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Swiss Federal Music Prize 2021 Awarded To Tom Gabriel Warrior

Written by Johnson Stephen on October 1, 2021

Four decades into his career as a musician, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Triptykon founder Tom Gabriel Warrior was awarded by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in a ceremony on 17 September 2021 at Lugano’s Arte e Cultura (LAC) centre. This event marked the first time the Swiss Music Prize formally recognized the genre of Heavy Metal.

Edited transcript of Tom Gabriel Warrior’s acceptance speech for the Swiss Music Prize 2021:

Although I was very fortunate to be granted a loyal audience already early on in my career, not least in my native country of Switzerland. The local Swiss music industry and cultural institutions either ignored me or expressed derision for my music and sometimes they even obstructed it. In their perception, it simply didn’t conform and wasn’t commercial enough. My music was dark, experimental and obstinate, but exactly due to these qualities, it was noticed abroad.

I do of course understand that receiving this prize is an honour and I do feel grateful for it. But given that an inconceivable forty years have passed since I first became a musician, this prize is also quite irrelevant to me by now. I have pursued my path regardless, without subordinating myself to any of the customary inbreeding rituals of the Swiss music scene and without ever applying for any kind of cultural funding from the Swiss state or the relevant institutions.

Statement by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture reads as follows ”Tom Gabriel Warrior’s bands have played a significant role in music history and influenced musicians around the globe. A metal music pioneer.”