Author: Commodus

Lieutenants of Hell

 

Introduction

 

Every great band consists of talented musicians who have reached this level with hard work and devotion to their goals and the genre they love. One of these, undoubtedly is Frost, who made it through with bands like Satyricon and 1349. But what was his first stimulus that led him to be a musician?

Frost (real name Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad) was born on 28 June 1973 in Øyer, Oppland, Norway and when he was a kid, his attention was caught by another musical instrument from what he was about to become famous: the electric guitar. He was excited about the heavy, grim and cutting riffs with the distortion effect and he hardly payed attention to the drums in a song.Later, when he began to listen more music, he started to be more interested in drums, so at the age of 14-15 he began to learn as self taught his favorite musician organ.The reason was listening to one single song, which called it the “gateway to the music world”: the Iron Fist from Motörhead. After this experience Frost began to discover other bands that would helped him both in his musical development on a technical level, as well as on a spiritual level.

 

His musical influences began from late 60 / early 70s bands, such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, to first wave Black Metal bands like Celtic Frost and Bathory. Specifically, when he heard the first album of Bathory, he felt there was a a darker dimension in music that spoke to him and changed his approach to the extreme music. He decided to become a faster drummer in order to play the music he enjoyed, which led him eventually to join Satyricon.

 

Satyricon

 

 

The impression

Frost entered the band in 1993 and his first release with the band was their second demo, The Forest Is My Throne which was released in the same year. Originally he was not a permanent member of the band, but that changed in the next release, the first studio album Dark Medival Times(1994), where he was promoted to a permanent member. The album is raw, cold and amospheric with medieval music elements played by flute and acoustic guitar. Also Frost chose this stage name, because he wanted to purify himself and become one with the darkness and the Frost of Black Metal.

The impression from the first album was overally good, so Satyricon drew the attention of the listeners and in return they showed that were determined to make their way to the top of the genre. They unleashed their next album Shadowthrone at the same year and in 1996 the milestone Nemesis Divina, which is considered one of the best albums in the genre, proving their worth as a leading band.

The fourth album signals a new era for the band with two ways: Satyricon became a two man project,with Satyr and Frost as remaining members and the band makes its first significant musical change: the new album Rebel Extravaganza(1999) contains some industrial elements blended with the old Satyricon sound. But the major change started with Volcano(2002), where the sound formula came closer to rock than the previous albums.This continued until The Age Of Nero(2008) and nowdays the musical aproach is simpler than before, with two studio albums being recorded with this style (Satyricon at 2013 and Deep Calleth upon Deep at 2017).

 

Legacy

Today Satyricon is considered one of the most recognizable bands in the genre, measuring 9 albums, 3 EPs, 2 split and 2 compilations. It is a band that always tried to follow its own path and with each of its albums break its limits, making a new course in the extreme music.

 

1349

 

 

Frost was not limited to the success of Satyricon, as he is also an active member in another well-known band: 1349. Their enigmatic name has the time when black death came to Norway, killing 2/3 of the population of the country. Like Satyricon, he was not an original member of the band, as he participated in the first EP (1349 at 2001) as a music session. This changed to the first album, Liberation (2003), which is very fast, raw and oldschool. When he listened to its material, he was excited and asked to be promoted to permanent member and so his desire was fulfilled.

The omens were good for the band and they unleαshed their next raging attacks with the Beyond The Apocalypse(2004) and Hellfire (2005). The success and quality of the band was so great in the genre, to the point that even touched Tom Gabriel Warrior (Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Tryptikon) who helped to mix their next album titled Revelations of the Black Flame (2009), which had lower speeds than the previous one. The band returned to its old style, with the two Demonoir (2010) and Massive Cauldron of Chaos (2014).

 

Lyrical Themes

On contrary with Satyricon where Satyr writes the lyrics, Frost has provided 1349 also with some of his writing expressions. His lyrics can be found in Hellfire(from Hellfire), Demonoir(from Demonoir), Golem and Godslayer(both from Massive Cauldron of Chaos), where we observe his love for darkness and his aversion to the manipulation of Christianity to humans and the need of the average man to expel him from his life in order to reach the level of spiritual (and not only) satisfaction he wishes

 

Legacy

In total, 1349 have released 6 albums, 2 EPs. They are highly recognized in the genre as one of the most quality and extreme bands that appeared at the previous decade.

