Asgeir Mickelson (born 30 September 1969) is a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
, artist, photographer and music reviewer. Although primarily known as a drummer, he is also a skilled guitarist and bassist.
Biography
He has stated on his official message board that he started playing guitar roughly around 1982,
[Extremedrumming.net - April 2006 - Guitar and bass playing thread]
" April 2006. and switched to drums in 1988-1989. He took two drum lessons in 1991, and is otherwise self-taught. He began playing guitar again in late 2002
and has stated on his forum that he has been recording solo
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
. He has also said that he is working on a
doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...
album similar to the works of
Candlemass. To this date he has only been employed as a drummer in all of the bands he is/has been a member of excluding
Borknagar
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, paganis ...
on their album
Epic, where he played drums, bass, and performed the guitar on the track "The Weight of Wind".
Mickelson has been a member of several
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
bands, among which the best known ones are
Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect was a Norwegian progressive metal band from Oslo. The group formed in 1993 and recorded one demo and one full-length album, '' A Sceptic's Universe,'' as well as a Fates Warning cover "A Prelude to Ruin" for the tribute album ...
which he co-founded, and
Borknagar
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, paganis ...
. He has also contributed session drums and live drumwork for several bands and artists, including
Ihsahn
Vegard Sverre Tveitan (born 10 October 1975), better known by his stage name Ihsahn (), is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer, best known for his work with black metal band Emperor. Tveitan is also a founding member of Tho ...
's first solo album
The Adversary and the albums
Visions From The Spiral Generator and
The Focusing Blur
Vintersorg (; "Winter Sorrow" in English) is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 under the name Vargatron (Wolfthrone in English). Musically, Vintersorg has covered a wide number of heavy metal genres; while the band is mostly ro ...
by
Vintersorg
Vintersorg (; "Winter Sorrow" in English) is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 under the name Vargatron (Wolfthrone in English). Musically, Vintersorg has covered a wide number of heavy metal genres; while the band is mostly ro ...
. He most recently joined the Norwegian
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
band,
Thornbound as drummer.
Aside from his work as a musician, Mickelson has worked as a writer for ''
Scream Magazine
Scream may refer to:
* Screaming, a loud vocalization
Amusement rides
* Scream (Heide Park), a gyro drop tower in Soltau, Germany
* Scream! (ride), a tower ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags New England
* Scream! (roller coaster), at ...
'' in addition to his work as a
graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...
. Mickelson is the lead designer for ''Scream Magazine'' and the
Inferno Metal Festival
Inferno Metal Festival is an annual extreme metal festival that takes place every year during Easter in Oslo, Norway. The festival was founded by Borknagar guitarist Jens F. Ryland in cooperation with Radar Booking in 2001 and takes place at Rocke ...
. He designed the artwork for The
Trivial Act ''Mindscape'' album, the last three Borknagar albums, and is currently designing the artwork for Scariot's forthcoming full-length. He is a web designer as well and is currently working on a Norwegian drummer website entitled
Blastbeat.no' which will feature various drummers from the
Extreme Metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...
world, including such men as
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel Blomberg (born 2 August 1969) is a Norwegian heavy metal drummer known professionally as Hellhammer. He is best known as the drummer of Mayhem, which he joined in 1988. In 1987 Blomberg formed the avant-garde black metal band Arcturu ...
,
Trym Torson
Kai Johnny Mosaker (born 1974), known professionally as Trym Torson or just Trym, is a Norwegian drummer, formerly with Zyklon. Torson started playing in the Viking metal band Enslaved and was later invited to play in black metal band Emperor. ...
,
Frost
Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...
,
Tjodalv
Tjodalv (born Ian Kenneth Åkesson in 1976) is a Norwegian drummer. He is a founding member of both Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child. He now plays in Black Comedy and Susperia. Tjodalv played guitar on the first Dimmu Borgir albums '' Inn i evi ...
,
Horgh
Horgh (born Reidar Horghagen, 7 May 1971) is a Norwegian drummer, formerly for Norwegian black metal band Immortal from 1996 to 2022 and Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy from 2004 until April 2022.
Career
Horgh joined Immortal in 1996, bring ...
,
Bård Faust
Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun (born 21 April 1974) is a Norwegian drummer known primarily for his work with black metal band Emperor. In 1993, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder. He has been out of prison since 2003.
Education
...
and himself.
