I used to say Joyless was a Black Metal band trying to make pop-music. Not entirely true obviously, but not too far off the map either. We were sick to death with everything concerning Forgotten Woods. Instead of changing Forgotten Woods, we gave it all a new name. I think the best music we ever did is our very early Joyless recordings. I am talking about songs like Room of Velvet Splendour, Blå Melankoli and Your Crystal Fragments. Later on we got to be too much straightforward rock’n’roll for my taste and too little of the dark cleverness fore-mentioned songs possessed.
Rune Vedaa / Joyless interview, Kaleidoscope #3, 2006
JOYLESS - formed by members of FORGOTTEN WOODS in 1996 - released their second album, Wisdom & Arrogance, on this day in 2000 through Selbstmord Services.
Original vocalist Thomas Torkelsen was replaced by Ida Hellebø.
The music for "Wisdom and Arrogance" was already finished long before I met Olav and the Joyless ones. So I don't think I have been an influence on the sound part except from the fact that I was a new vocalist. And of course a female one. It's been more than ten years ago, so memory is a bit vague... Thomas was at the time buissy with personal stuff and slipped on a way out of Joyless. He has since then been on the new Forgotten Woods album "Race of Cain", and we might come to hear from him again. Time will show. Anything is possible.
Ida Hellebø / Joyless interview, Metal Carnage, 2011