Håvard Ellefsen, often referred to as Mortiis, is the only constant band member. He was born in Skien, Telemark. Mortiis began his musical career playing bass for the black metal act Emperor. He stayed with the band just over one year before going on to create his own solo project, though unlike his previous band the music would be dark ambient oriented. Ellefsen was experimenting greatly with music during his early solo career. He started four separate projects, though the focus was always on Mortiis.
Ellefsen wrapped up work on the soundtrack to the movie Broken and The Devil's Chair (Renegade Films) in 2007. Both films were directed by Adam Mason who first worked with him on the Mortiis video for Decadent & Desperate. Having completed an album's worth of songs, Ellefsen commented at how they were "atmospheric and eerie" and also "very dark" while "some of it actually is semi-song structured, with some melody and sense to it." They were done under the Mortiis name. The collected music will eventually be released as a Mortiis album.
Mortiis as a band was formed shortly after the release of The Smell of Rain.
Dark Dungeon Music was the personal record label of Mortiis. It operated between 1995 and 1999 while Mortiis resided in Halmstad, Sweden, and released mostly limited-edition vinyl. It was dissolved as Mortiis moved back to Norway in late 1999.
For nearly the entirety of the band's existence, frontman Ellefsen has altered his facial appearance using several alternatives before using a prosthetic mask and ear set. The studio who made Mortiis' mask asked for a character reference for the moulding. The mask was always coupled with ears. During Era I the mask covered his whole face, though by Era III it had an appearance whereby it seemed to be falling off and was stitched in place. The mask was dropped after the release of Some Kind of Heroin. Having stated in an interview that the mask has been shelved "for better or worse", as part of the significance of Some Kind of Heroin.
Ellefsen's choice of dreadlocks (sometime after Era I), and various outfits helped produce the "Mortiis image". When asked as to what the mask represents he has answered, "I do not look upon myself as a goblin, or troll, or elf, or medieval. I am merely Mortiis." When talking about the influence for the imagery that his band uses, Ellefsen has commented, "A lot of people do not get that you can do more than just look like you're waiting for a bus. I mean how dull is that? I grew up with Kiss, W.A.S.P. and Alice Cooper.
The title of Era I was never intentional. It came about in 2001 when Mortiis was set to release The Smell of Rain, which was such a departure from his earlier records that he wanted to brand it in a way to signify this. All works previous to The Smell of Rain were thereafter referred to as Era I as a consequence. All of the Era I albums were composed entirely on synthesizers, creating a sound that Mortiis described as "dark dungeon music"- a fundamental influence on the later Dungeon Synth genre. The last album of this era, The Stargate, went a step further by introducing a wider range of instruments including acoustic guitars, flutes and dark vocals; mainly provided by Sarah Jezebel Deva.
Songs on The Smell of Rain were electropop, and frontman Ellefsen took to lead vocals for the first time. This would be the only release under the title of Era II. It was during this era that Ellefsen decided he needed to seek members to perform in a live setting, which later helped change how Mortiis as a band sounded. The first live shows with this new lineup and with Mortiis as frontman & vocalist took place in the United Kingdom in December 2001.
With Era III came The Grudge, which took an even more drastic turn from previous eras and is said to have made the biggest impression of any of his albums. The Grudge took on a heavy industrial rock emphasis, combining grinding guitars and industrial programming. Some of the longtime fans were again not too happy with this turn, but it helped gain Mortiis more new fans. In 2005, the Norwegian Culture Council selected The Grudge to be freely available for listening to the public in libraries across the country.
On 16 April 2007 Mortiis released a remix album titled Some Kind of Heroin, reworking material from The Grudge, via Earache Records. "Some Kind of Heroin" offers diverse remix material including interpretations by a wide range of contemporaries, such as Zombie Girl, Gothminister, Implant, XP8, PIG, The Kovenant, Velvet Acid Christ, Girls Under Glass, David Wallace, Kubrick, Flesh Field, Victor Vortexx, Dope Stars Inc, In the Nursery among others. In late 2009 and early 2010 earlier music has been partly reprogrammed and re-arranged for future live use.
On 10 October 2010 Mortiis released Perfectly Defect as a free internet only download album. Regarding why the album was free, Mortiis stated, "The new model of the music business is important to keep in mind; there's a new mentality out there in terms of how people acquire their music now." During this time and the subsequent tours, the visual appearance and sound was similar to that of Era III, but with a more Industrial appearance closer to Combichrist and without any form of mask which had been a key characteristic of previous eras. Although this is marked as being part of Era III, this could be construed as a movement in Era IV.
A four-year hiatus was broken on 8 June 2015 when a message placed on the band's Facebook page suggested a new album was on its way in a new era, Era 0. This was confirmed on 5 October 2015 when the release of the single "Doppelgänger," off the forthcoming album The Great Deceiver. The artwork for "Doppelgänger" included the familiar Mortiis logo, but with the Era 0 subscript, confirming the new Era. The album (The Great Deceiver) was originally finished in 2008, and included mixes by Chris Vrenna (of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson).
