Samoth - Biography

Biography

Samoth was born on June 9, 1974 in Hammerfest, Norway. He was the son of Spoonful of Blues bass player Jens Haugen, who encouraged his son to play bass guitar. He grew up in Tromsø, Norway. When Samoth was a young man, he met a fellow musician, who would later become known as Ihsahn, at a rock clinic in Bergen. The two soon became friends and started playing music together. They formed a band and moved through various names – they were called Dark Device, Xerasia, and finally Embryonic. The group eventually settled on the name Thou Shalt Suffer in 1991. They were playing an early form of black metal with keyboards strongly influenced by death metal, particularly vocally.

Samoth and Ihsahn's friendship proved to be strong, and the two eventually took their musicianship to a new level. Partially due to the influence of Euronymous of the band Mayhem, Samoth left Thou Shalt Suffer and with Ihsahn, began writing music for a new band called Emperor (in which he played drums). Ihsahn was the only member of Thou Shalt Suffer to remain, and soon bass player Mortiis and drummer Faust were recruited for Emperor; Samoth moved back to his more familiar position of guitar. At this point, the group was playing fully developed black metal. Emperor was quick to release several demos in 1992 and 1993, which gained them recognition and popularity in the underground. Mortiis did not stay in the band, and decided to form his own, more electronic-based solo band. He was succeeded by Tchort.

In 1994 Samoth was sentenced to 16 months in prison for burning Skjold Church in Vindafjord, together with Varg Vikernes. The arson was committed during a pause in the recording of the Burzum EP Aske (Ashes), where Samoth performed as a session bass player. As Tchort and Faust were also imprisoned at this time, Ihsahn was the only remaining band member outside prison, and Emperor didn't release another album in three years. Tchort and Faust did not return to the band.

After years of playing in Emperor and being featured on various black metal side projects, Samoth, in conjunction with Ihsahn, decided to dissolve Emperor in 2001 due to their differing musical tastes. Although black metal was both Samoth and Ihsahn's biggest influence and favorite genre of music, Samoth was leaning toward a futuristic death metal sound, while Ihsahn was more influenced by gothic metal and symphonic metal. After Emperor's final release, Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise, composed entirely by Ihsahn, Emperor was no more. Samoth went on to play guitar with fellow drummer Trym in the death metal band Zyklon.

Emperor regrouped in 2006 with the core trio of Ihsahn, Samoth and Trym augmented by a bassist and a keyboardist, and played a few one-night-off gigs in Europe and USA in 2006 and 2007.

Recently Samoth was involved in Norwegian-American supergroup Scum, which also featured Bård Faust, Cosmocrator of Mindgrinder, Chasey Chaos of Amen and Happy Tom from Turbonegro.

He has one daughter with ex-wife Andrea Haugen. He remarried since his divorce and he also has a daughter with his wife Erin.

Samoth also did voice work for 2007's Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse episode "Dethfashion".