Here’s the unexpected—and really impressive—aspect of this release: within its format there’s a surprising range and depth of rewards. The unreleased tracks from the Eparistera Daimones sessions are by no means throwaways or leftovers. Indeed, they’re just as dark and unrelenting as the nine songs on the album. In fact, a listener can go through the album and then Shatter and quickly realize that Triptykon had the enviable problem of an embarrassment of riches: which tracks to put on the album and which to save for later release? A careful, critical ear suggests that the band made perfect choices, as the album holds together with a cohesiveness that is one of its great (and many) strengths, while “Shatter” and “I Am The Twilight,” cut as they are from the same basic cloth, stand well here on the accompanying recording. They’re aggressive, heavy songs that ooze darkness, hate, and pain, just as every note of the album does.

“Crucifixus,” for those of us who loved Monotheist and truly mourned the demise of Celtic Frost in its resuscitated form, was at first a sketch, offered on a Myspace page. Over time the track grew additional layers as Warrior (primarily—it’s not a true band effort, in performance terms) constructed its haunting, ambient structure. Here, it has the chill of Monotheist’s “Tottengott,” and it’s the latest proof that this unique musician fully understands that “heavy” comes in many forms and gradations. There’s no suffocating layer of downtuned distortion here, but the song has all the density and impact of its guitars-bass-drums brethren.

And then, after these three tracks, the band offers live renditions of Celtic Frost gems “Circle Of The Tyrants” and “Dethroned Emperor.” These performances show that Triptykon has great strength as a live band, as well as its own synthesis of Warrior’s personality/history/stamp and a brand-new band identity. Also of note here is the vocal performance of Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto on “Dethroned Emperor.” His presence evokes a sense of, “Hey, that’s cool!” I but confess that I’d rather hear, on this second release, Triptykon in full. The vocal here doesn’t really bring anything revelatory to the song, but clearly the idea is to present a document of a very special moment in the gestation of the band. One could also argue that it speaks to Warrior’s generosity: instead of insisting that this EP be a band members-only affair as he continues to establish Triptykon’s identity, he allows the Triptykon stage to be a place where special things happen. Perhaps this is the most important statement on Shatter: while this is a band, a real band, that can deliver in spades in the recording studio, it is also a seething, predatory, and dangerous live band, one that fans of the history behind its leader should see… and that fans unaware of that history should check out—preferably in both studio recordings and on the live stage.

Congratulations to Triptykon for releasing TWO of the best CDs of the year. Some might say, “Good freakin’ luck topping this!” But those folks should let the acrid, ashen, concrete waves of Monotheist engulf them, and they should then listen to the spawn of this new band. Clearly, topping himself is nothing new to Warrior.

Like everyone else, I took the break up of Celtic Frost hard. So what Triptykon represents is Apollyon Sun revisited. Tom is back with another direction that dictates a new band name, yet this time he promises to build off the last Celtic Frost album (Monotheist). I’ll start at the end with “The Prolonging”, which forgives all trespass into the land of goth, the massively oppressive, rhythmically mesmerizing juggernaut that is perfectly named. Nineteen and a half minutes and it ends to soon. The perfect bookend to album opener “Goetia”. Great riffs, world destroying heaviness, haunting guitar lines, they both have it. I particularly like the plucked notes that are allowed to decay, love the distortion. The darker heavier “Abyss Within My Soul” comes in as track two, and add up those three songs alone and we hit forty minutes. Pepper the disc with a few other gems, like the ferocious and fast “A Thousand Lies”, “Descendant”, with its booming drums, the piano passages and female vocals of “Myopic Empire”, and it makes dealing with the ‘artistic’ creation that is “My Pain”, less so. I could do without “In Shrouds Decayed” as well, but at least there is no one asking Tom to dance and no pools of hyporthermic water are in evidence.

I would be satisfied calling this a Celtic Frost album. Bands have changed far less than this and kept their band name the same. The legend lives on because everyone knows this is really Celtic Frost ongoing. As Frost perishes Triptykon shall live. Tom deserves the benefit of the doubt because his music is always changing, evolving, and I often don’t like his changes on first listen simply because there are changes. I have finally gotten past that personal shortsightedness. I truly loved Eparistera Daimones.

[We also have another opinion of the album available. Use that for possible comments. -Ed. note]

This is one of the heaviest, angriest, gloomiest releases ever. And guess what? All of that heaviness, anger, and gloom add up to one of the most refreshing extreme metal albums in a very long time. In the same way that early Sabbath is really dark and really energizing, Eparistera Daimones both crushes and “feels great.” In short it’s satisfying as a listening experience and as a cohesive album. That’s right: you should BUY the whole thing and listen to it as a set of songs, not as individual tracks.

Okay, so a reviewer really must make reference to Monotheist, the album that represents both the 2006 return of Celtic Frost and its final statement. That album was nearly as heavy as this, full of dramatically downtuned riffs, tempos that range from sludgy crawl to thrashy near-sprints, and howled/shouted/disturbed-and-disturbing vocals. That album, like this one, also held a few gentle moments—calms within the storm—that only served to intensify the heavy bits. Eparistera Daimones has all those same qualities, but they’re intensified: the blacks are blacker, the doom is more profound, and the savagery is all the more sharpened.

Opener “Goetia” echoes back to the quality—emotional and sonic—of Monotheist’s strongest tracks, and it sets the stage for the heaviness of what follows. The band is virtually unrelenting through the next five tracks, each of which has its own particular flavor of doom and darkness. Then, as has often been the case with Fischer’s work, there’s a changeup, a moment in which the melancholy remains but comes wrapped in a different musical shroud. Here, that change of pace/faintest glimmer of something more delicate comes in two parts; first is the heavy-soft-heavy track “Myopic Empire,” which is compelling in part because it differs from what’s preceded it and in part because it has its own self-contained scope. Next up is “My Pain,” which manages to straddle the not-often-explored line between truly delicate and unbearably heavy, the latter of which appears in the form of emotion and tone, not in volume and distortion. This pause from all things heavy is really just a chance for the listener to catch his or her breath before the band slams closed the tomb with the nearly 20 minutes of “The Prolonging.” Surprisingly, those minutes pass quickly (if, like me, you’ve settled into the overall feel of the album), and one might find a strong desire to go back to the top and take in the whole dark, decaying experience again.

That all of this more recent release comes from a more proficient band overall bodes well for the future expression of Fischer’s vision. V Santura of Dark Fortress has a history with TGF and is a great guitar foil, one whose chops complement Fischer’s (and whose own way around a dark piece of music earns merit on Dark Fortress’s recent Ylem, as well as their earlier releases). Vanja Slajh has big shoes to fill… not because Celtic Frost bassist Martin Eric Ain is a technically great player but because his partnership with Fischer was a huge motivator in their earlier work. Her lines are appropriately heavy, providing the sort of gut rumble that fits this maelstrom. “Man of the Match” honors, however, should go to Norman Lonhard, until recently drummer of Fear My Thoughts. His drumming has the anvil-to-the-head quality that one would hope to hear in music like this, and he is—in my opinion—the best drummer Fischer has yet had in a band. With all due respect to Fear My Thoughts, I am glad that their recent demise frees up Lonhard for Triptykon.

Those fans of Warrior’s earlier work will pick this up without any prior knowledge—the man’s legend deserves that sort of respect. But fans can hope that new listeners might discover in this very powerful album a band that has deep roots but is also brand new. This album is a strong contender for “Best of the Year” lists; it certainly tops mine at this point.

[Second opinion of the album available here. -Ed. note]