Skitliv was formed in Norway in 2005 by Maniac, former vocalist of Mayhem - primarily as a means for him to comment on the inevitable downfall of humanity - but also because after leaving Mayhem, he was now ready to exorcise his own personal demons.

Skitliv plays what can best be described as "doom/black metal with fucked up patterns of sound and vision". Lets put it this way, if you are approaching this band with any preconceptions based on what you know of Maniac's previous work, you had better leave those preconceptions behind.

With the addition of Shining's Niklas Kvarforth on guitars Maniac is able to take the band a step further away from Black Metal towards a more doom/noise/ambient inspired sound.