Eleven years ago I saw a documentary about anti-Christian activity in Norway called Until the Light Takes Us. The topic was Norwegian Black Metal, and within the story were tales of extreme aesthetics, church burnings, and murder. The film focused on two men - Gylve Nagell [aka Fenriz] of the band Darkthrone, and Varg Vikernes of Burzum, who was also the bassist for Mayhem. While Nagell’s interest was only in the music, Vikernes had an extreme Norwegian nativist political and religious [pagan] agenda. The interviews with Vikernes for this film were conducted while he was serving his prison sentence for the murder of Øystein Aarseth. Lords of Chaos is the dramatization of Aarseth’s life.
Aarseth narrates the entire film. He starts in 1987, where he describes Norway as a very rich and religious country in Northern Europe, which is grey, boring, and has a high suicide rate. He shows his own life with his typical Norwegian family, complete with a Volvo parked in the driveway. He doesn’t see himself as a typical teenager. Rather, he was born into the world to bring chaos, suffering and death. The film is his story, which he says “will end badly.” But first we see him and two other boys playing music in his parents basement. He assumed the name Euronymous. The bass player was Necrobutcher, and the drummer was Manheim. Together they were Mayhem. Life was easy – having fun, getting drunk, and playing loud and hard music. This starts off as a typical rebellious teenager story. Mayhem was “world-famous, all-over Oslo.” Then Manheim quit – enter the new drummer Jan Axel, who went by the name “Hellhammer” [isn’t that a great name for a drummer?]. Mayhem had the best drummer in Norway, a mad, kick-ass bass player, and Euronymous had a “new guitar sound that would change the world forever.” Euronymous called his creation Norwegian Black Metal. But they needed a singer. Enter Pelle Ohlin, aka Dead.
The package Dead sent to Mayhem included not only his audition tape, but a dead rat that he had crucified. The band listened to the tape and were overwhelmed by what they heard. Dead would be the perfect singer for Mayhem. After Dead moved to Norway the band relocated to a farmhouse in Kraktorp. They worked on their music for a year, but something was wrong. Dead was a very dark and depressed guy. As a child he had been beaten up so badly by a bully that he “died for a moment,” a moment that came to define his existence [hence the name “Dead”]. He introduced Euronymous to “corpse paint.” He would bury his stage clothes for a day before he would wear them. He would cut himself on-stage. That band displayed severed pig heads on sticks next to their stage. At some point during the shows, Dead would throw a pig’s head into the audience. After one show they were eating at a local kabob, where a kid from Bergen named Kristian Vikernes introduced himself to Euronymous. Euronymous noticed a Scorpions patch on his denim jacket and dismissed Kristian as a “poser.”
One day Dead was at home alone. He was sitting upstairs alone with his thoughts. The he got up, found a knife and cut his arms as if to kill himself. He didn’t slit his wrists – he cut very deep gouges into both arms. As he saw the blood squirting out both arms he cut his own throat. While he bled to death, he heard a phone message from his dad that he was accepted to university, and he began to write a suicide note-
Let the party begin”
When he finished writing, he found a shotgun, put it to his head and finished what he started. Bleeding out from the gouges on both arms and his neck weren’t quick enough for him. This is very graphic stuff. Euronymous arrived and found the front door locked, so he found a ladder. He climbed on the roof and broke in through a window, where he found Dead’s lifeless body. At first Euronymous didn’t appear to be the least bit startled about what he found, but after he went downstairs he questioned why Dead killed himself. He called the emergency number, and after the operator asked him the nature of the emergency, he hung up the phone, got into his dad’s Volvo and drove to a nearby gas station. We purchased a disposable camera, went back to the house and started taking pictures. When he finished he called Necrobutcher to tell him “Pelle’s not home.” Necrobutcher asked if he went back to Sweden, Euronymous responded “he blew his head off.”
