Asgeir Mickelson
Encyclopedia
Asgeir Mickelson is a Norwegian
musician
, artist, photographer and music reviewer. Although primarily a drummer, Mickelson has stated that he considers himself a musician above a drummer, and is also a guitarist and bassist.
. He has also said that he is working on a doom metal
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
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 bands, among which the best known ones are Spiral Architect
which he co-founded, and Borknagar
. He has also contributed session drums and live drumwork for several bands and artists, including Ihsahn
's first solo album The Adversary and the albums Visions From The Spiral Generator
and The Focusing Blur
by Vintersorg
. He most recently joined the Norwegian death metal
band, Thornbound as drummer.
Aside from his work as a musician, Mickelson has worked as a writer for Scream Magazine
in addition to his work as a graphic designer
. Mickelson is the lead designer for Scream Magazine and the Inferno Metal Festival
. He designed the artwork for The Trivial Act
Mindscape album, the last three Borknagar albums, and is currently designing the artwork for Scariot's forth-coming 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
world, including such men as Jan Axel Blomberg
, Trym Torson
, Frost
, Tjodalv
, Horgh
, Bård Faust
and himself.
He has until recently owned and run the Multimono recording studio in Norway
, where he produced and engineered recordings, including the latest Scariot album. Additionally, such bands as Scariot
, Twisted Into Form, Red Harvest
, Solefald
and Myoclon recorded on its premises. John Jacobsen of Sturmgeist
also recorded his Gothenburg metal album with ENE 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.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, artist, photographer and music reviewer. Although primarily a drummer, Mickelson has stated that he considers himself a musician above a drummer, and is also a guitarist and bassist.
Biography
He has stated on his official message board that he started playing guitar roughly around 1982, 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 metalThrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
. He has also said that he is working on a doom metal
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
album similar to the works of Candlemass
Candlemass
Candlemass are an influential Swedish doom metal band established in 1984 by Leif Edling , their leader and songwriter. The band is originally from Stockholm. After releasing five full-length albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Candlemass disbanded in 1994, but...
. 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
Borknagar is a progressive black metal band from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1995 by Øystein Garnes Brun. The band's style combines folk metal and black metal with progressive and melodic elements...
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 bands, among which the best known ones are Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect is a Norwegian progressive metal band from Oslo, Norway. They have recorded one acclaimed demo and one album, A Sceptic's Universe, since they began in 1993, as well as a Fates Warning cover "A Prelude to Ruin" for the tribute album Through Different Eyes - A Tribute to Fates Warning...
which he co-founded, and Borknagar
Borknagar
Borknagar is a progressive black metal band from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1995 by Øystein Garnes Brun. The band's style combines folk metal and black metal with progressive and melodic elements...
. He has also contributed session drums and live drumwork for several bands and artists, including Ihsahn
Ihsahn
Ihsahn is a Norwegian composer, guitar, bass, keyboard player and vocalist. He is best known for his work with Norwegian black metal band Emperor. He has appeared in Thou Shalt Suffer, up until March 4, 2006, played in Peccatum with his wife Ihriel , and now devotes himself to his solo project,...
's first solo album The Adversary and the albums Visions From The Spiral Generator
Visions from the Spiral Generator
Visions from the Spiral Generator is the fourth full-length album by Swedish progressive/folk metal band Vintersorg. It was released on June 24, 2002. This album saw a drastic shift in style in the band that was foreshadowed on the band's prior album, Cosmic Genesis...
and The Focusing Blur
The Focusing Blur
The Focusing Blur is the fifth full-length album by Swedish progressive/folk metal band Vintersorg. It was released on February 16, 2004. This album was the most progressive album to date, with many experimental and avant-garde elements and the lyrics were now all written and sung in English.-Track...
by Vintersorg
Vintersorg
Vintersorg is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 under the name Vargatron . Musically, Vintersorg has covered a wide number of heavy metal genres; while the band is mostly rooted in extreme metal styles, particularly black metal and Viking/folk metal, it has also expanded into...
. He most recently joined the Norwegian death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band, Thornbound as drummer.
Aside from his work as a musician, Mickelson has worked as a writer for Scream Magazine
Scream Magazine
Scream Magazine is a Norwegian magazine established in 1990 which pertains to heavy metal and hard rock music. The editor of the magazine since 1990 has been Frode Øien. In October 2005, the magazine celebrated its 100th issue and its 15th anniversary....
in addition to his work as a graphic designer
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, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
. Mickelson is the lead designer for Scream Magazine and the Inferno Metal Festival
Inferno Metal Festival
Inferno Metal Festival is an annual extreme metal festival in Oslo, Norway. The festival was founded by Borknagar guitarist Jens F. Ryland in cooperation with Radar Booking in 2001 and take place at Rockefeller Music Hall.-2011:...