 

 

 

Influences

Frost feels that he was influenced by extreme bands such as Bathory, Celtic Frost, Darkthrone and Thorns but he’s a big fan of the 70s rock. He’s also influenced by musicians other than hard music like Bohren & der Club of Gore and Klause Schulze. As a drummer,he admires Bill Ward (Black Sabbath), John Bonham(Led Zeppelin), Ian Paice(Deep Purple), Mitch Mitchel (Jimi Hendrix) and jazz musician Buddy Rich. Even though their technic are very different from each other, he found that their playing had an incredible inhumane energy where he was seduced. Finally, as an extreme drummer, he could not not ignore Dave Lombardo(Slayer) and  Fenriz(Darkthrone). Something to be mentionted, is that Frost bought a drumm kit from Hellhammer, that has been used for the recordings of other important bands, such as Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor, Enslaved, Satyricon, Zyklon-B and Arcturus.

The music approach he has when he is recording with Satyricon and 1349 according to him, is very different. With Satyricon he  tries to fit more closely with other musical instruments, in order to sound like a group and in 1349 he concentrates more on how faster, heavier and violent can be. Also in 1349 he uses corpsepaint, with purpose to reach a higher place of spirituality, that he could not achive otherwise.

 

Artwork

Alongside with his musical creations he decided to contribute in some cases with his artistic capabilities. Especially with 1349 he created the cover design of Beyond the Apocalypse and the cover art of Hellfire. With Satyricon he designed the logos of Dark Medieval Times, The Shadowthrone, Nemesis Divina, and the artwork poster  of Roadkill Extravaganza  – A True Roadmovie. Finally he worked with Tormentor for the artwork of The 7th Day of the Doom (Demo) and the logo of Anno Domini (Demo).

 

Other

Frost, however, is not interested only in the world of music, he has other interests as well. Before he decided to be a professional musician, he was a student at the department of mathematics in the University of Oslo, where he took his diploma. Also in the documentary Until The Light Takes Us, he takes part of an art piece by Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard, featuring him firebreathing and other stunts.

 

Frost`s other bands

But all these were not enough for him to limit his creativity to two bands. He was part of other bands and he did session/guest work, with some other big names of the genre.

 

Gorgoroth

Frost was a member of the band for the recording of their second album, The Antichrist(1996). He also participated as a guest at the Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam(2006) and at the “Destroyer, or About How to Philosophize with the Hammer“(1998) and especially on “The Devil, The Sinner and His Journey“.

 

 

Ov Hell

After King ov Hell‘s expulsion from Gorgoroth, he decided to create a new band with Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir) on the vocals, where Frost and other great names, such as Ice Dale(Audrey Horne, Enslaved, Demonaz), Herbrand Larsen (Audrey Horne,Enslaved), Teloch (Nidigr, Mayhem), and King`s son Trym Hartmark Visnes. An album was recorded (The Underworld Regime-2010), but the band was dissolved as the God Seed reunited.

 

Keep of Kalessin

Frost participated in Reclaim (EP 2003), where he marked the group’s return to active action as it was inactive for the second time since 2000.

 

Zyklon-B

Zyklon-B was a supergroup, where his members were highly known musicians such as Frost, Ihsahn (Emperor), Samoth (Emperor) and  Draug Aldrahn(Dødheimsgard, Thorns). They recorded an EP Blood Must Be Shed and two split Blood Must Be Shed / Wraths of Time, Necrolust / Total Warfare and split-up at 1999.

 

 

Furze

Frost was a session musician at the album UTD(2007) of the one man project(nowdays) Furze

 

Gehenna

Frost made a guest at the WW(2005) of Gehenna, who played in the whole album.

 

Most influential albums that Frost has participated to:

Satyricon – Nemesis Divina(1996)

 

With their third album, Satyricon left behind the folk elements of the past and concentrated on becoming more extreme and epic than ever, with the accompaniment of atmospheric and melodic keyboards. The result was impressive: They managed not only to create one the most iconic albums in the genre, but also one of the best in the 90s metal scene.

