Stigma Diabolicum/Mann Skutt med Øks
Me and a friend from high school, Anders Rian, started playing together around 1988 or thereabout. We made some songs together, and chose the name "Stigma Diabolicum" for our project. As I remember it, Anders had found the name in an encyclopedia of the occult or something he had lying around.
Gut Sucking Toilet
At some point we recorded a slow, grinding track with the charming title "Gut Sucking Toilet". Only bass and guitar, with overdubbed vocals. The vocals were done by Anders singing through his effects pedal, and I think we just used a headset for microphone.
The lyrics for the song was inspired by one of the news clippings on the inner sleeve of the first Carcass album, Reek of Putrefaction.
"Gut Sucking Toilet" by Stigma Diabolicum, ca. 1988
Mann Skutt med Øks
At some point we figured "Stigma Diabolicum" was a bit too traditional of a name, and wanted a different one. Being more inspired by the wave of Hardcore and Grindcore bands from the UK, we initially settled on "Mann Skutt med Hagle" (Man shot with a shotgun,) after seeing that in a newspaper headline.
We made a couple of new, and shorter, songs, and recruited Snorre Ruch on drums. He misspoke the name once as "Mann Skutt med Øks" (Man shot with an axe,) which we thought was way sicker, so from then we took that as our name.
First concert: Trøndersk, 1989
With that lineup we signed up for the Trøndersk Mesterskap i Rock, a local rock competition in Trondheim. We performed one of our songs which lasted 15 seconds, and then left the stage. That got us a mention in the regional newspaper, and a bit of buzz for the evening at least.
"Julius" by Mann Skutt Med Øks, Live at Trøndersk Mesterskap i Rock, 1989
Our claim to fame, a mention in the regional newspaper Adresseavisen after our performance at Trøndersk in 1989.
(click for full size)LO Rock, 1989
Inspired by the success after Trøndersk, we recruited another friend, Terje Andre Buaas, as a vocalist, and signed up for another rock competition. This time it was the Labour Union's competition, LO Rock.
Mann Skutt Med Øks performing at LO Rock, 1989. I thought the masks were silly, so I refused to wear one.
In this performance we played four songs. Of course our classic "Julius", but also a few longer pieces, including a cover of the band Extra Hot Sauce. Still, four songs in less than three minutes was not all that bad.
One funny thing to note is that Snorre wasn't able to play the drums on the cover, so when we got to that one in the set, him and Terje Andre switched places. They both did excellent performances in their switched positions.
Mann Skutt Med Øks, Live at LO Rock, May 1989
Dwindling away...
After this the band pretty much faded away. We did some more rehearsals, and Terje Andre was replaced with TBJ. We never did any performances with that lineup.
I left for an exchange programme in the US in the fall of 1989, and that was pretty much the end of the band.
By that time however, Snorre and Marius Vold of Mortem had made plans for starting a band together, and reused the Stigma Diabolicum name for that project. This is what later became Thorns, and has made quite a more lasting mark on the Norwgian extreme music scene.