Valediction

And any return no longer feels familiar, unlike when this photo was taken, two years ago. Who could have known. Photographed by TGF, January 18, 2010.

A visit in 2008.

Lucidity

Munich, March 22, 2010. Photographed by TGF.

This Blackest Sky

A few days ago, I found myself at a well-known hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, at the deathbed of a very good friend who is now losing her battle against cancer, after many years and uncounted medical procedures. This woman had always been deeply kind to me. She had embraced me and welcomed me into her life and family without prejudice. She had always extended friendship and warmth, in spite of the fact that my own life and appearance were as far removed from her own as is humanly possible.

As I sat there, looking at her in her morphine-induced semi-coma, helpless and strained, a multitude of tubes disappearing into her skin, her body disfigured by the disease, I couldn’t help but to be prompted to think about my Bulgarian stalker and her actions which are taking place at the same time (and for what seems like forever). Ignorant about anything around her, and oblivious about any other realities in this world, my stalker has embarked on the ultimate ego trip, simply because I did not ever cave in to her uncounted explicit advances, unlike others most recently.

I was deeply affected by the sight of my friend slowly dying in her hospital bed, every single one of her painful attempts to breathe through the fluids that have accumulated in her throat emitting a sound I will hardly ever be able to forget. All the while, my stalker is conducting her relentless smear campaign on the most contemptible level possible for a human being, defaming me in hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of messages (including the by now legendary 25 messages on January 19, 2012, alone) not only addressed to me but to my personal friends, to musicians all over the globe, in posts on discussion forums, and on the websites of other bands.

I had known, of course, how petty and ludicrously self-centered my stalker’s attempts are to destroy my life and career (her stated goal, as she has written many times). But in the context of last night’s circumstances, it became more evident than ever before. Put into such serious and sobering context, it almost appeared to me as if not even the cancer ravaging my friend’s destroyed body might thus be as depraved as the mind of my stalker.

"Lords Of Misinformation"

"Sulphur"

With Ar, friend extraordinaire and member of the astonishing Ascension, backstage at what must have been the most dismally organized and thus most comprehensively disappointing festival we in Triptykon have encountered all summer: Party.San. Schlotheim, Germany, August 11, 2011.

Triptykon Press Release

Triptykon To Perform On Wacken Open Air's Black Stage

We feel proud and delighted to be able to announce Triptykon's appearance at the 2011 edition of the legendary Wacken Open Air, the world's largest metal festival.

On Friday, August 5, 2011, at 11.15pm, exactly five years to the day and hour after Celtic Frost headlined the Black Stage, one of Wacken's two main stages, Triptykon will unleash a mass of heaviness and utter darkness on the very same stage. Triptykon will appear for one hour.

Wacken Black Stage schedule, Friday, August 5, 2011:

12pm to 1pm - Ensiferium
2:30pm to 3:30pm - Morbid Angel
5pm to 6pm - As I Lay Dying
7:30pm to 8:30 - Heaven Shall Burn
11:15pm to 12:15am - Triptykon
2am to 3am - Apocalyptica

In August 2011, Triptykon will also appear at the Party-San festival (Germany), Bloodstock festival (UK), and Brutal Assault (Czech Republic).

"Triptykon are the musical equivalent of evil. Triptykon have created the music for the end of the world." - www.the-pit.de

For further information, please refer to:
www.wacken.com
www.triptykon.net
www.centurymedia.com

Circle Of The Tyrants

With our friends and peers Demonaz and Abbath of Immortal (top), and with Triptykon's Vanja Slajh and Immortal's Abbath (bottom), both before and after Triptykon and Immortal dedicated music to each other on stage. Fortarock Festival, The Netherlands, July 2, 2011, a day never to be forgotten. Photographed by Hakon Grav, used with very kind permission.

Triptykon Press Release

Triptykon To Be Touring As Part Of Hatefest 2011

Following extensive touring in Japan, the United States and Canada, and numerous highly acclaimed concerts and festival appearances in The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Greece, Croatia, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, and France, Triptykon will continue to promote the group's "Eparistera Daimones" debut album in Europe by being part of the 17 concerts of Hatefest 2011.

Hatefest 2011's running order will be: Kataklysm (headliner), Triptykon, Marduk, Milking The Goatmachine, plus two further special guests.

