Tyr's bass

Jan Erik Tiwaz is better known in the black metal circle as Tyr. He is an accomplished musician, choosing the bass as his instrument of choice. I first heard him play in Borknagar's Empiricism, I clearly heard a fretless bass being used & thought the guy employing it in this musical context must be someone to be reckoned with, music-wise, that is. He also did a live session for Emperor's Emperial Live Ceremony. In the DVD footage of this 1999 London performance, Tyr played through the set pick-less; it was his right hand keeping up with Trym's endless drum attack as well as Samoth/ Ihsahn's furious guitar domination. I was very impressed to say the least. Recently, Tyr has rejoined Borknagar as a full-time member & endorsed by the Norwegian master luthier, Listerud, which brings us to...

...the bass you see above. I was browsing the 'net for bass players embracing more than 6 strings & Tyr was on the list. It's one of his new custom made 8-string models featuring a fretless fingerboard & everything monsterous. Our hindsight tells us a musician's accomplishments through the instrument he embraces.