"A man vomited, a woman fainted and an ambulance was summoned."
March 22, 2019 4:16 AM   Subscribe

Today's Guardian has an excellent piece outlining the past excesses of Norway's black metal scene. If you love Spinal Tap and have a robustly dark sense of humour, I'm confident it'll be the most entertaining thing you read today. Meanwhile, here in East London, we're hosting the World Metal Congress. Here's a programme of events (Friday / Saturday) and the organisers' list of metal bands from around the world. This Syrian film they're showing on Saturday looks like it could be pretty amazing.
posted by Paul Slade (28 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
That, along with Quorthon’s raspy wailing and satanic lyrics, threw down a gauntlet. Mayhem, formed in 1984 in Oslo, by Aarseth, bassist Jørn Stubberud (AKA Necrobutcher) and drummer Kjetil Manheim, set the gauntlet on fire.

That is what we call working a metaphor.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:20 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


Are there subgenres? Black Hair Metal?
posted by thelonius at 5:17 AM on March 22, 2019


A church here in Göteborg, Sweden, was burned down back in 1993, the perpetrators supposedly inspired by Varg Vikernes.
posted by Vesihiisi at 5:21 AM on March 22, 2019


So okay, this is all fun and games except for the part where this homophobic murderer is still in the scene, still writing lyrics and performing, and everyone is just cool with that. Honestly, I guess if people in a scene are fine with its internal transgressive aspects that's okay, but I'm not super into the whole *shrug* "I guess I was full of hate and negativity, I don't really understand why, but I lured this guy into the woods and killed him" bit. (The Guardian - which started TERFy and is becoming actively homophobic IMO - is misleading on this point. He didn't have a gay-panic moment and stab someone, he consented to go somewhere with a guy planning to murder him.)
posted by Frowner at 5:25 AM on March 22, 2019 [11 favorites]


To clarify - I feel that the Guardian is intentionally misleading the reader by giving the impression that the murderer may have been aggressively propositioned and frightened, when in fact he intentionally went to a solitary place with this guy because he had already decided to kill. Who knows who propositioned who, come to that? The victim was apparently pretty drunk and there were no witnesses, so for all we know this guy set the whole thing up and lied.
posted by Frowner at 5:39 AM on March 22, 2019 [4 favorites]



So okay, this is all fun and games except for the part where this homophobic murderer is still in the scene, still writing lyrics and performing, and everyone is just cool with that.


No, nor everyone is just cool with that. To the extent that there's a metal scene or even a black metal scene, there's a counter-movement against nazis and general assholes in metal within the scene. You don't even have to read niche subreddits or lambgoat or whatever, you can read about it in the New Yorker.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 5:56 AM on March 22, 2019 [8 favorites]


I say this as a fan of black metal: all of the people in this story are horrible and the Guardian is giving them way too much latitude. Thankfully black metal has outgrown its initial racist + homophobic roots - eg, some of the best music in the genre is currently being done by a Latinx collective in LA (Black Twilight Circle). (Metal still has a Nazi problem, unfortunately, but it's becoming much more diverse; see also Kim Kelly's anti-fascist metal articles and playlists.)

The Lords of Chaos book is good if you want to learn more without glorifying these assholes. The movie (mentioned in the Guardian article) is not especially good but it does have the benefit of making these characters pathetic losers and mocking them throughout. For a better film I recommend the documentary Until the Light Takes Us.

As for subgenres... of course there are many. My favorite example is ambient black metal, where a number of black metal musicians essentially rediscovered dark ambient except now it's CVLT and FROSTY.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 5:57 AM on March 22, 2019 [13 favorites]


Agree, Frowner — I read it exactly as you described, and if not for your clarifying comment I would not have known the truth. And the truth is VERY different.
posted by knownassociate at 6:02 AM on March 22, 2019


Uh, guys? This article is a lighthearted romp through some crazy shit that happened thirty years ago in the Norwegian death metal scene, but can we not lose focus on the fact that most of the people discussed here are unabashed white supremacists, who are cheerfully using this new public platform to amplify their horrible fascist ideas? They're Holocaust deniers. Straight-up neo-Nazis. They're all buddies with Varg "we promote Aryan music to our Aryan race" Vikernes. After being released from prison for murdering a dude for being gay, Faust has a side gig as the drummer for a band called "Zyklon-B." They're fascists all the way down. Stop giving platforms to Nazis.
posted by Mayor West at 6:14 AM on March 22, 2019 [9 favorites]


Paul Slade: "I'm confident it'll be the most entertaining thing you read today."

I'm glad it gave you the lulz, but this is pretty disgusting framing of a horrifying story.
posted by Umami Dearest at 6:16 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


The reason some of us are losing focus is because the article was not at all clear in the framing of them as total neo-nazi assholes, and in fact had them at a fancy dinner at the end laughing and pallin around.
posted by knownassociate at 6:18 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I guess I’m just saying this is my only introduction to the black metal scene, so I only know the context from the Guardian.
posted by knownassociate at 6:25 AM on March 22, 2019


Obligatory Party Cannon reference.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:35 AM on March 22, 2019 [3 favorites]


Kristian 'Varg' Vikernes: I thought you were true Norwegian black metal.

Euronymous: I invented it.

Kristian 'Varg' Vikernes: And now you betray it!


