Fenriz

Fenriz's first exposure to heavy metal music came when he was a child and received Uriah Heep's album Sweet Freedom from his uncle for his birthday.[https://www.voicesfromthedarkside.de/interview/darkthrone-2/ Fenriz interview]. Voices from the Darkside. At age 16, Fenriz dropped out of school and began working full time to support his music. In 1986 he co-founded the death metal band Black Death with Ivar Enger and Anders Risberget. By 1988 they had been joined by Ted Skjellum (Nocturno Culto) and were renamed Darkthrone. After releasing their first death metal album in 1991, the band changed style and became one of the leading bands in the early Norwegian black metal scene. Fenriz said he had a passive interest in Bathory and Celtic Frost, but claims that he did not understand the "darkness" of black metal until hearing a song by the Hungarian band Tormentor. The second album released by Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky, recorded in August 1991[http://www.vinylrecords.ch/D/DA/Darkthrone/Blaze/darkthrone-blaze-0133.jpg Darkthrone – A Blaze in the Northern Sky CD cover] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711133422/http://www.vinylrecords.ch/D/DA/Darkthrone/Blaze/darkthrone-blaze-0133.jpg |date=11 July 2012 }} at Creative Studios but not released until February 1992,{{cite AV media |people=Fenriz |date=16 November 2020 |title=The album that defined early Norwegian black metal – Interview with Fenriz with English subtitles |publisher=Nasjonalbiblioteket |medium=Videotape |language=en, no |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d858ZECeNCY |via=YouTube |access-date=24 March 2022}} is regarded as one of the most important albums that defined the black metal genre. Darkthrone were not involved in the church burnings and murders carried out by some other members of the scene,[https://loudwire.com/darkthrone-old-star-fenriz-interview/ "Inside Darkthrone's 'Old Star' With No-Longer Norwegian Politician Fenriz"]. Loudwire, 29 May 2019. and Fenriz has denounced the "hype" surrounding it.

Since 1993, Darkthrone have been a duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto. Fenriz recorded all instruments on their albums Transilvanian Hunger (1994) and Panzerfaust (1995). From the late 1980s to the mid 1990s Fenriz also founded several solo projects, including the folk black metal project Isengard and the dark ambient project Neptune Towers. He was also the drummer for the band Valhall on their three studio albums. In the 1990s he co-founded the folk metal band Storm with Sigurd Wongraven, which released one album.

Both he and Nocturno have refused to play live since the 1990s. In 2004, they turned down a nomination for a Norwegian Alarm Award for their album Sardonic Wrath. Fenriz said, "we have no interest in being part of the glitter and showbiz side of the music industry".[https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/darkthrone-refuse-alarm-award-nomination/ "DARKTHRONE Refuse ALARM Award Nomination"]. Blabbermouth. 16 December 2004. Fenriz (alongside Varg Vikernes) is the principal focus of the 2008 black metal documentary film Until The Light Takes Us.

In 2016, it was widely reported that Fenriz had been elected to his local municipal council, Oppegård. He was elected for a four-year term as a substitute councillor for the Liberal Party,{{Cite web |url=https://www.oppegard.kommune.no/aktuelt/det-nye-kommunestyert |title=Det nye kommunestyret – Oppegård kommune |date=16 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108052808/https://www.oppegard.kommune.no/aktuelt/det-nye-kommunestyert |archive-date=8 November 2016 |access-date=23 September 2018}} explaining that he would "have to step in when the usual people who go to the big meetings are sick or something". Fenriz said: "They called and asked if I wanted to be on the list [of backup representatives]. I said yeah, thinking I would be like 18th on the list and I wouldn't really have to do anything". His "campaign" was a photo of him holding his cat with the caption "Please Don't Vote For Me".[https://clrvynt.com/fenriz-darkthrone-interview/ "Darkthrone Iconoclast Fenriz Is a Reluctant Politician"]. CLRVYNT, 6 September 2016.[http://www.metalinjection.net/politics/darkthrones-fenriz-involuntarily-got-voted-to-be-a-part-of-his-towns-council/ Metal Injection] Accessed 12 September 2016{{Cite web|url=http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/08/fenriz-darkthrone-accidentally-got-elected-town-council/|title=Fenriz from Darkthrone Accidentally Got Elected to His Town Council|last=Rosenberg|first=Axl|date=8 September 2016|website=Metal Sucks|access-date=27 August 2018}}

