Whatever else Melana Chasmata, the second album from Tom G. Warrior‘s post-Celtic Frost outfit Triptykon, might have to offer, two things about it are pretty much guaranteed: It’s going to be insanely dark and it’s probably going to have H.R. Giger artwork. From there, it’s up in the air as to where the actual sonics of the album might go. Triptykon‘s first offering, 2010’s Eparistera Daimones (review here), was an a-number-one mindfuck, bleak and oppressive and rife with torment, but it was also constructed from a lot of older parts that might’ve otherwise become Celtic Frost songs, as Warrior recounted in the liner notes. Whether Melana Chasmata will come from the same well of material, I don’t know, but I’m sure interested to find out.

The PR wire sent news of the album’s April 24, 2014, release date, and of course Triptykon were previously announced for Roadburn as well, so good things all around:

TRIPTYKON set to release second album MELANA CHASMATA April 24, 2014

Prowling Death Records/Century Media Records

TRIPTYKON is the occult/avant-garde metal band formed by Hellhammer/Celtic Frost singer, Tom Gabriel Warrior. After his exit from Celtic Frost in 2008, Warrior is proud to announce the groups’ second album, Melana Chasmata, set to be released on April 15 in North America. The album’s release will is a collaboration between the group’s own label, Prowling Death Records Ltd., and renowned metal giant Century Media Records. This is the same label partnership already responsible for Celtic Frost’s final album, Monotheist (2006), Hellhammer’s Demon Entrails demo compendium (2008), and Triptykon’s debut album, Eparistera Daimones, and Shatter EP (2010).

Melana Chasmata is evolving to be a vastly varied and strikingly dark and heavy album. The album’s title may be translated, approximately, as “black, deep depressions/valleys”.

Songwriting, arrangement, and recording sessions for Melana Chasmata occurred, intermittently, since 2011. Among the music available for inclusion on the album are songs such as Boleskine House, Stasis, Gate To My Own Death, Demon Pact, Gehinnam, Tree Of Suffocated Souls, Unchristian Anthem, and many more. A final track listing for Melana Chasmata will be issued in due course, along with further details on both album and artwork.

Much like Eparistera Daimones, Melana Chasmata is being produced by Tom Gabriel Warrior and Triptykon guitarist V. Santura, and recorded and engineered by V. Santura at his own Woodshed Studio in Bavaria, Germany, as well as at Triptykon’s bunker in Zurich, Switzerland.

Tom Gabriel Warrior: “We have been working on Melana Chasmata for some three years, in various shapes and forms. It’s not an easy album by any means, and to me personally it reflects an extremely complex gestation period, musically, spiritually, and, due to certain circumstances in my life, emotionally. At the same time, the album unquestionably reflects the continuity I was longing for so much during Celtic Frost’s period of self-destruction and demise. Hearing Triptykon creating such utter darkness again and exploring the potential of these new songs has been incredibly invigorating and inspiring.”

TRIPTYKON consists of V. Santura (guitar, vocals), Norman Lonhard (drums, percussion), Vanja Slajh (bass), and Tom Gabriel Warrior (voice, guitars).

TRIPTYKON Live 2014:
February 21 Bergen (Norway) – USF Verftet / Blastfest
April 13 Tilburg (The Netherlands) – 013 / Roadburn Festival
April 30 Munich (Germany) – Backstage / Dark Easter Metal Meeting (Facebook event)

More dates are to be announced soon…

TRIPTYKON online:
www.triptykon.net
www.facebook.com/triptykonofficial

Triptykon, “Goetia” Live at Wacken Open Air 2011

I was fortunate enough to catch Triptykon‘s debut live performance at Roadburn 2010 — guitarist/vocalist Tom G. Warrior (interview here) curated that day — and let me tell you, they were fucking bleak. I mean, I’ve seen the main room at 013 in Tilburg go pretty lightless, but they were a singularity absorbing light, let alone giving any off. Warrior‘s first outing after leaving Celtic Frost, Eparistera Daimones (review here), gave some inkling of what to expect, but live it was even darker. Challenging to say the least.