Actual dialogue from Lords of Chaos which basically is half 80s gore horror and half pure Spinal Tap
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:51 AM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Are there subgenres? Black Hair Metal?

As in all things metal now there are many many many sub-genres including, I kid you no, Christian Black Metal aka Unblack Metal!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:53 AM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Shoutout to Kim Kelly for keeping antifascism alive in metal these days, a nice antidote to the Guardian's weirdly glib take on "black metal's murderous past."

Something that's hard to reckon with for a lot of black metal fans (or at least for me) is that a lot of the people who were involved in this scene back in the day in Norway were making genuinely breathtaking music. Although the perfect antidote is Darkthrone -- easily the best of that scene of bands -- whose member Fenriz was unwillingly elected Oslo city councillor on the strength of the cuteness of his cat Peanut Butter.

Also the parallels between many of those guys in Norway and today's alt-right edgelords -- angsty young men who intentionally push the boundaries of taste, taboo, and convention, conveniently ignoring those amongst them who aren't joking whatsoever and usually go on to commit horrible acts -- are pretty hard to ignore at this point.
posted by Cpt. The Mango at 7:29 AM on March 22, 2019 [9 favorites]


Fenriz really is a shining example of the right way to go for people who were involved in the second wave of black metal - he was a peripheral member of the notorious Helvete group discussed in the article and said some regrettable things at the time, but he subsequently apologized and has been a truly delightful human being ever since. (Also, Darkthrone's music is way better than any of the other 2nd wave of black metal groups, with maybe the exception of early Ulver.) He's also a first-rate musical theoretician and historian; his black metal university video is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of the genre.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 7:37 AM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]


Up until 4th grade, I went to school with Michael Moynihan. Alas, all I remember is that he was obnoxious just like all the other boys, oh well.
posted by Melismata at 7:53 AM on March 22, 2019


Paul Slade: "I'm confident it'll be the most entertaining thing you read today."

I'm glad it gave you the lulz, but this is pretty disgusting framing of a horrifying story.


You're obviously right to point out that there are many truly horrifying events at the root of this story. Reading the Guardian piece, though, it was the more absurd aspects of it all which most struck me: Spinal Tap meets Dennis Wheatley, as it were. That said, I agree I probably shouldn't have phrased my post in quite such gleeful terms. Apologies.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:21 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I am tired that the whole Lords of Chaos story is the one black metal story that people know (and it's often treated like fiction rather than something that actually happened). I get why, but it leaves the impression that this is all of death metal.

No, it's never going to be a cuddly thing that appeals to everyone, and yes, there are Nazis on the fringes (but well, that's kind of everywhere these days -- it's not exclusive to black metal). All the black metal musicians I've met have been very kind, chill and funny. Lords of Chaos does not represent them.
posted by darksong at 9:36 AM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah. The film elides over stuff such as Varg planning to bomb a left-wing youth center. I interpreted the film as being an extremely dark comedy- as if Hanneke attempted to make his version of Spinal Tap- but that may be more of a poor reflection upon this jaded critic, rather than a valid interpretation of the footage.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 10:20 AM on March 22, 2019


I dunno, I do think this story is very important to keep in mind for metal fans. Although the black metal genre has grown greatly since the early 90s -- in particular, it's no longer defined by its worst people -- there are still a lot of Nazis in the scene to this day. Also, you will find quite a few black metal fans who still defend Burzum. That's not great! There are enough non-shitty people around that I'm not ashamed to call myself a fan, but we still have a long way to go.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 11:20 AM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Are there subgenres? Black Hair Metal?

Quorthon did a lot of theatrical 80s shit as part of Bathory. By the way I don't think guys like Bathory or Hellhammer (the band)/Celtic Frost have much to do with all the awful stuff that happened in Norway.
posted by atoxyl at 12:07 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


They're all buddies with Varg "we promote Aryan music to our Aryan race" Vikernes.

I mean, literally speaking I doubt most of them are. He killed one of their friends, for one thing, and I think of all of them he ended up developing a much more organized and coherent white supremacist ideology (and moving to rural France to vlog about it). But Faust and Hellhammer, specifically (I can't deal with this article using their real names) are well known not to be good dudes regardless.
posted by atoxyl at 12:33 PM on March 22, 2019


Helhammer the band (a precursor to Celtic Frost and I think pretty non-ideological) and Hellhammer the person (the original drummer from Mayhem, and a guy who was still saying racist shit up until pretty recently) are different, if I didn't make that clear!
posted by atoxyl at 1:27 PM on March 22, 2019


Can we also please remember that Lords of Chaos was itself written by Nazis for the explicit purpose of foregrounding far-right rhetoric within the Black Metal scene. Michael Moynihan publishes material by actual (not neo-) Nazis like James Mason and Julius Evola, and leads explicitly far-right neofolk act Blood Axis.

If you see this movie, you fund Nazis. If you buy the book (which is published by Moynihan) you fund Nazis. So don't.

Also, Varg Vikernes is a fucking arsehole.
posted by prismatic7 at 4:56 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


The book was published by Feral House.
posted by Scram at 5:32 AM on March 23, 2019


The book was published by Feral House
Still making money for actual Nazis. There’s no grey area here.
posted by prismatic7 at 7:36 AM on March 23, 2019


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