Triptykon's Melana Chasmata has been really well received by the media overall, or at least that's my impression of how everyone feels so far. What I didn't know is how close frontman and guitarist Tom G. Fischer came to having ruined his entire life. Hell, even everyone else in the band was having a hard time. So Noisey got a hold of Fischer and asked him about the record a little bit, starting with the literal translation of the title.
"Yes, it’s difficult to translate exactly, but [Deep Depressions is] an approximate translation. Of course, depressions can be a geological feature or a psychological feature. In this instance, both. Parts of the album sound melancholy, but mostly it sounds angry. I think the first one is much angrier. It was fueled by hatred and frustration over the very unpleasant termination of Celtic Frost. This new album is far more introspective and based on personal experiences—not just my own, but [those] of several of the band members. We chose the album title years ago, but since that time, certain things have happened that have made the title even more appropriate. On a personal level, it was an exceedingly difficult album to complete, and we’re all very happy that it’s done."
He went on to say that everyone in the band was having a hard time in life during the writing and recording of the record, though there wasn't any kind of "common thread" running through their issues and it was all just a coincidence.
"I think at this point everyone is well into the recovery phase, so to speak. Everybody is on their own path with their own issues. But I’m not trying to bring up tragedy here or anything pathetic. None of us wanted to be in this situation, and none of us had any idea that the others were going through something similar. It’s a complete coincidence. We envisioned the time writing this album completely differently. But like so many things in life, we have no control. That’s why the album took four years to write instead of two. In the meantime, we’ve accepted that at least three members have completely different lives now, and that’s beyond their choice. But one of the things that has helped us through this is that we have a band and we honestly love the music we are playing and we know we are friends. I know that sounds cliché, like some kind of hippie family, but that’s the way it is."
Fischer also points out the camaraderie of Triptykon versus Celtic Frost.
"I was really close to losing everything—much closer than anyone reading this can probably imagine. But if it got to the most extreme, I’m sure I could’ve called our bass player [Vanja Šlajh] and she would have taken care of me as good as possible. And that’s the main difference between Triptykon and Celtic Frost. At the end of Celtic Frost, I sometimes got the feeling that if I was lying on the floor bleeding, someone would still stick a knife in my back. But in this band it’s the opposite."
He even touches on suicide…
"The reason I am still here is because my girlfriend pleaded with me not to take my own life. All of that didn’t happen in a single day—it took a long time for her to convince me to stick around. I had to come to terms with that, and I began to try and rebuild my life to some semblance of order. And part of that order is my existence as a musician. This is what gives me strength and pleasure in life. Once I came to terms that I would remain here, I knew I would complete the album. I’m not part of Metallica—I’m not going to go to a psychiatrist and pay an insane amount of money for some guy who doesn’t know me to tell me wisecracks. My own therapy was to write music, to write lyrics, and to try to digest all of this and work out what it meant for me. And having said all of that, the decision to stick around remains a daily challenge. But I don’t want this interview to be all downhill…"
In the end, Fischer says he doesn't really want to talk about it because he feels like it cheapens the album and makes people buy out of sympathy. Overall, the interview was an incredibly interesting read because the record really sounds like a major monument to loss and hardship, sound-wise anyway. Listening to it now I'm feeling more melancholy, and that's a good thing. Translation of emotion without saying!
"…the album was created in such a situation and the mood on the album reflects it, but I personally think it’s pathetic to promote an album on the strength of your personal tragedy. So you’ve gotta draw a line somewhere. People like Rihanna and these reality TV stars promote their work on personal tragedy, and I cringe when I see that or read that. It’s embarrassing. I can explain the reasons why this album sounds the way it does, but at this point I think that’s as far as I should go. We are in the metal scene, and there’s just gotta be a line somewhere. Maybe some years down the line, one can look back and explain things but I think it would be very cheap for me to say, 'We had a hard time—buy our album!'"