. He designed the artwork for The Trivial Act
Trivial Act
Trivial Act is a progressive metal band from Arendal, Norway. Their influences are based on progressive metal greats such as Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Queensrÿche and Voivod and traditional metal legends Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.- History :...
Mindscape album, the last three Borknagar albums, and is currently designing the artwork for Scariot's forth-coming 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
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
world, including such men as Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
, Trym Torson
Trym Torson
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. He co-founded Zyklon together with Emperor member Samoth...
, Frost
Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad
Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad , was born on June 28, 1973 in Øyer, Oppland, Norway, and is the drummer in the black metal bands Satyricon and 1349....
, Tjodalv
Tjodalv
Tjodalv 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 Evighetens Mørke and For All Tid. He then switched to drumming for them on Stormblåst and...
, Horgh
Horgh
Horgh is a Norwegian drummer, currently playing for Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy and Norwegian black metal band Immortal....
, Bård Faust
Bård Faust
Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun is a Norwegian drummer. He is best known for his work with early black metal band Emperor, especially on the releases As the Shadows Rise and In the Nightside Eclipse...
and himself.
He has until recently owned and run the Multimono recording studio in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, where he produced and engineered recordings, including the latest Scariot album. Additionally, such bands as Scariot
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....
, Twisted Into Form, Red Harvest
Red Harvest (band)
Red Harvest was a Norwegian industrial metal band from Oslo. Their 2002 album Sick Transit Gloria Mundi was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy and an alternative Grammy in the "Best Metal Album" category...
, Solefald
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 Lars singing and playing keyboard/synthesizer/piano and drums, and Cornelius singing and playing guitar and bass. The meaning of the band's...
and Myoclon recorded on its premises. John Jacobsen of Sturmgeist
Sturmgeist
Sturmgeist is an experimental black/thrash metal formed by Cornelius Jakhelln in 2002.-Beginnings:In 2002, Cornelius Jakhelln began working on a new band. The name chosen was Sturmgeist . The music was an experimental mix of black/thrash metal with lyrics sung in English, Norwegian, and German...
also recorded his Gothenburg metal album with ENE 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.
Borknagar
- Quintessence (2000)
- EmpiricismEmpiricism (album)Empiricism is the fifth studio album by Borknagar, and their first studio album to feature Vintersorg on vocals, along with the addition of Tyr on bass. This would mark the last album appearance of Jens F...
(2001) - Epic (2004) (Drums and bass on entire album as well as select guitar parts)
- OriginOrigin (Borknagar album)Origin is Borknagar's seventh studio album, and is primarily an acoustic effort. Origin explores the band's more progressive and traditional elements....
(2006)
Enslavement Of Beauty
- Session drummer MegalomaniaMegalomania (Enslavement of Beauty album)Megalomania is the second album released by Norwegian black metal band Enslavement of Beauty in 2001. The song "And to Temptation's Darkness Forever Abide" was added to the expanded version, where the track order also is different...
(2001)
Ihsahn
- The Adversary (2006)
- angLAngLangL is the second full length solo album of Emperor frontman Ihsahn. Writing began in early 2007, after Ihsahn had completed touring with Emperor...
(2008) - AfterAfter (Ihsahn album)After is the third studio solo album by former Emperor frontman Ihsahn. This album is the final album in a planned trilogy of albums by Ihsahn.-Background:...
(2010)
Lunaris
- Drummer (May 1999)
- Session drummer Demo 2000 Demo (2000)
- Session drummer Creative DestructionCreative destructionCreative destruction is a term originally derived from Marxist economic theory which refers to the linked processes of the accumulation and annihilation of wealth under capitalism. These processes were first described in The Communist Manifesto and were expanded in Marx's Grundrisse and "Volume...
Demo (2000) - Session drummer The Infinite (2002)
- Session drummer on the song "When It Ends" on Cyclic (2004)
Spiral Architect
- Spiral Architect Demo (1996)
- A Sceptic's UniverseA Sceptic's UniverseA Sceptic's Universe is the debut album by Norwegian progressive metal band Spiral Architect. It was recorded and mixed by Neil Kernon, who called the end result "crystal clear for everything to be heard properly." The album was also praised for his production by Sea of Tranquility webzine.-Track...
(2000)
Testament
- Live session drummer (2003). One gig in San Francisco and 2 week headlining tour in Europe (No Mercy festival)
External links
- Asgeir Mickelson Official Homepage
- Artisan Norway - A Metal Soapbox and Music Project