Celtic Frost Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Hellhammer was a hugely influential underground extreme metal band who would have an enormous impact on death and black metal as well as other extreme influenced metal genres. I am unsure on how writing was done with the early members of the band. Apocalyptic Raids is the only release that names writing credits are noted as Tom G. Warrior and Tom / Martin Eric Ain.
Celtic Frost was formed out of the remnants of the underground Hellhammer with founder guitarist/vocalst Thomas Gabriel Fischer (Tom G. Warrior) along with bassist Martin Eric Ain. Celtic Frost and Hellhammer have had a huge impact on extreme metal genres. Tom G. Warrior has been the main music writer within the band and Martin has also had a big hand in the lyrics and occasional the music. The contribution of other members are noted below, but this list focuses on the influences named by Tom G. Warrior.
The Fathers of Metal. Tom said discovering them was life changing.
UFO was a an influential hard rock band. Tom named them as an influence.
Blue Oyster Cult are an American hard rock band. Along side Black Sabbath, Tom discovered BOC.
Goddo were a Canadian Hard Rock band. Tom is a fan.
Motorhead are hard rock / heavy metal legends being one of the most raw sounding bands of their time. Tom named them as an influence.
Angel Witch were an influential NWOBHM band. Tom named them as an influence.
Discharge were an influential hardcore punk band. Tom named them as an influence.
Venom are the fathers of extreme metal. Tom said the first two Venom albums were world changing and they were a huge influence on him.
Anvil was a Canadian heavy metal band. Tom said he loved their stuff.
Raven are a NWOBHM band. Tom named them as an influence.
Exciter was a traditional / speed metal band. Tom is big fan and said their first album changed their lives.
The NWOBHM is named as an influence but only the above named bands have been specifically named.
Tom when asked about the style change on Cold Lake, he stated “Nobody feels as much hatred for Cold Lake as I do”
Tom mentions Megadeth’s demo being an eye opener to them about the technicality they were pushing in North America. I’m not sure if that means it was an inspiration in any way. In the same interview he mentions looking up to Canadian bands Goddo, Triumph, Exciter, and Rush. To topic was on comparison of Canada and Switzerland. Out side of what is noted above he doesn’t specifically mention all these bands as influences.
Martin wrote a significant amount lyric wise and to a lesser extent music until Monotheist where he has writing credit on nearly every song. I’m unsure of his musical influences.
Lyrically the band named influences from H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Alister Crawley.
Film scores from movies like The Omen, and scores for Dario Argento films by the Italian prog rock band Goblin.
In a Rolling Stones article it is asserted that Tom’s influences include Tygers of Pan Tang, GBH, and Anti-Nowhere League. It is likely true, but there isn’t a direct quote given and I have not seen any other interviews that support the assertion.
Oliver Amberg appears on Cold Lake and co-wrote on many tracks. He said when he was a huge Kiss fan and Ace Frehley was a god to him. Later he got into Van Halen.
Curt Victor Bryant was on bass for Cold Lake and guitar/bass (shared bass duties with Martin) for Vanity/Nemesis and co-wrote on both albums. I’m unsure of his influences.
Stephen Priestly played on Morbid Tales but left the band because of musical differences. He said at the time he was more into Rainbow and Whitesnake. He came back and was on Cold Lake and Vanity/Nemesis. He has a few co-writing contributions.
Drummer Reed St. Mark played on several albums but is not giving writing credits except for a few bonus tracks that were later included.
Erol Uenala was on guitars on Monotheist. He co-wrote; I’m unsure of his influences.
Franco Sesa was the drummer and co wrote on Monotheist. I’m unsure of his influences.
Bands influenced by Hellhammer or Celtic Frost!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Recognized by many as the fathers of Death Meta, Check was influenced by Hellhammer and Celtic Frost.
Classic Death Metal
Death/Doom and gothic pioneers, named Celtic Frost.
Black Metallers
Death/Doom and Symphonic pioneers, They named both Hellhammer and Celtic Frost and are even named after a CF album.
One of the biggest death metal bands
Sludge classic, named Celtic Frost
Fathers of Groove, Phil is a huge fan of both Hellhammer and Celtic Frost
A death metal classic naming both Hellhammer and Celtic Frost
Taking Black metal in a progressive direction, they named Celtic Frost.
Pioneers of Melodic Death
Gothic metal, influenced by Celtic Frost.
Sources:
https://www.kerrang.com/features/tom-g-warrior-we-played-radical-music-that-pushed-everybody-away-and-we-loved-that-fuck-them-all/#:~:text=Inspired%20by%20the%20energy%20of,have%20become%20cornerstones%20in%20metal.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/my-life-story-tom-g-warrior-of-celtic-frost
https://alarm-magazine.com/2010/qa-tom-warrior-of-celtic-frost-triptykon-and-hellhammer/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORl1y0FmS8Q&t=119s
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tom-g-warrior-celtic-frost-hellhammer-interview-848041/
https://podtail.com/en/podcast/80-s-glam-metalcast/80-s-glam-metalcast-episode-39-oliver-amberg-ex-ce/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYAevTf9NrM
