interest and fantastic distribution.
And since you're just licensing the album to them, you keep all the rights to the master recordings, right?
We have control over everything down to the artwork, which is unprecedented for us. I think it's absolutely essential.
How did you decide on the album title?
It seems very logical to me. We live at the time where humanity is proving once again how limited and silly we think. We have this eternal urge to unite ourselves behind a superior being. We don't even know if such a being exists, and yet we conduct wars and murders and revolutions in his or its name. Like in medieval times there are factional fundamentalists who try to force everybody else to think the same thing, who try to come like a wave across societies and force them to bend to their fundamentalist rules. They are following a pattern that humanity has followed since we crawled out of the caves. It's a microcosm. You can expand it to politics and to music and to everything, where there always has to be a Godlike icon. It's awful, it's pathetic if you try to look at it realistically and from the outside. Our title and some of the lyrics is simply based on that.
Now that the band is back together, do you have any plans to update your biography Are You Morbid that was released a few years ago?
I've been approached about it a couple times, but I'd rather look forward. I'm working on two photo books. One is a detailed history of Hellhammer with lots of unreleased stories and artwork and photos. I'm writing that together with Martin. Then of course there will eventually be a sequel to my book. The book seemed right to me at the time. I would write certain things better nowadays. I'm not very happy with some of the language I used, but I'm happy with the book. I've been approached and Martin is telling me I should do it, but I haven't made a decision.
What has been the response to your blog, which has been chronicling the progress of the album for the past few years?
It's been a mixed blessing. I personally love the blog, but we're in the age of the internet and anybody can post stuff. We are not a band that's easy to understand, and sometimes that provokes reactions that are not just harsh, but downright insulting and painful. In general I love it. It's something we always wanted to do. We were always a band that expressed itself on various levels; lyrically and visually and musically, and the blog is an extension of that. We all love the blog and feel it's an additional means to bring across what we feel is important.
You have an extensive tour lined up that will take you through most of 2006. Have you started thinking about the setlist yet?
There is some leeway. We have rehearsed many more songs than we actually will play live. We base the setlist around the first three albums, which to us are the classic Celtic Frost albums. And then of course we'll include material from the new album plus probably some Hellhammer material. We'll be playing a lot of festivals, and we haven't been a fan of festivals. It's an experiment for us to see how Celtic Frost will fit into that environment. Festivals are more important nowadays than they were when we first were around, so I don't think there's a way around it. I'm really enthusiastic about playing a tour. I feel much more at home on a proper tour.
