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

. 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 ...

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 ...

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

''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) *

(2004)

Notes

External links

Asgeir Mickelson Official Homepage

Artisan
Norway - 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