Enter the weird and wonderful world of Norway's avant-rock adventurers Virus

Virus promo pic 2016

Fronted by Carl-Michael ‘Czral’ Eide, whose musical journey through the likes of Ulver, Ved Buens Ende and Dødheimsgard has marked him out as one of the prime pivots for Nordic black metal’s leap into the avant-garde, Virus have long since inhabited their own gravity-defying territory.

Unnerving, eccentric and clearly unimpressed with Euclidean geometry, the three-piece’s last album, 2016’s Mememto Collider , was a disorienting if delirium-inducing trawl though urban landscapes where ‘centre of gravity’ became a contradiction in terms. Now the band are about to erect another sonic hall of mirrors with a new ‘seven-inch LP’ entitled Investigator, and released by Karisma Records on April 21, and we have an exclusive premiere in the artistic and impressionistic form of the official video for the title track.

Investigator is dedicated to Culombo’s right eye… Peter Falck,” says Carl-Michael, “who played the lead role in the classic detective series, had a glass eye. We believe that the eye was a separate character in the series and should have been credited as such. It should also have won the Oscar for best supporting actor many times during the 70s.”

A visual puzzle waiting to be unpacked, Investigator is a cinematic journey through a world strewn with arcane clues, so dig out your magnifying glass, puff on a pipe and lose yourself to the video below!

Pre-order Investigator via Bandcamp here, or in its full vinyl glory here!

Jonathan Selzer

Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.