CELTIC FROST Mainman Pays Tribute To Late EXODUS Frontman

February 25, 2002

CELTIC FROST/APOLLYON SUN mainman Tom Fischer (aka Tom Warrior) has issued the following statement as a tribute to the late EXODUS frontman Paul Baloff, who recently passed away after suffering a massive stroke:

I knew Paul in person, he made it a point to come to visit us at our hotel in Oakland when we played San Francisco in 1986. He came with his very cute girlfriend, and he was so friendly and nice. It was a pleasure getting to meet him. Martin already knew him from an EXODUS show in our home town.

No matter how far removed we are now from these naive but amazing early metal days, what happened to Paul (and, therefore, to his current girlfriend too) is absolutely terrible. But it had one positive effect on me: it brought back from some remote corner of my mind the very special memory of meeting an extraordinary singer, whose performance on the first EXODUS album was very important to our own musical experience.

I also will always remember a very difficult CF show in Ludwigsburg, Germanyat the time we were coerced by Noise to do the special guest slot for ANTHRAX in Holland and Germany, without any preparation and in the middle of the Into the Pandemonium recording sessions. We knew this would be a huge challenge that we initially wouldn't be able to meet properly due to the lack of proper preparation, and it was extremely difficult to go on stage like that. But we had the hall's house DJ play EXODUS' 'Deliver us to Evil' right before we were about to play, and that track psyched us up to no end. It gave us the power and adrenaline to go up there and do our job regardless.

These are the things I immediately thought of, and with a smile in spite of the sadness, when I heard of Paul's death. Paul most certainly deserves our respect. He was an inspiration to all of us.

Tom G.

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