VIRUS
Bio:
Virus rose out of the ashes of Czral's 90's avantgarde black metal outfit Ved Buens Ende in 2000.
With him, he brought bassist Plenum (of Audiopain fame) and drummer Einz (Beyond Dawn etc.) to create a new kind of experimental metal / rock, based on the dissonant chord foundations laid in Ved Buens Ende.
The trio recorded their only demo the same year and were rapidly picked up by Jester Records who released their debut album, Carheart in 2003. The album received many positive reviews, but some reviewers were also bewildered by the band's unorthodox way of creating music, the outlandish playfulness of the cover and the surreal lyrics.
The band was put on hiatus for a few years, not least because of Czral's 2005 accident, rendering him hospitalized for a year.
After a futile attempt at resurrecting Ved Buens Ende with former founding member Vicotnik in 2006, Czral decided to continue with Virus instead, and the original line-up of him, Plenum and Einz spent the next year writing what would become the band's second album; The Black Flux.
The album was released by Season Of Mist in November 2008 and this time the world seemed more prepared for the experimenting ways of Virus. The Black Flux received mostly very positive reviews and it was even awarded album of the year in several publications.
Virus spent most of 2009 writing another set of songs for their third album, which they started recording late that year. They soon found themselves without a bass player though, as Plenum was unable to continue with the band.
After a lengthy search, the band hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Bjeima, who agreed to play session bass on the new album.
The Agent That Shapes The Desert was completed autumn 2010 and released February 2011 on Virus' own imprint, Virulent Music.
2011 finally saw the live debut of Virus, with their longtime peers Ulver at the fancy Koko theatre in London. They have since played at a number of festivals; Sonisphere (Greece), Hole In The Sky (Norway) and Aurora Infernalis (The Netherlands). In 2012 they are set to play the prestigious Roadburn Festival (The Netherlands), Brutal Assault (Czech Republic) and the new Bunker Festival in their hometown of Oslo.
Virus are currently planning a compilation release featuring album outtakes, live tracks and other previously unreleased material. They plan to have it out during 2012, as well as starting to work on material for their fourth album.
Virus Website
Virus @ MySpace