He has until recently owned and run the
Multimono recording studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, where he produced and engineered recordings, including the latest Scariot album. Additionally, such bands as
Scariot
Scariot is a Norwegian progressive metal band founded by Daniel Olaisen in 1997. The band has been through several lineup changes, and Olaisen is the only original member still remaining.
Their fourth and latest album, ''Momentum Shift'', was ...
,
Twisted Into Form
''Twisted into Form'' is the second studio album by American thrash metal band Forbidden. It features one line-up change from their debut – 1988's '' Forbidden Evil'' – with Tim Calvert replacing Glen Alvelais on guitar. The result is a mor ...
,
Red Harvest
''Red Harvest'' (1929) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (fic ...
,
Solefald
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
Myoclon recorded on its premises. John Jacobsen of
Sturmgeist also recorded his
Gothenburg metal
Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...
album with
ENE
Ene or ENE may refer to:
Ene
* Ene (name), a given name and surname
* Ene, a type of hydrocarbon involved in the Ene reaction and the Thiol-ene reaction
* -ene'', a suffix used in the names of certain organic compounds (alkenes)
* Ene, Spanish ...
there.
He arranges Scream Magazine's festival Screamfest and Norwegian Metal Awards.
Recently Asgeir quit Borknagar due to creative differences.
In May 2011 Asgeir joined Jens F Ryland in the band Artisan, and also began working on the Artisannorway website. A Metal Soapbox And Music project.
Outside of music, he is responsible for the release of a Norwegian poker magazine entitled, ''
Norsk pokermagasin''.
Discography
Borknagar
*
''Quintessence'' (2000)
*
''Empiricism'' (2001)
*
''Epic'' (2004) (Drums and bass on entire album as well as select guitar parts)
*
''Origin'' (2006)
Enslavement of Beauty
*Session drummer
Megalomania (2001)
Hardingrock
*Session drummer
Grimen (2007)
[Extremedrumming.net - January 2007 - Update, January 2007 thread]
" January 2007.
Highland Glory
*Live session drummer (2003) playing 5 Iron Maiden cover songs
ICS Vortex
*
Storm Seeker Drums (2011)
Ihsahn
*
The Adversary (2006)
*''
angL'' (2008)
*
''After'' (2010)
Lunaris
*Drummer (May 1999)
*Session drummer
Demo 2000 ''Demo'' (2000)
*Session drummer
Creative Destruction
Creative destruction (German: ''schöpferische Zerstörung'') is a concept in economics which since the 1950s is the most readily identified with the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and pop ...
''Demo'' (2000)
*Session drummer
The Infinite
Infinity is that which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is often denoted by the infinity symbol .
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the philosophical nature of infinity was the subject of many discussions amo ...
(2002)
*Session drummer on the song "When It Ends" on
Cyclic
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in s ...
(2004)
Myoclon
*Session drummer and producer. Forthcoming Full-Length
Sarke
* ''
Oldarhian'' (2011)
* ''
Aruagint'' (2013)
Scariot
*
Momentum Shift (2007)
Spiral Architect
*
Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect was a Norwegian progressive metal band from Oslo. The group formed in 1993 and recorded one demo and one full-length album, '' A Sceptic's Universe,'' as well as a Fates Warning cover "A Prelude to Ruin" for the tribute album ...
''Demo'' (1996)
*
A Sceptic's Universe (2000)
Sturmgeist
*Live session drummer (2005). One week tour in Europe.
Testament
*Live session drummer (2003). One gig in San Francisco and 2 week headlining tour in Europe (No Mercy festival)
Thornbound
*Forthcoming Full-Length
Veil of Secrets
*
Dead Poetry Guitars, Bass, and Drums (2020)
Vintersorg
*
Visions From The Spiral Generator (2002)
*
The Focusing Blur
Vintersorg (; "Winter Sorrow" in English) is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 under the name Vargatron (Wolfthrone in English). Musically, Vintersorg has covered a wide number of heavy metal genres; while the band is mostly ro ...
(2004)
Notes
External links
Asgeir Mickelson Official HomepageArtisanNorway - A Metal Soapbox and Music Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mickelson, Asgeir
1969 births
Living people
Norwegian audio engineers
Norwegian heavy metal bass guitarists
Norwegian male bass guitarists
Norwegian black metal musicians
Norwegian heavy metal drummers
Male drummers
Norwegian heavy metal guitarists
Norwegian multi-instrumentalists
Norwegian poker players
Norwegian record producers
Norwegian rock bass guitarists
Norwegian rock guitarists
Place of birth missing (living people)
Borknagar members