“There’s no other band that drew me in like them. It was the mood and atmosphere – and the aggression”: Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti on the visionary extreme metal band who changed his life as a teenager – and got him fanboying out as an adult

Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti performing onstage and Celtic Frost posing for a photograph in the 1980s.

Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti may be the king of modern arena rock, but underneath the roof-raising riffs and massive choruses beats an 80s thrash heart. The man who helped serve up such monster hits as With Arms Wide Open, My Sacrifice, Rise Today and Blackbird has made no secret of his love of bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Kreator and even Bay Area b-listers Forbidden (oh, and Frank Sinatra, but we’ll gloss over that).

But his tastes go even further. Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2018, Tremonti revealed his deep love of Swiss visionaries Celtic Frost, and specifically the impact their 1984 debut mini-album Morbid Tales and the following year’s Emperor’s Return EP had on him.