Norway’s ATROX, whose sixth full-length album “Monocle” was released on Dark Essence Records last year, have announced that they will be adding guitarist Steffen Berg to their lineup of Rune Folgerø on Vocals, Eivind on Guitars, Rune Sørgård on Guitars & Technology, Erik Paulsen on Bass, and Andreas Kjøl Berg on drums.

Although this won’t be his first appearance on stage with ATROX, Berg, who has played in bands such as TALRUSHA, CHILLTON JAMES, AFROCADABRA, 1001 and CP&TSTO (CONOR PATRICK & THE SHOOTING TSAR ORCHESTRA) will make his first appearance as an official member of the lineup on ATROX’s following three dates in Portugal:

30 Nov: Side B Rocks, Alquener
01 Dec: Stereigun, Leiria
02 Dec: Metalpoint, Porto

In a statement from the band, guitarist Eivind explained the thinking behind the addition of  a new guitarist:

Since the complete band/line-up is located in 2 different locations (Rune S lives in Sweden and the rest of us in Trondheim, Norway),  there have been several occasions when we have found ourselves in dire need of a live (session) guitarist.  Last year, for instance,  we needed  a stand-in for Rune for our gig at ProgPower Europe, and we asked Steffen if he could step in – which he did, and he did a great job.   And, as some of us had worked with Steffen before on other musical projects, and  knowing what a great guitar player he is, the connection was already there.  

We are also cognisant of  the fact that future ATROX gigs will most likely happen without Rune S, so we felt that now is the right time to including another member into the band.  We asked Steffen if he was interested in becoming a fulltime member, not only to play live, but also to join the creative side of ATROX, and, luckily for us, he said yes.

Steffen himself added:

I actually already knew most of the guys,  and when Rune F. asked me if I’d like to fill in as a live guitarist at Prog Power last year I knew it would be a lot of fun.  To my ears ATROX’s music has always sounded quite different from all the other bands around, and I really do believe they have developed something unique,  which I find very interesting.  It will be a blast writing and touring with these guys in the future!

ATROX are currently working on new material and recently released the single “System Scan” on Dark Essence Records, which is available to stream or download at the following https://darkessencerecords.lnk.to/9XQ7p

More information about ATROX can be found on the band’s website at http://www.atrox.no/  or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ATROX.no

A video by Snorre Hovdal of Dispenser Media for “Mass”, the opening track from ATROX’s 2017 album “Monocle”, can be seen below: