Samoth sure is one crazy man. While many look at Ihsahn as the creative force being the Norwegian black metal band Emperor, the one who set the train in motion, so to speak, was really Samoth (Tomas Haugen).
It was Samoth who first met Euronymous, and pleaded his case for Emperor to be "accepted" as a true black metal band - back in the day, Euronymous had a sort of autocratic control on the validation process, only only a select few bands: Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Arcturus and sometimes Satyricon and Immortal, were ever deemed "worthy" of being black metal.
Nowadays, Samoth's legacy is mostly tarnished for him being known as the "snitch" in the Norwegian scene, the man who "ratted" - according to Varg Vikernes and Nocturno Culto - on everyone, which led to other black metal artists such as Faust, Varg Vikernes, Snorre Ruch, and Frost getting (sometimes heavy) jail sentences in the 90s. See the book "Real Satanic Black Metal" for more depth about this subject.
How Samoth met Ihsahn and Euronymous
Samoth himself, on the other hand, has a totally different view of the "events" which transpired at the height of the Norwegian black metal underground. He recounts, in a interview with Morsay Mag, how he met both Ihsahn and Euronymous... and how the two never got along.
It's very interesting to look back on all this. So much has happened since I first entered the scene. I remember back in the end of '89, when I first started to compose music in the extreme way. There were hardly any bands in Norway then, and no big scene at all, but it was on the rise. I remember being all excited and enthusiastic when I received an answer to the first letter I sent of to Euronymous of MAYHEM. It was almost like a "kick-off" for me. I got more and more contacts within the underground scene, and truly worshiped this kind of brutal & extreme music.
Few people will recognise the historical significance of this single event. Yet, it is there.
On Ihsahn and Euronymous hating each other
He mentions Ihsahn's love of denim and trendy music as something that "turned off" Euronymous when they finally met face to face.
I met him [Ihsahn] at a blues seminar and he showed up in a denim jacket covered in Iron Maiden patches, so there was an instant connection and that led to us becoming friends and starting to play in various bands... [but] many of the things that brought us together also caused friction with other members of the scene.
He then goes on to tell an interesting, and unusual, story about how he got his first bass guitar.
My first bass guitar was actually made by hand by my father and I. I never really used that on any recordings, but I believe ILDJARN [Vidar Vaaer] used it on many of his early recordings, and also on the THOU SHALT SUFFER "Into the Woods..." recording. We moved onto various Peavey combo amps on the early Emperor albums.
But the peak of the interview is when he recounts a concert in Stockholm (?) after the reformation of Emperor in the early 2000s.
On Watain getting "decked" by Faust in Sweden
According to him, Watain frontman Erik Danielsson was getting too "personal" with drummer Faust (Bard Eithun), who then proceeded to "knock his lights out".
Danielsson wanted to press charges against Emperor, but Samoth smoothly "intercepted" the convo between two bouncers, and fled with Faust in the trunk or backseat of his BMW.
He [Faust] decked some guy [Erik Danielsson, tn.] that was acting too familiar for comfort. Not a good idea – this was Stockholm. It's not like back home; if you punch someone in the face there will be serious consequences – you can go back to jail. [...] I was outside smoking when two bouncers walked by, I overheard one of them saying that the police were on their way. I ditched my cigarette and ran in to tell Bård [Faust] – the twig he beat up wanted to press charges so he would have been arrested. We jumped into my car and drove to my place to lay low for a few hours. At last we got the call that the coast was clear so I took him back to the tour bus. My BMW still had blood and corpse paint on the seats six months afterwards, it would remind me of the kinship that was reformed that day.
It's not the first time the poser clown act Watain has been in trouble with more serious black metal bands. It seems few other artists in the scene like them.
As for Samoth contributions to black metal, he will be remembered mostly for keeping Emperor sort of "above the waters" when everyone in the late 90s black metal scene were selling off left and right for bigger music contracts.
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