The tour dates are:

December 2, 2011 Oberhausen, Germany (Turbinenhalle - Metalfest Winter Edition)
December 3, 2011 Giessen, Germany (Hessenhalle - Metalfest Winter Edition)
December 4, 2011 Paris, France (Alhambra)
December 5, 2011 Pratteln, Switzerland (Z7)
December 6, 2011 Innsbruck, Austria (Hafen)
December 7, 2011 Vienna, Austria (Arena)
December 8, 2011 Zlin, Czech Republic (Masters Of Rock Café)
December 9, 2011 Leipzig, Germany (Hellraiser)
December 10, 2011 Geiselwind, Germany (Event Hall - X-Mas Metal Festival)
December 11, 2011 Antwerp, Belgium (Trix)
December 12, 2011 Saarbrücken, Germany (Garage)
December 13, 2011 Hanover, Germany (Musikzentrum)
December 14., 2011 Hamburg, Germany (Markthalle)
December 15, 2011 Berlin, Germany (C-Club)
December 16, 2011 Munich, Germany (Backstage)
December 17, 2011 Eindhoven, The Netherlands (Effenaar - Eindhoven Metal Meeting)
December 18, 2011 Ludwigsburg, Germany (Rockfabrik)

(Dates may be subject to change)

Throughout the summer of 2011, Triptykon will also play further festival appearances in The Netherlands (Fortarock), Iceland (Eistnaflug), Germany (Party-San), UK (Bloodstock), and the Czech Republic (Brutal Assault). Moreover, the group intends to add further concerts to its itinerary for 2011/2012, in territories not yet covered on the "Eparistera Daimones" tour.

For further information and ticketing links, please refer to:
www.hatefest.eu
www.triptykon.net

The Third Of The Storms

Triptykon headlining Rock Hard Festival, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Friday, June 10, 2011. Photography by Jörg Müller (The-Pit.de), used with very kind permission.

Tom Gabriel Warrior's Death Mask Sculptures To Be Featured In Group Exhibition

The acclaimed Antecedent Death death mask sculptures created by Triptykon singer/guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior will be part of Terminus, a group exhibition featuring a spectacular international cast of artists. The exhibition will be held at Galerie Villa Mainau 34, in Zurich, Switzerland.

Terminus will showcase paintings, sculptures, photography, jewelry, digital art, drawings, etchings, silk screen, and comic strips. Among the artists participating in Terminus are: Sibylle Ruppert, Ryszard Wojtynski, Viktor Koen, Jason D'Aquino, Eli Livingston, Jose Manuel Schmill, John U. Abrahamson, Paul Rumsey, Philippe Druillet, Annie Bertram, HR Giger, and others. The exhibition is being curated by Les Barany, Marco Witzig, and Hans Kunz.

The opening of Terminus will take place on Thursday, June 23, 2011, from 5pm to 8pm, and the exhibition will run until Saturday, July 16, 2011. During the exhibition, the gallery will be open on Thursdays and Fridays, from 3pm to 7pm, and on Saturdays, from 2pm to 6pm.

Galerie Villa Mainau 34
Mainaustrasse 34
8008 Zurich
Switzerland
+41 79 339 8757
www.kunzstueck.ch
kunzstueck@gmail.com

Tom Gabriel Warrior's Antecedent Death
www.selfdeceased.blogspot.com

Resurrection Of The Flesh

Pictures From An Exhibition

Impressions from Antecedent Death I, my first solo exhibition, held in Lausanne, Switzerland, February/March 2011, as part of the Swiss edition of the Inferno Festival. Lowermost photo by Franck Faignot; used with kind permission.

A Night Sky Painted With Stars

It was perhaps 1.30 am as I was walking through the deserted quietness of the pitch black night. To my left, in the distance, the dark, ragged silhouette of the forest could be felt more than it was actually visible. The air was ice cold and accordingly clear, and it revealed a firmament sprinkled with stars from horizon to horizon.

"Crescent", from Brendan Perry's "Ark" album, was playing in my headphones, and the sensation of it all was completely overwhelming. I couldn't help thinking intensely of Daniel Wieser, whose existence in human form on this planet had ceased not too long ago and who had now again become part of the cosmic dust from which he had arisen all these years ago. And whose friendship and smile I will miss and remember until the day when I, too, shall follow.