back

biography / portrait

Artifact is a band from the city of Stavanger on the west coast of Norway, formed in late 2002. After a rough start and a long series of line-up changes, including five different vocalists and one drummer, the band settled on their current line-up in late 2004, when vocalist Tor Arne Fassotte of Unpure and This Negative Karma joined the band. In addition to Tor Arne, the group consists of guitarist Bjørnar Landa (who also plays with Sirenia and Deathfare), The Dictator, who takes care of the drums, samples and synths and guitarist Pål Evensen who programs The Dictator and writes most of the music. During the summer of 2006, the band was joined by bassist Jan Henrik Vuyk. The sound of Artifact is somewhat electronic due to the programmed beats and frequent use of industrial samples and synthetic noises. The music is not about instrumental virtuosity, rapid changes in time-signature and mind-boggling guitar solos -it's about pounding machine beats and raging guitars against ethereal synth backdrops and gothic mystique - a sound that has often been compared to that of Type O Negative (probably because of Tor Arne's deep and melodic voice), The Sisters of Mercy and Zeromancer. Other influences worth mentioning are: Rob Zombie, Ministry, Depeche Mode, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. The band held their debut concert in the city of Sandnes in May 2005, supporting Trail of Tears, and released a demo called Abandoned E.P. in September the same year. Since then, Artifact has played concerts in other parts of Norway, been aired on national radio on several occasions, played support for Theatre of Tragedy and been in the global top ten at Broadjam for weeks at the time with the tracks "Abandoned", "Scapegoated & Demonized" and "New Messiah". (source: www.artifact.no)