Triptykon are currently at work on the follow-up to their debut, and the plan seems to be for the album to hit right around the time of their return to Roadburn in 2014. Hope it works out. Triptykon released an EP called Shatter late in 2010 that rounded out the sessions that produced their album, and as Warrior moves further beyond Celtic Frost and into this new collaboration, I’m looking forward to hearing what kind of devastation might ensue.

Here’s the announcement, courtesy of Roadburn:

Triptykon Returns To Roadburn Festival 2014

We’re extremely honoured to report that Triptykon will return to Roadburn Festival on Sunday, April 13th at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

There’s a significant bond between Roadburn and Triptykon founder Tom Gabriel Warrior (already legendary for his work as a founding member of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost). Not only did he curate the 2010 Roadburn Festival, personally inviting the lineup for his highly acclaimed ‘Only Death Is Real event,’ Triptykon also played their first official live show at the festival in support of their then newly-released debut album, Eparistera Daimones.

The stunningly dark and deeply personal Eparistera Daimones showed an inspirational rebirth for Tom Gabriel Warrior after the riotous days of Celtic Frost, and placed Triptykon squarely in the vanguard of avant-garde metal. Many stunning shows followed, but Roadburn is proud to have brought them to the stage for that very special first performance. Their return to Roadburn will herald the release of their long-awaited new full-length album.

We’re very proud about our continued collaboration with Tom Gabriel Warrior and Triptykon, and can’t wait to welcome them at the 2014 festival. Coming heavily armed with crushing new material, the band is sure to plunge Roadburn back into a dark abyss of all-consuming heaviness.

Tom Gabriel Warrior: “Roadburn is very likely the most extraordinary, daring, and vigorous festival in what has otherwise largely become a blandly repetitive and overly commercialized heavy rock scene. Moreover, anybody who has ever attended Roadburn can confirm that no other festival exudes such a unique feeling of radiance and creativity among audience and performers alike. Triptykon’s return to Roadburn in 2014 signifies yet another truly unique chapter in a long affiliation with the festival, dating back to the riotous days of Celtic Frost. I am deeply grateful to Roadburn’s artistic director Walter Hoeijmakers for his extraordinary friendship and his continued faith in the path we are pursuing with Triptykon. In return, we shall duly transform Roadburn into a church of darkness.”

Roadburn Festival 2014 will run for four days from Thursday, April 10th to Sunday, April 13th, 2014 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Triptykon, “Procreation (of the Wicked)” Live at Wacken Open Air 2011

The first album by Tom G. Warrior‘s post-Celtic Frost outfit Triptykon was a revelation. It was as though Warrior himself was reaching his hand through the speakers to say, “It’s okay that Celtic Frost is broken up, everything’s going to be fine…. and by that I mean we’re all going to die and life is utterly meaningless.” Eparistera Daimones stands stall as one of 2010’s most grim and beautiful releases, Warrior and his band reveling in their misery with all the avant blackened doom that has become synonymous with his name over the last 30 years.

And they killed it live. Both headlining Roadburn and when I saw them again in New York, Triptykon was a highlight of the year, no question. The only reason it’s not higher up my list is because there were other albums I listened to more. If this were a quality-only kind of tabulation (which, by being a tabulation, it couldn’t really be; discuss amongst yourselves), Eparistera Daimones would certainly be a top 10 record, but staying power counts.

I’ll say this for it: I may not have kept Eparistera Daimones in my player all year long, but every time I’ve gone back to it, I’ve found something new. Like Celtic Frost‘s last album, Monotheist, it’s a record best enjoyed over time. It got no shortage of hype over the course of this year, but I think the real beauty and complexity in Triptykon are going to take longer than a mere couple months to fully appreciate. I still get a shiver up my spine every time I listen to “A Thousand Lies.”

Seriously, even bassist Vanja Slajh comes off looking pretty well-hung in the shadow-puppet chorus scenes of Triptykon‘s new video for “Shatter,” the title track of their latest EP. The song rules, so I point this out in only the most lighthearted of joshing, but it’s kind of hilarious. Here’s the clip if you haven’t seen it yet:

“Shatter” was directed by Philipp Hirsch of Film-M. Triptykon‘s Shatter EP is out Oct. 25.

