Simen Hestnæs (born 4 March 1974), better known by his stage name ICS Vortex or simply Vortex, is a Norwegian musician. He is the vocalist of the similarly named band ICS Vortex, the

avant-garde metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, art metal and experimetal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde music, avant-garde elements, including non-stan ...

band

Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is a red giant star in the Northern celestial hemisphere, northern constellation of Boötes, and the brightest star in the constellation. It ha ...

and the

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band Lamented Souls. He is also a vocalist and the bass guitarist to the

progressive metal Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...

band Borknagar, and the former bass guitarist and clean vocalist for the

symphonic black metal Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. History One of the earliest forerunners in what would come to be the sound of symphonic metal was Celtic Frost ...

band

Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic lang ...

Biography

His longest-running band is the

band Lamented Souls, which began in 1991 and for which he plays guitar and handles the vocal duties. He actually started out as their drummer, but switched places with Ole Jørgen Moe when they became aware of his singing abilities. His moniker was a bit of a joke to poke fun at one of Garm's aliases, Fiery G. Maelstrom: "Icy S. Vortex", with the first words being opposite elements, the middle initial being the first letters of their common names, and the last word being a powerful circular current of water. In 1995, he was on tour with the

band Ved Buens Ende and performed the supporting vocals. Songs from that tour were later released on ''...Coiled in Obscurity'' bootleg album. In 1997, Hestnæs made a guest appearance on the

album '' La Masquerade Infernale''. He sang on three songs: "Master of Disguise", "The Chaos Path" (in which he handled all lead vocals, wrote the lyrics and co-composed this song), and "Painting My Horror". In 1997, the

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

/ progressive/

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

band Borknagar was in need of a vocalist after the departure of original vocalist Garm. Garm introduced the band to Hestnæs, who became their vocalist from 1997 to 2000. He took over bass duties as well, recording bass for their fourth full-length '' Quintessence'', after bass guitarist Kai K. Lie left the band. In August 2000, Hestnæs left Borknagar to fully concentrate on

. According to an interview, Borknagar was set to tour Europe with Mayhem, about the same time he would be in the studio to record with Dimmu Borgir. Borknagar guitarist and frontman Øystein G. Brun gave Hestnæs an ultimatum: tour with Borknagar, or quit and deal with Dimmu Borgir. He opted for the latter, stating that he thought Dimmu Borgir would become a more successful band in the long term. Brun would later state that the decision was "business", and that he "had nothing against Dimmu Borgir", and he wished Hestnæs the best; Hestnæs then stated that had he not gotten the ultimatum, he would still be in Borknagar to this day. Hestnæs first contributed on the recording of '' Spiritual Black Dimensions'' by adding a new vocal element: his own "clean" and "operatic" singing which added a new element to Dimmu Borgir as a band. Hestnæs stepped in as session bass guitarist when Nagash left the band to fully concentrate on The Kovenant; he was, until late August 2009, the permanent replacement on bass and a full member of Dimmu Borgir. ICS Vortex2005

In 2005, Hestnæs became Arcturus' new singer following the departure of both Garm in 2003, and Spiral Architect's Øyvind Hægeland in 2005. Hægeland departed from the band due to the distance he lived from the other band members and Hestnæs took over as lead vocalist for the band, making it the second band in which Hestnæs would be the successor to Garm as vocalist. In September 2005, the band released their fourth full-length album, and first full-length without Garm on vocals, '' Sideshow Symphonies'', which was met with varying acclaim. In 2005, Hestnæs was voted one of the top ten vocalists in Terrorizer Magazine and Arcturus was voted among the ten best live acts of 2005. Sideshow Symphonies was also ranked among the top ten albums of the year in the magazine. In 2007, at a concert in Melbourne, Australia, Hestnæs stated that the concert would be Arcturus' last show. On 17 April, the band officially announced they had disbanded. Most recently, Hestnæs lent his voice to the animated television program, ''

Metalocalypse ''Metalocalypse'' is an American Musical film, musical adult animated television series created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha for Adult Swim. It premiered on August 6, 2006. The television program centers on the larger-than-life melodic deat ...

'', in the episode "Dethdoubles" as well as "Dethwedding" and "Dethcarraldo". According to a Myspace post (in late August 2009) by Mustis, the keyboardist of Dimmu Borgir, both he and Vortex had been fired from the band. Vortex later stated he will remember the days before the greed and music industry took over Dimmu Borgir. In 2010, it was announced Hestnæs would be returning to Borknagar as a live member on bass and vocals. Furthermore,

would be resurrected to headline the ProgPower USA festival in 2011. Hestnæs released his first solo album in 2011, entitled Storm Seeker. The album features Asgeir Mickelson on drums (ex-Borknagar), and some guitar solos by Terje "Cyrus" Andersen. The live band will include Borknagar guitarist Jens F. Ryland, and Steinar Gundersen from Spiral Architect on bass. After several months of rumours of ICS Vortex's involvement with Borknagar, it was announced that he was to rejoin Borknagar full-time as a cooperative vocalist with Vintersorg (and Lars "Lazare" Nedland) as well as being the band's bass guitarist. This would last until Vintersorg's departure from the band in 2019, wherein Vortex assumed the role of lead vocalist once again for the first time since 2000. 2011 also saw the revival of

, with Vortex once again assuming lead vocal duties.

