Shagrath — born in Norway in 1976, given name Stian Tomt Thoresen — is the vocalist and co-founder of Dimmu Borgir, the band that took Norwegian black metal to the widest commercial reach in its history. He founded the group in 1993 in Oslo, within black metal's second wave — the scene that defined the genre and that was, on principle, hostile to any form of success. Dimmu Borgir did the opposite: it took in symphonic orchestrations, expensive studio production and elaborate visual presentation, going as far as recording with a full symphony orchestra on Death Cult Armageddon (2003) and appearing on official Norwegian charts. That choice earned the band both a mass audience and rejection within the underground itself, which accused it of betraying the genre's principles. It is the same tension that runs through Cradle of Filth — extreme metal bands too big for the world they came from. His voice sustains that formula: a guttural growl articulated clearly enough to work over orchestral layers and choirs without dissolving into the sonic mass. He is on the entire discography, from For All Tid (1995) to Grand Serpent Rising (2026), the only constant element along with Silenoz.
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