Celtic Frost leader Thomas Gabriel Fischer has denounced BMG's recently announced plans to reissue the band's seminal Noise Records catalogue on June 30th. The reissues include four of the band's Noise-era studio albums: Morbid Tales, To Mega Therion, Into The Pandemonium and Vanity/Nemesis. The albums will be reissued on deluxe hardback CD and 180-gram double album sets, complete with posters and 10-inch spine bound book. All tracks have been fully remastered and releases contain previously unreleased and rare tracks.

In a recent blog post, Fischer explains the circumstances that led him to withdraw his endorsement of the project, particularly BMG's insistence on editing his album liner notes out of fear of a potential lawsuit from Noise Records' 1980s management. He comments: "As part of what was, at all times, an exceptionally friendly and professional exchange of thoughts with the legal counsel assigned by BMG to assess any potential legal issues, I received from London shortened versions of my liner notes, for review and approval. These were adoringly called 'redlined versions'. In this particular case, however, 'shortened' actually amounted to 'heavily censored'. To name but one example: driven by an obvious concern about a potential lawsuit by one of the parties involved in the original 1980s releases, BMG censored and thus slashed my Into The Pandemonium liner notes to approximately a third of their original volume. What remains of my texts was utterly mutilated and thus no longer represented a coherent narrative that made any sense. These pathetic text fragments now failed to convey the full history of the individual albums."

Fischer adds that the co-founder and former bassist of Celtic Frost, Martin Eric Ain, was constantly kept in the loop with regard to all developments regarding the reissues. As a final note, the band's guitarist/vocalist comments: "Given this state of affairs, I no longer feel that I can endorse and support these reissues, as they no longer reflect the wishes, intentions, and identity of the band. It had been our intention for many, many years to finally see these albums reissued in fully complete - and thus ultimate - editions. There had even been (unsuccessful) efforts during the past decade to initiate a collaboration to that effect between our own label, Prowling Death Records, and the current holders of the rights. Unfortunately, due to the failure of this reissue project, it now seems exceedingly unlikely that such ultimate and fully band-endorsed reissues will see the light of the day during my lifetime."

Celtic Frost broke up in 1993 and reformed in 2001 releasing their acclaimed, comeback album, Monotheist, via Century Media/Prowling Death in 2006. They broke up again in 2008, with Fischer going on to form Triptykon. Celtic Frost's catalogue (minus 1988's controversial Cold Lake) has already been reissued in 1999 by Noise with full involvement from Fischer.

Source:	fischerisdead.blogspot.gr
Band profile:	Celtic Frost