Additional material was also finished with enough material for another album during 2009. To mark the return, Mortiis announced a series of US tours starting on 7 October 2015 with "The Devils Be Damned Tour". Despite the Era being 0, this was not a return to the original sound of Era I, but a continuation of that within Era III, again with complete lack of prosthetics or mask, but keeping the gothic/industrial costuming and face paint.
In January 2020, Mortiis returned to his Era 1 style of music with the album Spirit of Rebellion. The album was a reworking of his 1994 work Ånden som Gjorde Opprør, and was instigated after he was invited to perform at the 25th anniversary celebrations for former label Cold Meat Industry in 2017. In April 2020, he shared a work in progress tentatively entitled The Shadow of the Tower during the online Dungeon Synth festival 'Northeast Dungeon Siege'. An extract was also shared on Mortiis' Bandcamp page; again, the style of this new track reflected the style of the artist's early output. A previously unreleased 1997 track of the same name was released via the same website in October 2020, with Mortiis explaining that the piece had previously been used as atmospheric background music during his sporadic live shows of the era. A second such sample, entitled Blood Becomes Water, was released in July 2020.
Mortiis admitted to having long-held negative feelings about his 1990s output, feeling resentment towards perceived lack of quality in musicianship and production. However, he has since reassessed his detachment towards this material, and now sees renewed worth in the honesty and originality of his early records. In the period leading up to the release of Spirit of Rebellion, many of these early releases were reissued, having remained largely out of print for many years. Mortiis' 2001 book, Secrets of My Kingdom, was also reprinted as an expanded edition in 2018. Subtitled Return to Dimensions Unknown, the reprint featured new interviews, images and other archive material from the 1990s.
Side projects include Cintecele Diavolui, Fata Morgana, and Vond.
Flux / Mental Maelstrom
Mortiis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I want you to fall down.
I want to be the end
- Of everything you've ever done.
The cities that I built,
The forests that I grew,
Got stained by your filth,
You Stink!
Just!
Like!
The pigs you are.
How long? How long?
How far are you willing to go?
How much? How dry?
I have seen the devil's eye
- And it is you.
The world shut me out.
I see your faces in the sand.
But if I reach out,
You're gonna break my hand.
I want you to be here,
I want you to descend to,
This pathetic mind-made sphere,
The perpetual end.
I want to be the end
- Of everything you've ever done.
The lyrics of Mortiis's song Flux / Mental Maelstrom portrays a disgust towards society and humans as a whole. The artist craves for an end to everything that humans have ever done. The opening lines, "I want you to descend, I want you to fall down," suggests that he wants to see the downfall of humanity. He desires to end and destroy everything that humans have built and grown, as all of it has been tainted by their filth, causing the world to stink like pigs. The artist also questions how far and how much humans are willing to go and do for their own benefit. He has seen the devil's eye and identifies it as humans, suggesting that they are the root cause of evil in the world.
The artist describes being shut out by the world and seeing human faces in the sand, metaphorically representing the lack of empathy and neglect towards other's emotions and struggles. The artist believes that if he reaches out to humans, they will only cause harm, resulting in him being broken. However, he still desires humans to be present in the world, even if it's a pathetic, mind-made sphere. The artist wants to be the end of everything that humans have done, indicating that he sees no value in any of it. The song is a powerful criticism towards society and the harmful actions of humans towards the environment, animals, and each other.
Line by Line Meaning
I want you to descend.
Mortiis desires for the listener to mentally descend into a darker place.
I want you to fall down.
He wants the listener to completely succumb to the darker feelings and forces around them.
I want to be the end
- Of everything you've ever done.
The artist wants to bring about an end to all the listener has ever accomplished or created.
The cities that I built,
Mortiis refers to the world that he has created in his mind.
The forests that I grew,
The artist refers to the various mental states or thoughts within him.
Got stained by your filth,
But the listener has caused that 'world' to become polluted or degraded with their presence.
And now they smell like you.
So, everything Mortiis has created now reeks of the listener.
You Stink!
Just!
Like!
The pigs you are.
The artist uses a vivid and aggressive illustration to convey the listener's dirty and burdensome effect.
How long? How long?
Mortiis questions the listener about how long they are willing to continue the destructive path they are on.
How far are you willing to go?
He wants to know just how much more the listener is going to indulge in these destructive behaviors.
How much? How dry?
The artist wants to know how much more depraved the listener is willing to get before they see the end of that road.
I have seen the devil's eye
- And it is you.
Mortiis blames the listener for their situation, associating them with something dark and malefic.
The world shut me out.
The artist feels completely disconnected from society around him.
I see your faces in the sand.
Despite this, he still sees the listener's influence everywhere he looks.
But if I reach out,
However, he fears extending himself toward the listener.
You're gonna break my hand.
As he believes that the listener is only destructive, and will ultimately harm him.
I want you to be here,
Still, in defiance of reason, he wants the listener to 'join him,' in their misery.
I want you to descend to,
He wants the listener to reach the same level of darkness as him, and understands the futility of that.
This pathetic mind-made sphere,
He references the limited construct we create for ourselves with our minds.
The perpetual end.
Mortiis sees no way out of the vicious cycle and hole that he and the listener are trapped in.
Contributed by Riley K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.