The Long Shadow Of Tom Warrior, Metal's Dark Innovator — npr.org

hide captionThroughout his career, Thomas Gabriel Fischer has hinted that he makes his best music under bleak circumstances. Throughout his career, Thomas Gabriel Fischer has hinted that he makes his best music under bleak circumstances. Aside from Tony Iommi, whose ingenious use of the tritone on Black Sabbath's debut album spawned an entire musical style, aesthetic and culture, no artist has had as wide-ranging an influence on heavy metal as Thomas Gabriel Fischer. Best known under the nom de plume Tom Warrior in the bands Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, Fischer's shadow looms large over the entirety of extreme metal especially, with so many subgenres indebted to his groundbreaking music: thrash, death metal, black metal, gothic metal, doom, progressive metal, grindcore and even the avant-garde side of the multifaceted genre.

Read More