Seigmen – Total
This is a book about the recording, reception and legacy of Total, an album released in October 1994 by the Norwegian rock group Seigmen. The album was produced by Sylvia Massy, an international recording legend, in Studio Nova, one of Norway’s premier sound studios. It became an instant classic that garnered raving reviews and unexpected sales numbers for such a dark and heavy-sounding record. Released on Sony Music, the world’s biggest record company at the time, Total sparked a string of debates on issues like sell-out, musical style and the band’s image, which was unusually elaborate for a Norwegian underground act. OCCAS-scholar Even Smith Wergeland’s book reconstructs the history of the album through archival material — mainly from newspapers and rock journals — and interviews with the band, Massy and other key people, discussing its impact back then as well as its lingering status as a Norwegian album classic.