“This is the one. This will make us famous. Mayhem will be the band with the singer who blew his head off. We should say I ate a piece of his brain, too.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out necklaces for his bandmates. From then on, every member of Mayhem was supposed to wear them. When Euronymous told his bandmates that the necklaces’ charms were bone fragments from Dead, Necrobutcher threw his back at Euronymous [Note - Euronymous later reveled they were chicken bones]. That was just a little too “sick.” Euronymous told Necrobutcher it was supposed to let people know how disturbed they are, how “hardcore” they are. Euronymous said that if he didn’t do what he said, he was fired. Necrobutcher refused, Euronymous fired him, and Necrobutcher walked away. Euronymous had “gone too far.” Later, Euronymous confessed he had to move out of the house because he couldn’t “deal with it.”
The next chapter of Euronymous life began with the opening of his record store, Helvete [Norwegian for “Hell”]. Helvete was to be a place for him and “the Black Circle” a “temple for evil, chaos and black metal.” Helvete was the clubhouse. The Black Circle included not only members of Mayhem, but also Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun of the band Emperor and Fenriz of Darkthrone. It was at Helvete that Kristian Vikernes, no longer a Scorpions fan, reintroduced himself to Euronymous. He handed him a demo tape of his own “band,” Burzum [Vikernes played all the instruments]. Vikernes joined the Black Circle and went by the name Varg because he didn’t want to associate himself with Christianity. He, like Euronymous professed to be, was anti-Christian because he saw Norway as a dictatorship of “the church.” To prove his point, Varg burned down a Stave church. While the Black Circle talked about doing such things, Varg was actually doing them.
Euronymous lamented after that church fire, everything within the Black Circle became a competition. One night while visiting his parents in Lillehammer, Faust went to a bar. Faust made eye contact with someone. That someone followed him out of the bar and propositioned him for sex. Faust stabbed him to death. After telling the rest of the Black Circle what he did, he, Euronymous and Varg celebrated by torching another church. Things were spiraling out of control. Euronymous got nervous –
Nervousness turned into paranoia when Varg went to the
press to brag about what he and the Black Circle had done. Euronymous wasn’t keen on Varg’s idea to go
public. Varg told him the police would
have to let him go because they couldn’t prove anything to which Varg
confessed. He was right. The police arrested him but had to let him go because
of lack of evidence. Euronymous felt his grip on the Black Circle slipping away. To compound things, Euronymous lost Helvete. His dad stopped paying the rent. He vowed he
would torture Varg and then kill him, perhaps make a snuff film of him doing
it. That was a big mistake because that
word got back to Varg.
Varg told Euronymous he wanted out of the Black Circle. Euronymous drew up a contract to make it all legal and mailed it to Varg in Bergen. Instead of signing the contract and mailing it back to Varg, Varg traveled back to Oslo to finish his business with Euronymous in person. That wasn’t his motivation – he wanted to kill Euronymous before Euronymous could do the same to him. After he shows up at Euronymous’s apartment, Varg stabs Euronymous. Euronymous escaped the apartment, but Varg followed him to the stairwell outside the apartment and finished the job. Before he died, Euronymous asked Varg why he’s doing this. Varg said “because you were going to kill me.” Euronymous said “you’re my friend. I just talk. You know I just talk,” to which Varg responded “exactly. You’re an embarrassment. That’s all you do is talk. That’s why you’re going to die.” Varg stabbed him thirty-five times [yeah, I counted]. Euronymous did say at the very beginning that the story would end badly.
“No! Fuck! Stop this
sentimental shit. Stop! There’s nothing sad about my death or my life. I’m
Euronymous, founder of Mayhem, the most infamous Black Metal band in the world.
I had my own record store. I had my own record label. I created a whole musical
genre, true Norwegian Black Metal, and I created Mayhem. What the fuck have you
done lately? Poser.”
Here’s the Joe Bob Briggs review of Lords of Chaos - 3 dead bodies, four gallons blood, eight naked breasts, three burned-out churches, shotgun fu, knife fu, one dead guy narrating the film.
A bit of the movie was sensationalized for dramatic effect, but more or less this film was accurate.
