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Jon Norberg: Bassist Arctic Flame's youngest member, Jon, joined the band in May of 2006. His earliest memories were of wearing out his father's Gun's & Roses Appetite For Destruction tape at the impressionable age of 8. "I was pretty upset when I wore the tape out... so I rummaged through more tapes and found Led Zeppelin's first album and a Queen mix tape my dad must have made a long time ago." These bands were Jon's backbone in rock but after coming across Metallica's Kill 'Em All a few years later, his mind was made up. "It was just so insanely intense and heavy. I had never heard anything like it but I couldn't satisfy my need for metal." It was at this time, at the age of 11 that Jon got his first bass. "It was a Fender Squire bass... the kind that comes in those lame little packages with the twelve watt amp and the instructional video. I think that this is why I never really played a whole lot those first two years... because my equipment sucked." Luckily, Jon stuck with it and bought an Ibanez Soundgear and Ampeg eighty watt amp two or three years later." Jon started playing with other people at this point. "Playing with other people was awesome and I felt that I was actually improving. Soon Ascendant was formed." The band soon went into other directions that Jon was not interested in. Jon went looking for a new place to play at this point. With eight years playing bass and only a handful of formal lessons, he replied to an add on a Guitar Center bulletin board in East Brunswick, New Jersey. "I was looking for a band to play with after my high school band disbanded. I saw the flyer, remember seeing the band open for Overkill about a year earlier, and figured I would give it a shot. I learned Steel Angels, Kingdom of Illusion and The Levelers Wish in about three days and set up the first audition." Jon came to the first audition in May and made a great first impression. "I locked my keys in my car... and all my equipment also. It was pretty messed up. I had to call AAA to come unlock my car but they were slow so... I had some guy from the garage next door open the door. Ever since then there was this strange hissing noise when I drove. Like the wind was gonna rip the door off and I would be sucked out of the car like an astronaut or something in some space disaster." Jon has been with the band ever since. A German interviewer has described Jon as "the next Steve Harris," during an interview. "Steve Harris has always been a huge influence but so has bassists like Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, Steve DiGiorgio and Jaco Pastorius. Its an honor to be compared to your idols but a comparison that is quite ridiculous." Jon has written music for Ambient project Rude Form, has played with local blackened thrash band Eliminator and is reforming Ascendant. Jon's musical influences and preferences are vast and include just about anything you can name within the metal genre. "Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Sabbath of course, but also bands like Death, Suffocation, Opeth, Sunn O))), Darkthrone, Xasthur, Burzum, Manowar, and Coroner all have had an impact on my writing and overall sound. Classical composers also have really influenced me. Igor Stravinsky and Chopin are two of my favorites also." Jon plans to stay with the band for a long time to come and write a lot of great music. Current Equipment: Ibanez SR300DX, Gallien Krueger Cabinets (4x10/1x15), Gallien Krueger 400RB-IV Head