ICS Vortex

Infobox musical artist |
Name = ICS Vortex


Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Simen Hestnæs
Hight = 6'6 (198cm)
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1974|3|4
Died =
Origin = Oslo, Norway
Instrument = Vocals, bass, guitar
Genre = Avant-garde metal
Black metal
Symphonic black metal
Melodic black metal
Progressive black metal
Folk metal
Viking metal
Occupation =
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts = Arcturus (Disbanded) Dimmu Borgir Code Lamented Souls Borknagar
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments = BC Rich Vortex Signature Warlock Bass

Simen Hestnæs (born March 4 1974, in Oslo, Norway), also known as ICS Vortex, or just simply Vortex, was the vocalist of the avant-garde metal band Arcturus and is the bass player and clean vocalist for the Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir. He was most recently announced to be the new vocalist for Norwegian/English black metal band Code, [" [http://www.myspace.com/codeblackmetal News Update - Feb 2007 - Vocalist Announced!] " February, 2007.] replacing Kvohst who has gone on to become the vocalist of Dødheimsgard.

Biography

His longest running band is the doom metal band, Lamented Souls, which began in 1991, and for which he plays guitar and bass and handles the vocal duties. 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.Fact|2007-07|date=July 2007

In 1995 he was on tour with the avant-garde metal 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 Arcturus 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/progressive/black metal 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 1997-2000. He took over bass duties as well, recording bass for their fourth full-length "Quintessence", after bassist Kai K. Lie left the band.

In August 2000, Hestnæs left Borknagar to fully concentrate on Dimmu Borgir. 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 bassist when Nagash left the band to fully concentrate on The Kovenant; he is today the permanent replacement on bass and full member of Dimmu Borgir.

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 Simen took over as lead vocalist for the band, making it the second band in which Simen 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 Australia, Simen stated that the concert would be Arcturus' last show. On April 17th, the band officially announced they had disbanded. [http://www.arcturus.no/home.htm]

Most recently, Simen lent his voice to the animated television program, Metalocalypse, in the episode "Dethdoubles" as well as "Dethcarraldo."

He is engaged to Lise Myhre, a Norwegian artist and creator of the comic "Nemi", and they have a son, Storm, born 2007.

He is 6'6 (198cm) in height.

Discography

With Lamented Souls

# Self-released demo (1995)
# "Essence of Wounds" - Duplicate Records (2003)
# "The Origins of Misery" - Duplicate Records (2004)
# "Echelons of Decay" (Tentative Title) - Duplicate Records (20??) [http://www.myspace.com/lamentedsouls]

With Ved Buens Ende

# "...Coiled in Obscurity" bootleg - Benighted Mirror Records (2002)

With Borknagar

# "The Archaic Course" - Century Media Records (1998)
# "Quintessence" - Century Media Records (2000)

With Dimmu Borgir

# "Spiritual Black Dimensions" - Nuclear Blast (1999) (reissued in 2004)
# "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" - Nuclear Blast (2001)
# "Alive in Torment" EP - Nuclear Blast (2001)
# "World Misanthropy" live EP - Nuclear Blast (2002)
# "World Misanthropy" DVD/VHS - Nuclear Blast (2002)
# "Death Cult Armageddon promo" EP - Nuclear Blast (2003)
# "Death Cult Armageddon" - Nuclear Blast (2003)
# "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" DVD - Nuclear Blast (2003)
# "Vredesbyrd" single - Nuclear Blast (2004)
# "In Sorte Diaboli" - Nuclear Blast (2007)

= With Arcturus =

# "La Masquerade Infernale" - Misanthropy/Music For Nations (1997)
# "Sideshow Symphonies" - Season of Mist (2005)
# "Shipwrecked in Oslo" DVD - Season of Mist (2006)

=With Dagoba (guest)=

# "What Hell Is About" - Season Of Mist (2006)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.arcturus.no/ Official Arcturus website]
* [http://www.dimmu-borgir.com/ Official Dimmu Borgir website]
* [http://www2.hvweb.co.uk/~svs/code/ Official Code website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/lamentedsouls Official Lamented Souls Myspace]
* [http://www.myspace.com/icsvortex ICS Vortex Fan Page Myspace]