There has been much said over the years about Tom G. Warrior. One thing about the man in 2010: he is completely unwilling to compromise. He’s been down that road before, with Celtic Frost, and it made for one of metal’s most memorable missteps. But no more. When he left Celtic Frost in 2008 to form Triptykon, it became his singular vision that would guide the band, and no outside interest could sway it. Triptykon‘s Eparistera Daimones was a testament to this idea, a broad swipe of avant doom and black metals that showed not only was the venerable frontman as duly strong in his songwriting, playing and vocalizing, but his sheer creative will was more potent than ever.

This year, Warrior (Fischer by birth) was asked to oversee a day of the Roadburn festival in The Netherlands, which he did under the banner of Only Death is Real. Acts like as Pagan Altar, Witchfynde and Valborg made the day one of the most diverse the fest had ever seen, and with Triptykon‘s first live performance in the headlining slot, everyone had something to look forward to. Neither was anyone disappointed by the reality. Playing a two-hour set of half-Triptykon and half-Celtic Frost, Warrior, guitarist/vocalist V. Santura, bassist Vanja Slajh and drummer Norman Lonhard, gave due homage to the legacy of Celtic Frost while also showing how Warrior was moving forward into new and exciting territory. They finished with the massive, 20-minute Eparistera Daimones closer, “The Prolonging,” and I honestly think by the end of it the audience was more worn out than they were. Given that so much of his persona is wrapped in the dark, bleak and melancholic, it’s strange to think of Tom G. Warrior as excited, but as Nocturno Culto got on stage to guest on Celtic Frost‘s classic “Dethroned Emperor,” he clearly was.

And he remains excited now. When discussing his relationship to the other members of Triptykon, his voice tells of the passion he feels for making music with this lineup and being able to explore, unhindered, these fresh endeavors. On the eve of Triptykon‘s first North American tour, which kicks off Oct. 6 in Manhattan, and the release of the new Shatter EP later this month, the feeling I get is it’s a great time to be in the band, a great time to be inspired and a thrilling new beginning for a man who has helped define and redefine heavy metal for the better part of 30 years.

You’ll find the full Q&A, in ritualistic fashion, after the jump. Please enjoy.

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From the day it was announced that acclaimed guitarist/vocalist Tom Gabriel Warrior was leaving Swiss black metal innovators Celtic Frost following their fucking awesome reunion album Monotheist, it was clear that whatever he did next was going to be a tricky proposition. After all, this isn’t the first time Celtic Frost broke up, and considering it took them about half a decade to get Monotheist together, was it really such a surprise to see the band come apart? The upside was that when Triptykon, Warrior’s new band, was revealed, he more or less said his plan was to make it sound like Celtic Frost, and to that end, he was taking the parts he was going to use for songs on the next Celtic Frost record and turn it into Triptykon’s first album, Eparistera Daimones.

Century Media, to whom Monotheist was also licensed for release back in 2006 (time does fly), sent over some mp3s of Eparistera Daimones for review, but I knew that, as with Monotheist, if I wanted to really get a sense of what this album was about, I needed the real deal. So I bought it. Whether or not that makes me morally superior to anyone who by now has downloaded this blackened metallic beast is a debate for another time (but we all know it does); the point is that, with the expository liner notes, with H.R. Giger’s explicit cover art — covered in the CD packaging by a strategically placed promo sticker – with the production info, with the lyrics, I feel like it’s possible to get a more fully realized notion of what Eparistera Daimones is trying to accomplish. In a word, that is “iconoclasm.”

How else to explain the vicious turns, unexpected twists and occasionally unleashed, unhinged aggression of Triptykon’s debut? Clearly this is an album that, while knowing of the expectations pinned on it and the revitalized reputation it’s going to be responsible for upholding, doesn’t give a shit and is going to do what it’s going to do. Joining Warrior on the release are drummer Norman Lonhard, bassist Vanja Slajh, numerous guests, and former Celtic Frost live guitarist V. Santura, whose modern black metal vocals contrast with Warrior’s own to great effect on early cuts “Goetia,” “Abyess Within My Soul” and blistering centerpiece “A Thousand Lies.” If there’s one single factor that separates Triptykon from Celtic Frost (the absence of Martin Eric Ain being obvious to the point of not really needing to be said), it’s Santura’s contributions. Plus, as a co-producer with Warrior, his affect on the overall sound of Eparistera Daimones is even broader, and judging from the outcome, it’s much to the album’s benefit.

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