Atrox

Atrox, a Norwegian extreme metal band, first assembled in 1988 under the name Suffocation, a designation they quickly set aside because of its existing popularity. Their opening full-length, Mesmerised, did not appear until 1997. What had started as a taste for conventional death metal had by then shifted into an unorthodox strain of progressive death that merged metal textures with opera, jazz, ambient music, space rock, and electronica. Fronted by singer and keyboardist Monika Edvardsen—sister of Ann-Mari Edvardsen from The 3rd and the Mortal, a group to which Atrox are often compared—and guitarist/vocalist Eivind Fjoseide, the outfit has consistently drawn on a changing roster of supporting players across its singular course. That same exploratory impulse and pattern of personnel turnover carried forward through the increasingly eccentric and sometimes bewildering albums Contentum in 2000 and Terrestrials in 2002, remaining intact on the fourth release, Orgasm, which arrived in 2003 as the band’s first outing for Code666 and included guitarist/bassist Rune Sørgård together with drummer Tor-Arne Helgesen.