Insense

Oslo's Insense stood apart from the black metal dominance that defined their Norwegian homeland, deliberately steering toward other strains of extreme metal by blending Pantera, Meshuggah, Slipknot, and the Dillinger Escape Plan into their compositions. Tommy Hjelm, handling vocals and guitar, joined drummer Håvard Iversen to launch the band in 1999, after which singer Eigil Dragvik, guitarist Martin Rygge, and bassist Magnus Rønneberg completed the roster for its formative years. The lineup fractured not long after the self-titled debut arrived in 2002. When Insense resurfaced with the follow-up Soothing Torture in 2005, Hjelm had shifted to sole lead vocals while Truls Haugen stepped in for Iversen on drums, and longtime bassist Rønneberg was preparing to exit following his conversion to born-again Christianity. Ola S. Hana took over the bass chair for the third album, The Silent Epidemic, issued in 2007 on Black Balloon Records and showcasing the group's most intricate synthesis of its broad influences to date.