Borknagar is a Norwegian heavy metal band from Bergen, founded in 1995 by Øystein Garnes Brun. The band's style combines black metal and folk metal with progressive and melodic elements. Borknagar's lyrics often deal with philosophy, paganism, nature and the cosmos.
Samoth is a Norwegian guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the country's black metal scene. He is well known for his distinct guitar work and drumming in the band Emperor, as well as his formation of the death metal band Zyklon. In very early Emperor releases, he was called Samot, and with the formation of Zyklon he became known as Zamoth. Samoth was the owner of the record label Nocturnal Art Productions and had a close relationship with Candlelight Records.
Limbonic Art is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Sandefjord.
Arcturus is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band formed in 1991. Their name, which means "Bear Guardian", references the Behenian fixed star Arcturus.
Lars Are Nedland, known also as Lazare, from Kristiansand, Norway, is the vocalist, drummer, and keyboardist for acclaimed avant-garde black metal band Solefald. He is also keyboardist for the heavy metal act Borknagar. He composes much of the music and all the arrangements for violin and cello on the Solefald albums, Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 1 and Black For Death: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 2. He also has written some lyrics for the band, including the songs "04.34 pm", "Fluorescent", and "White Frost Queen." He and vocalist/guitarist/bassist/main lyricist Cornelius Jakhelln started Solefald in August 1995.
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, and is the only member to appear on all of their albums. 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.
Solefald is a Norwegian avant-garde metal/black metal band that was formed by members Lars Are "Lazare" Nedland and Cornelius Jakhelln in August 1995, with Nedland singing and playing keyboard/synthesizer/piano and drums, and Jakhelln singing and playing guitar and bass. The duo experiment with a wide array of musical styles, frequently work on other projects, and rarely perform live under the Solefald name, leading them to describe themselves as "two stubborn goats pretending to be a band." According to the duo, their name is an Old Norse word for "sunset," taken from one of Theodor Kittelsen's paintings illustrating a poem of the same name by Theodor Caspari, published in the 1901 book Vintereventyr.
Fleurety is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band. The band was formed in 1991 by Svein Egil Hatlevik and Alexander Nordgaren.
Mustis is the pseudonym of Øyvind Johan Mustaparta, a Norwegian keyboardist best known for his work in the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir, as well as the black/thrash metal band Susperia.
Winds is a Norwegian neoclassical/progressive metal band formed in 1998. The music is largely influenced by classical music, with Andy Winter's piano work and Carl August Tidemann's guitar solos, often the central focuses. The lyrics are written by Winter, and deal mostly with astral and existentialist philosophy.
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 a vocalist and the bass guitarist to the heavy metal band Borknagar, and the former bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir.
Department of Apocalyptic Affairs is the second album by the Norwegian avant-garde metal band Fleurety.
Carl-Michael Eide, also known under the stage names Aggressor, Czral and Exhurtum, is a Norwegian black metal multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter best known for his work with metal bands Aura Noir and Virus. Eide has played in various black metal and avant-garde metal bands, including Ved Buens Ende, Cadaver, Dødheimsgard, Satyricon, Ulver and Infernö, and has been a session drummer for Dimmu Borgir.
Steinar Sverd Johnsen is 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 (Mortem, Stigma Diabolicum of Thorns, and Jan Axel Blomberg of Mayhem in 1987, originally under the moniker Mortem. The band split up in April 2007, but reformed in 2011.
The Imaginary Direction of Time is the second full-length album by Norwegian progressive metal band Winds. It was released on July 26, 2004. Paul Stenning described the album in Terrorizer as lacking "any real sense of purpose. This seems like a 'concept' and 'avant garde' for the sake of it, turning the album into a mesh of clumsy comparisons and nothing of real worth...it's a none-too-daring experiment caught in the headlights of its own vision".
Reflections of the I is the first full-length album by Norwegian progressive metal band Winds. It was released on September 7, 2002.
Prominence and Demise is the third full-length album by Norwegian progressive metal band Winds, released on September 4, 2007.
Ronny Hovland, better known as Ares, is a Norwegian metal vocalist, guitarist and bassist, and the founder of the Norwegian death metal band Aeternus.
Erik Wroldsen is a heavy metal drummer. His main band was the industrial metal band Red Harvest (band).
Astriaal are an Australian black metal band that formed in 1998, and are one of Australia's highest-profile black metal bands. The band have so far released 2 full-length albums and 3 EPs, and have supported well-known international acts such as Mayhem, Arcturus, Suffocation, Nile, Deeds of Flesh, Opeth and Pungent Stench. Astriaal's lyrics deal with Abyssal Theology, Nature and Misanthropy.
