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In September 2006, Strķšslįvaršur founded the one man band Sųnn Av Skogen in purpose to express the second facet of his personality, complementary to his other solo project Hedensk Bjųrn. Indeed, Hedensk Bjųrn has an approach much warer whereas Sųnn Av Skogen has an approach more misanthropic and melancholic. Slow passages are far more present in this project than in Hedensk Bjųrn band with fast compositions. The other major difference with Hedensk Bjųrn is that Strķšslįvaršur decided not to stage concert sessions because the highlighted atmosphere and concept in Sųnn Av Skogen are too personal and don't match stage spirit at all. "Sųnn Av Skogen" is Norwegian for "Son Of Forests". Strķšslįvaršur considers indeed himself an integral part of nature as a human because for him, human is strongly linked to nature. Without it, he is nothing, that a lot of people don't know because they are stupid. He alludes to Mother Nature and he is its child. Sųnn Av Skogen is influenced by melancholic black metal bands like Burzum, old Nargaroth, old Nocturnal Depression, Klage or Grimlair and true black metal bands like Blodsrit, old Darkthrone or old Gorgoroth. Very fastly, Strķšslįvaršur created and recorded a song called "Pagans'death". This song contained at that time only three instruments : one guitar, drums and vocals. This composition was very basic. Then in October 2006, he recorded the composition "Disgusted by this world" with still one guitar, drums and vocals. Towards November 2006, he created the guitar of his composition which would become far later "Verzweifelndes Leben". |
Strķšslįvaršur aka Artos, the only member of Sųnn Av Skogen | |
Then, Strķšslįvaršur modified the rhythm of the composition "Pagans' death" to make guitar slower and so more melancholic. But this still was realized in a state of demo with a not too good sound. In February 2007, production improved and Strķšslįvaršur re-recorded the two first compositions. Then, Strķšslįvaršur, knowing that compositions were without power, decided to add one guitar and one bass to the already existing compositions. "Pagans' death" and "Disgusted by this world" became then more intense. But, the composition "Disgusted by this world" had a name too long and which sounded bad. That's why, Strķšslįvaršur renamed it "Disgusting world". He wrote entirely the song "Verzweifelndes Leben", deciding to use German to express himself whereas the two first compositions were in English. For all the compositions, basic guitar became lead guitar, added guitar constituted rhythm guitar and bass supported the rhythm of compositions. For "Pagans' death", he changed the introduction of the song, making it more advanced and added solos for the lead guitar. Concerning "Disgusting world", he replaced passages without drums with clean guitar passages. Then, he wrote the song "Ewige Traurigkeit" in September 2007, song becoming over the time quite complex and including several solos. "Official" recordings began in November 2007 with a better software than the previous one, lyrics having been remade meanwhile. Concerning "Pagans' death", the lyrics tell about massacre of heathen people during the conversion of Europe to christianity. For "Disgusting world", Strķšslįvaršur added thunder's noises at various moments in the composition. The lyrics, this time, tell about a deep disgust for humanity who made world abject. You can feel well all misanthropy in this composition but also, hatred and sadness. As for "Verzweifelndes Leben" whose name means "Hopeless life" in German, the song denounces cowardice of people in current world and mentions that only courage can reward them. Disgust, hatred and contemptuous misanthropy are again mentioned. Strķšslįvaršur also recorded an intro with two acoustic guitars and synchronized wolfs' howls so that you feel that wolfs answer acoustic guitars as for a dialogue. This intro was called "Einklang" which is German word for "intro". Strķšslįvaršur decided indeed to give the German name "Sehnsucht nach der Vergangenheit" to his production which means "Nostalgia for the past". Strķšslįvaršur is an ardent defender of a far heathen era when we lived in harmony with nature and when we respected it as our Mother. Towards the end of the year 2007, Strķšslįvaršur used the name "revival black metal" to describe the type of music of the band. Indeed, the purpose of the band is to revive old black metal spirit. But it was only in July 2008 that all recordings were finished. "Ewige Traurigkeit" was then recorded. "Ewige Traurigkeit" means "Endless sadness" in German and tells about a deep sadness, fight and resistance to the New World Order. This New World Order makes society sad and death of moral worth are mentioned. You can feel again hatred and disgust in the song. An outro was added. It was made of two acoustic guitars in a very medieval musical style. It was called of course "Ausklang" which is German word for "outro". Then, Strķšslįvaršur, of course, masterized all the production. It was then that Strķšslįvaršur wondered under which form his production would be released. He decided to bring out a full-length of more than 55mn. He started looking for a label in the course of 2009 and signed in June of this year on the Portuguese label War Productions. Then, Strķšslįvaršur decided to add the pseudonym "Artos" to his existing pseudonym which is Gaulish for "bear". Strķšslįvaršur is, indeed, very attached to his land and the animal which represents him the best is bear. On the 18th of November 2009, the full-length "Sehnsucht nach der Vergangenheit" was released finally as tape limited to 300 copies on the label War Productions. |
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