How the hell did the conversation change to this?
Dunno... people like to discuss what is familiar to them I guess. Anyway, I went back to re-appraise the older stuff after my post, and my opinion has changed a bit (the memory fades).
The first three full albums were all sets of two 30 minute tracks. The first two (Født til å Herske & Ånden Som Gjorde Opprør) are actually quite boring. He has an annoying habit of taking two quite different movements and cutting between them at seemingly arbitrary moments. A bit distracting overall. The last of this trilogy (Keiser av en Dimension Ukjent) was as good as I remembered it though.
The multiple-track albums that followed have some very good content:
Passing By An Old and Raped Village on The Stargate is Mortiis at his best.
I find it funny that, for someone so clearly desperate for the rock star fame & fortune, Mortiis has completely balls-ed up every chance he has had at receiving wider recognition...
First he had a run-in with Faust and got booted from one of the only stadium-filler black metal bands, after penning their most famous lines. So then he turns his hand to ambient/folk stuff but only releases his best work post-'97, when everybody is sick to death of the pagan-synthesizer type music.
Finally, he drops all black metal aesthetic altogether and jumps (late) at the nu-metal pig in about 2000, just minutes before everything vaguely BM-related becomes ultra hip. Poor sod.