Fenriz lives in his hometown of Kolbotn. According to The Guardian, Fenriz "has long been a hero in the underground scene" and "has an obsession with unearthing new music and promoting it with rabid enthusiasm". The heavy metal magazine Iron Fist noted he has a reputation as a "walking metal encyclopedia".[http://www.ironfistzine.com/2013/01/16/fenriz-interview-my-uncle-gave-me-all-these-sweet-records-from-the-60s-but-he-was-a-junkie-so-my-parents-wouldnt-let-him-hang-around-me/ Fenriz interview]. Iron Fist, 16 January 2013. He is a part-time music journalist and hosts a monthly online radio show on NTS called "Radio Fenriz".[https://www.nts.live/shows/radio-fenriz Radio Fenriz]. NTS Radio. He created the "Band of the Week" blog from which the acts for the underground metal festival Live Evil are sourced. Fenriz has famously been working part-time in the postal service since the late 1980s, which he says allows him to spend many hours each week listening to new music.{{Cite web|url=http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/03/15/i-am-the-working-class-the-metalsucks-interview-with-fenriz/|title=I Am The Working Class: The MetalSucks Interview with Fenriz|last=Norton|first=Justin|date=15 March 2013|website=Metal Sucks|access-date=27 August 2018}} He has also appeared on a Norwegian television show about hiking in forests.

• Darkthrone — drums, bass, rhythm guitar, vocals, lyrics (1986–present)
• Valhall — drums (1987–1989, 1993–?, 2007–present)
• Fenriz' Red Planet – everything (1993–?) (solo project)
• Isengard — everything (1989–1995) (solo project)
• Neptune Towers – everything (1993–1995) (solo project)
• Dødheimsgard — bass and additional vocals (1994–1995)
• Storm — drums, vocals (1995) (with Satyr from Satyricon and Kari Rueslåtten)
• Eibon — drums (1999) (with Satyr from Satyricon, Killjoy from Necrophagia, and Phil Anselmo from Pantera)
• Fuck You All — bass (2002)
• Regress FF — everything (1994) (solo project)
• Coffin Storm - vocals (2024-present)

• Note: All Darkthrone lyrics are written by Fenriz, with the exception of Transilvanian Hunger tracks 5–8, Panzerfaust track 6, and the Total Death album. Songwriting is usually split between Fenriz and Nocturno Culto, but varies from album to album.

• Ulver – vocals on "A Song of Liberty Plates 25–27" from the album Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998)
• Satyricon – percussion (tracks 4–5) on Rebel Extravaganza (1999)
• Aura Noir – additional vocals on Dreams like Deserts (1995), Increased Damnation (2000) and The Merciless (2004)
• Thorns – vocals and drums (track 9) on Thorns vs. Emperor (2011) (recorded sometime between 1998 and 1999)
• Red Harvest – backing vocals on "Absolut Dunkel:heit" from the album Cold Dark Matter (2000)
• Cadaver Inc. – additional vocals on Discipline (2001)
• Audiopain – additional lyrics on Revel in Desecration (2002)
• Trashcan Darlings – additional vocals on "Dehumanizer" from the album Episode 1: The Lipstick Menace (2002)

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• [https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Fenriz/10 Fenriz] on Encyclopaedia Metallum
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080715040855/http://www.dorfdisco.de/int/2003/darkthrone.phtml Fenriz] interviewed by Travis Jeppesen

{{Darkthrone}}

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Category:1971 births

Category:Living people

Category:Black metal singers

Category:Norwegian heavy metal bass guitarists

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Category:Norwegian heavy metal singers

Category:Norwegian black metal musicians

Category:Norwegian heavy metal drummers

Category:Norwegian male drummers

Category:Norwegian multi-instrumentalists

Category:Norwegian rock bass guitarists

Category:Norwegian rock singers

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Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:Liberal Party (Norway) politicians

Category:21st-century Norwegian singers

Category:21st-century Norwegian drummers

Category:21st-century Norwegian bass guitarists

Category:21st-century Norwegian male singers