• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

This Celtic Frost autobiography was written by Celtic Frost mastermind Tom G. Fischer. Here the author recounts the history of the band from the first days as Hellhammer - how it came to be and why it came to an end, leading to the formation of Celtic Frost. Tom goes in sometimes amazingly great details explaining the ups and downs of dealing with Noise Records back then (and a couple of other companies later in their carreer), I'd say that's scary enough to scare some bands from actually looking for a record deal. Details of the band in studio, including their struggling with various producers and sound engineers are also detailed to some extent. I don't know if Tom was taking notes during those years, but there's also a massive amount of details and anecdotes about the band on tour - again struggling to get things done despite their record company, a surprising amount of details on their encounters with groupies. I'm not sure if he wanted to emphasize how much they got laid on tour or what, but if like me groupies are very low in your esteem, this sure as hell won't make you change your mind!

This is more of an autobiography of Tom with Celtic Frost than just a biography of the band, as he also highlights a lot of his personal life, his strugglings with his friends (the band) and his girlfriends, his state of mind at various stages in the band's lifespan. He sometimes sound arrogant and self-centered, giving the reader the impression that they were better than everyone else, yet a few pages later he opens himself so much as a human being that you can pretty much feel his pain and sometimes desperation. There he just sounds like "one of the guys". As if he had two personalities... Weird.

A lot of band pictures are also included, sometimes with friends, groupies, girlfriends, etc... All pictures are in black and white.

Overall this is a very good book. I think that even if you don't like Celtic Frost, if you are interested in the music world this is worth reading if only to better comprehend the ordeals a band has to go through, even when, from the exterior, they look like comfortable rock stars sitting on piles of money. An eye opener? Maybe...