Solo band members

* ICS Vortex – vocals, guitars (2011–present) (also bass and keyboards on 'Storm Seeker') * Hallvard Eggestad – bass (2012–present) * Baard Kolstad – drums (2012–present) * Petter Hallaråker – guitars (2012–present) Previous members * Asgeir Mickelson – drums (on 'Storm Seeker') *

Cyrus Cyrus () is a Persian-language masculine given name. It is historically best known as the name of several List of monarchs of Iran, Persian kings, most notably including Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC. It remains wid ...

– guitars (on 'Storm Seeker') * Jens F. Ryland – guitars (2011–2012) * Steinar Gundersen – bass (2011–2012)

Discography

With Lamented Souls

# ''Soulstorm'' (demo) (1992) # ''Demo '95'' (demo) (1995) # ''Essence of Wounds'' (single) – Duplicate Records (2003) # ''The Origins of Misery'' – Duplicate Records (2004) # ''Echelons of Decay'' (tentative title) – Duplicate Records

With Ved Buens Ende

# ''...Coiled in Obscurity'' bootleg – Benighted Mirror Records (2002)

With Borknagar

# '' The Archaic Course'' –

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a German heavy metal record label with offices in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by R ...

(1998) # '' Quintessence'' – Century Media Records (2000) # '' Universal'' – Indie Recordings (2010) (guest on one song) # '' Urd'' –

(2012) # '' Winter Thrice'' –

(2016) # ''

True North True north is the direction along Earth's surface towards the place where the imaginary rotational axis of the Earth intersects the surface of the Earth on its Northern Hemisphere, northern half, the True North Pole. True south is the direction ...

'' –

(2019) # '' Fall'' –

(2024)

With Dimmu Borgir

# '' Spiritual Black Dimensions'' –

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast Records is a German record label with subsidiary, subsidiaries located in Germany, the United States and Brazil. It was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Donzdorf. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on ...

(1999) (reissued in 2004) (guest) # '' Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia'' – Nuclear Blast (2001) # '' Alive in Torment'' ( EP) – Nuclear Blast (2001) # '' World Misanthropy'' (live EP) – Nuclear Blast (2002) # '' World Misanthropy'' (

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

) – Nuclear Blast (2002) # ''Death Cult Armageddon'' (EP) – Nuclear Blast (2003) # ''Death Cult Armageddon'' (DVD) – Nuclear Blast (2003) # '' Death Cult Armageddon'' – Nuclear Blast (2003) # ''Progenies of the Great Apocalypse'' (DVD) – Nuclear Blast (2003) # '' Vredesbyrd'' (single) – Nuclear Blast (2004) # ''The Sacrilegious Scorn'' (single) – Nuclear Blast (2007) # ''In Sorte Diaboli Sampler'' (single) – Nuclear Blast (2007) # ''The Serpentine Offering'' (single) – Nuclear Blast (2007) # '' In Sorte Diaboli'' – Nuclear Blast (2007) # ''The Invaluable Darkness'' (DVD) – Nuclear Blast (2008)

With Arcturus

# '' La Masquerade Infernale'' – Misanthropy/ Music for Nations (1997) (guest) # '' Sideshow Symphonies'' –

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pa ...

(2005) # '' Shipwrecked in Oslo'' DVD – Season of Mist (2006) # '' Arcturian'' - Prophecy Productions (2015)

With Dagoba

# '' What Hell Is About'' – Season of Mist (2006) (guest)

With Belzebubs

# ''Pantheon of the Nightside Gods'' - Century Media (2019) (guest)

Solo

# '' Storm Seeker'' –

(2011)

References

External links

ICS Vortex official MySpace page

Official Arcturus website

Official Dimmu Borgir website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vortex, Ics Living people Black metal singers Dimmu Borgir members Norwegian heavy metal bass guitarists Norwegian male bass guitarists Norwegian black metal musicians Norwegian heavy metal guitarists Norwegian heavy metal singers Norwegian male singers Norwegian multi-instrumentalists Norwegian rock bass guitarists Norwegian rock guitarists Musicians from Oslo Tenors Borknagar members Arcturus (band) members 1974 births