Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements.
Celtic Frost was a Swiss metal band from Zurich. They are remembered for their strong influence on the development of several varieties of metal and for their avant-garde approach to music more generally.
Arcturus is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band formed in 1991. Their name, which means "Bear Guardian", references the Behenian fixed star Arcturus.
Jan Axel Blomberg is a Norwegian drummer known professionally as Hellhammer. He is best known as the drummer of the black metal band Mayhem, which he joined in 1988. In 1987 Blomberg, alongside Steinar Sverd Johnsen and Marius Vold, formed the avant-garde black metal band Arcturus, which broke up in April 2007 and reunited in 2011. He named himself after the Swiss extreme metal band Hellhammer. Praised as a talented musician, Blomberg is a three-time winner of the Spellemannprisen award.
Kristoffer Rygg, also known as Garm, Trickster G. Rex and God Head, is a heavy-metal vocalist, musician and producer known primarily for his work with Ulver, Arcturus, and Borknagar.
Universal Music Group released The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees in 2002 as the first reissue of the Siouxsie and the Banshees remastered back-catalogue. The most successful singles of the band were presented in a non-chronological order.
La Masquerade Infernale is the second studio album by Arcturus. Released by Misanthropy Records in 1997, the album marks a drastic musical change from the slow, nature-influenced melodic black metal of Aspera Hiems Symfonia. Most of the songs revolve around the themes of theater, literature, and Satan. The screams characteristic of black metal utilized by Kristoffer Rygg on Aspera are replaced by a gruff, low-toned, clean vocal style. The album also features operatic singing and bizarre high-pitched singing from guest vocalist Simen Hestnæs, who nine years later would replace Rygg as the band's frontman. It was reissued by Candlelight Records in 2003.
Novembers Doom is an American death-doom band from Chicago, currently signed to Prophecy Productions. Along with Evoken and Rigor Sardonicous, Novembers Doom is one of the earliest American death-doom bands still active today.
Ásmegin is a Norwegian folk/viking metal band formed in 1998. The name comes from Old Norse and means "Might of the Æsir" or "Might of the Gods". Ásmegin's lyrics are written in Norwegian as well as some in Old Norse and older Norwegian. Some of the tracks on Hin vordende Sod og Sø are modeled after the Norwegian play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen.
Mentallo and the Fixer is the project name used by Texan electro-industrial musicians Gary Dassing (Mentallo) and Dwayne Dassing from 1988 to 1999, and by Gary Dassing alone from 1999 to the present day. The band has several releases on the American record label, Metropolis Records. They are named after two Marvel Comics characters.
Simen Hestnæs, better known by his stage name ICS Vortex or simply Vortex, is a Norwegian musician. He is the vocalist of the similarly named band ICS Vortex, the avant-garde metal band Arcturus and the doom metal band Lamented Souls. He is also the vocalist and bass guitarist to the heavy metal band Borknagar, and the former bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir.
Min Tid Skal Komme is the debut album by the Norwegian avant-garde metal band Fleurety. The album was re-released in 2003 with the inclusion of their EP A Darker Shade of Evil by Candlelight Records. In 2008 it was re-released on vinyl in a limited edition of 600 copies through Aesthetic Death Records. In 2019 Peaceville Records remastered and re-released the album on CD and vinyl with the original artwork.
Department of Apocalyptic Affairs is the second album by the Norwegian avant-garde metal band Fleurety.
Shipwrecked In Oslo is the first DVD release by Arcturus. It was released on August 21, 2006 by Season Of Mist. The DVD includes footage of the band's 15 song performance at the Rockefeller Music Hall during the Sonic Solstice Festival in Oslo, on September 24, 2005. Extra material such as a photo slideshow and rehearsal footage is also included.
Disguised Masters is a compilation album by the Norwegian avant-garde metal band Arcturus. The album has two new songs: "White Tie Black Noise" and "Deception Genesis". Other tracks are re-mixed versions of songs from La Masquerade Infernale and "Du Nordavind" from Aspera Hiems Symfonia. Some songs received particularly significant overhauls, such as the gangsta rap version of "Master of Disguise". Due to the significant changes to several of the band's songs, it is not a typical compilation album, and is therefore more suited to existing fans of the band than new listeners.
Steinar Sverd Johnsen s a Norwegian keyboardist and composer. Sverd plays keyboards and synthesizers in Arcturus and was also the main composer for the band. He formed the band with Marius Vold and Jan Axel Blomberg of Mayhem in 1987, originally under the moniker Mortem. The band split up in April 2007, but reformed in 2011.
This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal music in the year 1996.
Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.
Constellation is the first EP released by Norwegian experimental black metal band Arcturus. It was released on CD on 14 August 1994, through the record label Nocturnal Art Productions, limited to 500 copies. The EP is the band's only release with guitarist/bassist Samoth, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison for his role in the arson of Skjold Church in Vindafjord, and the first with Ulver frontman Kristoffer Rygg on vocals, a position he would hold until his departure in 2002.
Hugh Steven James Mingay, also known by his stage name Skoll, is a heavy metal musician.
