I never meant for Vinterskugge (Winter Shadow) to be a usual album, it was bound to be a round-up of tracks from the get go. I always thought the Spectres over Gorgoroth demo from summer of '89 was too good to just wither away on some tapes, gathering dust in the global underground. Great to have it out on a real CD. The demo came to be because I had decided to quit doing vocals in Darkthrone, but I always wanted to do vocals, so I continued with the Isengard project. I also had some influences that didn't fit into the new technical death metal direction of Darkthrone at the time. Isengard was a bit more groovy and primitive. I also had the chance that summer to fool around with Valhall's 4-track studio (later known as Necrohell for Darkthrone) and learn to record and rig and engineer everything myself. So, it was a very true solo project, as I did everything myself. Calling the whole album Vinterskugge was a small tribute to the excellent Treblinka (or was it Tiamat?) demo A Winter Shadow, which seemed almost forgotten at the time. And also it was a very fitting title for the front cover and for the whole "Norwegian Language into the Metal Realm" -line many of us had at the time.
- Fenriz / Isengard interview, Decibel, 2012
ISENGARD released Vinterskugge on this day in 1994 through Deaf Records. The album / compilation is made up of three distinct parts: Vandreren, Spectres over Gorgoroth, and Horizons.
The origin of the ISENGARD logo and influence of Middle-earth Role Playing