Trym Torson

Trym Torson — Kai Johnny Mosaker, born in Norway in 1974 — has been Emperor's drummer since 1996, and is one of the most precise instrumentalists in extreme black metal. He joined in time to record Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997), the album on which the band took its symphonic conception to its most elaborate form — and whose drumming is frequently cited as a technical reference for the genre. The tracks combine blast beats sustained for minutes, frequent changes of metre and passages where the drums must follow keyboard arrangements that do not obey rock logic. Playing that with clarity, rather than turning it all into indistinct noise, is what distinguishes his work. He came from Enslaved, the Norwegian black metal band of Viking bent, where he played in the early phase. After Emperor ended in 2001 he joined Zyklon alongside Samoth, an industrial death metal project. He remains in Emperor's reunion line-up, active in live performance from 2013.