Nocturno Culto

Nocturno Culto — Ted Skjellum, born in Norway in 1972 — is Darkthrone's singer and guitarist, and the other half of the pair that has sustained the band since the early 1990s. His voice is one of the elements that defined the sound of Norwegian black metal: a torn, high, harsh shriek, far from death metal's guttural and closer to a distorted lament. It is not projection technique — it is texture, and it works as one more instrument inside the raw sonic mass the band pursues. With Fenriz he forms a core of two: one writes much of the composition, the other records guitars, bass and voice, and the roles alternate from record to record. That minimal configuration allowed Darkthrone to operate for three decades without depending on band structure, touring or industry. His work spans every phase of the group — from the death metal of Soulside Journey (1991) to the founding trilogy of Norwegian black metal, and then to the turn towards crust punk and traditional heavy metal on the more recent records. Outside music he worked for many years as a schoolteacher, a situation that reinforces the deliberate distance the band keeps from the condition of the full-time musician.