Celtic Frost’s guitarist and singer Thomas Gabriel Fischer, better known as Tom G. Warrior, has looked back on the fraught creation of the Swiss band’s 1987 album Into The Pandemonium, widely regarded as one of the most daring records ever made by a metal act. Speaking in 2005, Fischer recalled a project that took six months to write and four months to record, marked by constant clashes between the band, their label and almost everyone else involved, and one that he says ultimately hastened the group’s break-up. Despite the turmoil, the album is now seen as a pivotal, boundary-pushing statement that reshaped perceptions of what a thrash metal band could attempt.

Fischer describes the record label’s reaction to the album’s avant-garde direction as one of outright horror, with executives viewing it as commercial suicide, a verdict he admits he now largely shares in hindsight. As the third album from the Swiss group, Into The Pandemonium pushed far beyond conventional metal songwriting, and the immense strain of making it, both creatively and interpersonally, set the stage for Celtic Frost’s eventual demise, even as the record went on to be celebrated as a landmark in extreme music.