Songs to check:The Dawn of a New Age, Forhekset , Mother North

 

Lineup:

• Frost Drums
• Satyr Vocals, Guitars (lead), Bass, Songwriting, Lyrics
• Kveldulv(Nocturno Culto) Guitars (rhythm)

Guests:

• Bratland Keyboards, Grand piano
• Nebelhexe Spoken part (track 1)
• Herr Nagell Lyrics (track 4)

 

Other staff:

• Dave Bertolini – engineering
• Pierre – mastering
• Truls Espedal – artwork, cover art
• Nicolas Ramaget – mastering
• Hild Aase – photography
• Lars Jamne – Design
• Christian Misje – design
• Pytten – producer, engineering
• Jorgen Traeen – producer, mixing, mastering
• Herbrand Larsen – engineering
• Grutle Kjellson – producer, mixing
• Ivar Bjornson – producer, mixing

 

Trivia:

• In “The Dawn of a New Age” the lyrics are from the Book of Revelations and has been edited and partly re-written by Satyr
• This is the last time that Satyricon has appeared as a band with more than 2 people
• Nocturno was a huge Satyricon fan and Satyr and Frost were huge Darkthrone fans.Also it is the first and last album with Nocturno
• “Du Som Hater Gud” which were written in June 1994 by Herr Nagell (Fenriz), in honour of Satyricon
• Forhekset, Du som hater Gud and Nemesis Divina lyrics are in Norwegian.All the others are in English.The title of Nemesis Divina is in latin
• Mother North has a videoclip,something uncommon for a black metal band then. Also, there are two versions: censored and uncensored, because of the nudity in it. Also the uncensored version opens with Montagues and Capulets, a classical piece of music, written by Sergei Prokofiev.

 

1349 – Hellfire(2005)

1349 continued their series of great albums with Hellfire. The band to remain faithful to its style, giving us an excellent raw Black Metal album with great riffing and amazing drumming(Frost is remarkable once again) with the mid tempo parts to giving atmosphere where it really needs to be.

Songs to check: I Am Abomination, Sculptor of Flesh, Celestial Deconstruction

 

Lineup:

• Ravn Vocals
• Archaon Guitars, Lyrics (track 4)
• Tjalve Guitars
• Seidemann Bass, Lyrics (tracks 2, 3, 6)
• Frost Drums, Lyrics (track 8)

 

Guests:

Jonna Fyr Minion             Keyboards, Additional FX (track 8 intro)

 

Other staff:

• Tom Kvålsvoll Mastering
• Destroyer Lyrics (Tracks 1, 5, 7)
• Ravn Producer, Cover art
• Kjartan Hesthagen Engineering
• Fredrik M. Hermansen Layout
• Lorenzo Mariani Cover art
• Joakim Moldestad Photography
• Nina Oddsett Cover art
• Frost Cover art

 

Trivia:

• This is the last album for Tjalve
• A video has been made for “Sculptor of Flesh”, where the camera switches between the band and surgery, which takes place in Australia
• The closing track on the album ‘Hellfire’ was intentionally recorded at 13:49 in length to spell out the band name.

 

 

7 Other Albums to Check

 

Satyricon – Dark Medieval Times

Satyricon – Shadowthrone

1349 – Liberation

1349 – Beyond The Apocalypse

1349 – Demonoir

Gorgoroth – The Anticrist

Zyklon-B – Blood Must Be Shed (EP)

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Expore further:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oXg_JntLCM&fbclid=IwAR1IrzQWQc6IohLBkWZOFBIGt_w8uTf7orvm4JAeCh18mo5BOkfqQUy1Tkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQYigEalA8&fbclid=IwAR3Z6T8Nl6oPBHWJqhhUNX56EIUAGMX62jgjGn6H4LEe_JiK7EoBT85Ohzg

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56GuIKRf154&fbclid=IwAR2sg_MXK-7TTxIDdLMJPL-MX_dWSWMPBo72FU9bMMGd4ttAv41NLrSXc6s