Dag Nilsen

Dag Nilsen was Darkthrone's bassist in the band's first phase, until 1991. The bass on Soulside Journey (1991), the group's debut, is his — an album that sounds completely unlike everything that came after. It is technical death metal, with clean production done at Sweden's Sunlight studio, elaborate riffs and an audible, well-defined rhythm section. Nothing there anticipates the raw sound that would make the band famous. That is precisely the reason for his departure. When Darkthrone decided to abandon death metal for deliberately primitive recordings, Nilsen did not follow the change of direction. He did take part in the sessions for A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), the record of the turn, but was no longer in the band when it was released. His later path is thinly documented. He remains the bassist of the only album on which Darkthrone sounded like a conventional band.