Interesting to me that a band that helped created Black Metal ...

... didn't want to be associated with Satanism.

http://sendbackmystamps.org/2012/03/14/brain-damage-zine-2-california-usa-1985/celtic-frost-drummer-ad/

Ultimately Tom G Warrior was a closeted hair metal dude. He managed to get close to his true nature with Cold Lake, but sadly it was too late, and he had to revert to the evil image in order to keep selling albums

I don't get it.

CF never really used satanic imagery/lyrics in their early days, go look at promo pics from '84/'85 and you won't find them wearing upside-down crosses or anything.

If you read the lyrics to the song Morbid Tales it's Lovecraft-inspired, they were going for the dark/horror vibe but you won't find anything "pro-Satanic".

Using a painting of Satan with a Jesus slingshot for your album cover isn't?

kyleblack wrote:

Using a painting of Satan with a Jesus slingshot for your album cover isn't?

Ha! I forgot about that one.

Still, it was an already published H.R. Giger painting they licensed for the album. It's all horror imagery used as a marketing gimmick to sell a few more records, I never took that stuff seriously as a teenager and definitely don't as an adult.

Yeah, Celtic Frost were as Satanic as Alien.

It is rather peculiar, as they were very much a part if that early Satanic metal movement. But I can't remember that they ever claimed to be a Satanic band, like say Venom or Bathory. Sure, they influnced the movement, and were friends with all these other bands, but that don't make them a satanic band themselves.

My cousin has interviewed Tom Fischer a few times over the years and apparently he's pretty good at changing his story to suit his needs at the time. I have seen very early CF interviews and they go to great lengths to stress that they were NOT a Satanic band, I think that they wanted to move away from the Hellhammer image and being (ridiculously!) labeled 'Venom clones' but as others have mentioned, some of the imagery did come pretty close with some of the record covers (Emperors Return, To Mega Therion)

Image wise I think that they really influenced the early BM scene as I think that they were the first band to use the Viking/Tribal Warrior look in extreme metal (A custard pie in the face to anyone who mentions Manowar!)

I didn't see anything inaccurate about the cover for 'To Mega Therion'. It sums up the state of how Christianity is utilized so often.

CF were too intelligent to be mere drooling Satanists and that's one reason they hold appeal with their hardcore fans.

Even Warrior in the present day, with the darkness he's going through and exploring, is still more respectable in his beliefs than 99% of the caveman RELIGION BAD! metal crowd.

They always seemed more horror based than really based in satanism. Same goes to Immortal in a way.

Scott, that was cool, thanks for sharing that. How'd you come across the article?

If one were to sit and read through CF's lyrics, they would find more thought provocation than any other metal band out there. TGF was a philosopher, not a satanist, nor witch, nor anything "black" for that matter.