Radio Metal recently spoke with ICS VORTEX (ex-DIMMU BORGIR bassist) about his new solo album, Storm Seeker. An excerpt is available below:

Q: You’re about to release your first solo album. Was this something you had planned for a long time?

ICS Vortex: "The songs had been there in the background for a long time. I’ve been talking about it for quite some time, so it was well overdue, some would say! The time was right, I had the time to do it, so I did it."

Q: Were these compositions all meant to be featured on your solo album from the start or are there some ideas left over from past projects or even Dimmu Borgir?

ICS Vortex: "I played 'The Blackmobile' to Dimmu Borgir in 2009, I think, even though it’s a really old song. I jammed on the first riff on some stage, I think it was during the first tour we ever did. Then I forgot about it, but later, I played it to Dimmu. I think it was the guitar solo, which is the worst riff in the whole song! (laughs) It never got developed with Dimmu. Now it’s totally different from what I expected in the first place, ‘cause it was written for grim vocals, really. I turned it totally upside down, and now it’s a beat song about a car. I never thought that would happen, but it did! I wanted to make something different. All my lyrics have always been extremely depressing and dark and gloomy and very metal. I just wanted to do something else. So there’s the lyrics to 'Blackmobile', and there’s the one about poker, too. That’s quite different from what I’ve done in the past."

Q: Is the music on Storm Seeker what resembles your personality the most?

ICS Vortex: "Yeah. The inspiration came from stuff I’m really into. This is a personal album, and it represents me well."

Q: This album has this particularity to be very diverse. Do you think this is the result of your strong and rich past experiences?

ICS Vortex: "Yeah, and also because some of the material was written over a long period of time. I get inspired by different stuff all the time. I can have black metal periods, or BLACK SABBATH periods. So it’s the result of different inputs. And it was collected over so many years, so it comes from that, too."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

The Storm Seeker tracklisting is as follows:

'The Blackmobile'

'Odin’s Tree'

'Skoal!'

'Dogsmacked'

'Aces'

'Windward'

'When Shuffled Off'

'Oil In Water'

'Storm Seeker'

'Flaskeskipper'

'The Sub Mariner'