Where did Simon Hestanes come from?

[Kushantaiidan]

Simon Hestanes is a genius with vocals. Every band he has worked with have benefitted from his amazingly unique voice.

But where did he start? What was his first appearance? Was it arcturus or borknagar? If it was borknagar, how did they stumble upon such a genius... He must've been in some other band before that or something, because he was so skilled on the borknagar albums..

And I look forward to any upcoming work he does with Dimmu Burgir..

 

[Jim LotFP]

Simen did the Arcturus appearance before Borknagar...

Before that, he did some live work with Ved Buens Ende. He's also got some sort of doom project with Einar Sjurso (sp?) of Beyond Dawn from that time period...

 

[Kushantaiidan]

That all sounded awfully unfamiliar..

 

[Kushantaiidan]

And also, seeing Arcturus used him before Borknagar... then Arcturus made a damn good find..

 

[Kushantaiidan]

Written in Waters 1995 Misanthropy

Despite their angular approach to metal and a rather odd stylistic variation, Ved Buens Ende basically failed to impress me to any degree with Written in Waters. Interesting intentions do abound and I like the way the bass slithers in winding patterns below the somewhat flat guitar. The drumming is also a bit untethered by any normal tradition of metal or rock. What kills the effort is a lack of strong songwriting that utilizes the musicianship and the unbearably off key moaning vocals. There are times where someone does a black metal troll rasp (it's really dopey sounding) or layer clean moaning with the rasping. To a certain degree this album would have succeeded better had vocals never been a part of the equation, but overall it's an experiment that fails to a high degree.

Review by John Chedsey

Doesn't sound like Simon Hestanes quality.. but that's only one review I spose.. I'll check them out anyway..

 

[Kveldssanger]

Simen didn't sing in any of the Ved Buens Ende albums as far as I know. Jim said that he helped them with their lives (i don't know this fact, but I think that this what he meant).

 

[Kushantaiidan]

Ah.. I see.

Also, while you are there, your avatar looks cool, what is it?

I assume some kind of album cover, the artwork looks cool, especially the colours.

 

[Kveldssanger]

It's the cover of Psychotic Waltz's "Bleeding" by (guess who?) Travis Smith. This album has probably the best artwork I've seen so far.

 

[Till Fjalls]

As I've mentioned before, he's the greatest singer in the world (You all knew that anyway ), and you should check the band that was his original project, I believe they may still be looking for a deal, they were/are called Lamented Souls. I've managed to hear one song by them, it's perhaps the most cepressing song I've ever heard. It puts any other doom band I've heard to shame, at least in terms of pure emotion.....

 

[Jim LotFP]

Originally posted by Till Fjalls
Lamented Souls

Yeah, that's the one with Einar...

And no recording with Ved Buens Ende, just concerts...