Vintersorg

Vintersorg
Vintersorg at the Dark Troll festival 2025 in Germany.
Background information
Origin	Skellefteå, Sweden
Genres	Black metal, folk metal, progressive metal
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Napalm, SPV
Members	Andreas Hedlund Mattias Marklund Simon Lundström

Vintersorg (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈvɪ̂nːtɛˌʂɔrj]; "Winter Sorrow" in English) is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 as Vargatron (Wolfthrone in English). Musically, Vintersorg has covered many heavy metal genres. While the band is rooted in extreme metal, particularly black metal and Viking/folk metal, it has expanded into progressive metal and avant-garde metal. The band's lyrics deals with fantasy, mythology, nature, the cosmos, and metaphysics. They took their name from The Legend of the Ice People series by Margit Sandemo, where the character Vintersorg is a great pagan leader's son.

History

The project was formed in 1994 to "push the limits" of black metal music, with mostly clean sung vocals, and minimal screaming vocals. Vintersorg's sound has changed over the years. Their earlier sound had a folk influence, and, later on, an experimental sound. This transformation was evident on the Cosmic Genesis album. The change progressed from album to album. The 2004 album The Focusing Blur is an avant-garde album. The band's vocals have changed from album to album. They started with low-pitched, baritone singing, and shifted to a softer, higher-pitched delivery with more harmony and layering with black metal vocals. Solens rötter returned to folk metal while retaining the complex, non-traditional guitar arrangements and song structures of later albums. Jordpuls and Orkan continued the Swedish-sung material and nature-oriented themes. Till fjälls: Part II, a double album, was released in June 2017.

The lyrics shifted too. Earlier albums were written and performed in Swedish, and dealt with nature and paganism. With Cosmic Genesis, the lyrics were written and sung mostly in English, and dealt with astronomy and cosmology, metaphysics, and astrology. In the Cosmic Genesis booklet, Vintersorg thanked Dr. Carl Sagan, author of the book Cosmos. Since then, the band has alternated between English and Swedish lyrics, sometimes using both on the same album. The latter albums are sung entirely in Swedish and deal with more traditional themes.

Andreas Hedlund (a.k.a. Vintersorg) is the frontman of several bands, including Otyg,Havayoth, Fission, Cronian and Waterclime.

Band members

• Andreas "Vintersorg" Hedlund – composer, vocals, guitars, keyboard, programing
• Mattias Marklund – guitars
• Simon Lundström - bass guitar, backing vocals

Session musicians

• Vargher – keyboards on Hedniskhjärtad, Till fjälls, and Ödemarkens son
• Cia Hedmark – female vocals on Hedniskhjärtad, Till fjälls, and Ödemarkens son and violin on Ödemarkens son, female vocals on Norrskenssyner.
• Andreas Frank – guest lead guitar on "För kung och fosterland" & "Asatider" on Till fjälls
• Nisse Johansson – additional keys on Till fjälls and analog synth, loop editing on Visions from the Spiral Generator and Hammond on "Universums dunkla alfabet"
• Jan Erik "Tyr" Torgersen – live bass
• Steve Di Giorgio – bass guitar on Visions from the Spiral Generator and The Focusing Blur
• Asgeir Mickelson – drums on Visions from the Spiral Generator and The Focusing Blur
• Lars "Lazare" Nedland – Hammond organ on Visions from the Spiral Generator and Hammond organ, vocals, and lyricist on The Focusing Blur
• Benny Hägglund – live drums
• Johan Lindgren – live bass, bass on Solens rötter
• Andreas Stenlund – live guitar until 2002

Discography

• Hedniskhjärtad (EP, 1998) ("Paganhearted")
• Till fjälls (1998) ("To the Mountains")
• Ödemarkens son (1999) ("Son of the Wilderness")
• Cosmic Genesis (2000)
• Visions from the Spiral Generator (2002)
• The Focusing Blur (2004)
• Solens rötter (2007) ("Roots of the Sun")
• Jordpuls (2011) ("Earthpulse")
• Orkan (2012) ("Hurricane")
• Naturbål (2014) ("Natural Bonfire")
• Till fjälls: Del II (2017) ("To the mountains: Part II")
• Vattenkrafternas spel (2025) ("The Play of Water Powers")

External links

• Vintersorg Archived 8 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine at Napalm Records
• Interview on www.avantgarde-metal.com Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Lyric translations on archive.org