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Lords of Chaos
The book focuses on the scene surrounding the extreme heavy metal subgenre black metal in Norway in the early 1990s, with a focus on the string of church burnings and murders that occurred in the country around 1993.
405 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
528 people are currently reading
13076 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moynihan
52 books60 followersMoynihan was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a lawyer father. Moynihan identifies his background as entirely Northern European: Irish, English, Welsh, and German.[5] He is involved in a long standing collaborative and romantic relationship with musician Annabel Lee, with whom he has fathered a child.[1] He became active in experimental music from 1984, forming Blood Axis in 1989 and releasing his first album in full length album under the name in 1995.
Moynihan collaborated with Boyd Rice from 1989, and in 1990 the two moved into an apartment in Denver.[6] Like Rice and Thomas Thorn, Moynihan was a member of the Church of Satan at this time.[7] Moynihan appeared as a guest with Rice on Bob Larson's "Manson Maniacs", a special for Larson's Christian radio talk show. During the summer of 1991, Moynihan states that he was visited at his apartment by agents of the United States Secret Service about an alleged plot to assassinate then President of the United States George H. W. Bush.[5]
Moynihan agreed to a polygraph test and no charges were filed. Moynihan stated that it was a simple case of intimidation stemming from his correspondence with Charles Manson and visits to Sandra Good. Moynihan stated that he felt that the he had been being monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 1984, that they had taken his luggage on an occasion, and that they had once called his father, admitting to him that they had taken a parcel from his mail. Moynihan cited his then-friendship with Peter Sotos as a potential cause.[5]
Differences between Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan led to an acrimonious split between the two in the mid-1990s,[5] though Rice would later remember their time together fondly and refer positively to Moynihan.[6] After the split, Moynihan disassociated himself with Rice and was no longer involved with the Abraxas Foundation.[5] Moynihan has been a member of the small Asatru collective Wulfing Kindred since 1994.
In 1995, Moynihan released the first full length album by Blood Axis, The Gospel of Inhumanity and moved from Denver to Portland, Oregon where he became an editor at Feral House, a publishing company owned by Adam Parfrey.[7] After studying language and history at the University of Colorado and Portland State University, Moynihan received his B.A. in German language in 2001.
Moynihan is one of the editors of TYR: Myth - Culture - Tradition and the North American editor of Rûna.[8]
In 1992, Moynihan edited and published a collection of writings by ex-National Socialist Mansonite James N. Mason into a book entitled Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason.[4][9] Published by Feral House, he co-authored the 1998 book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground with Norwegian journalist Didrik Søderlind won the 1998 Firecracker Alternative Press Award.[4]
During this period Moynihan contributed to various magazines and journals, including Seconds and The Scorpion,[10] and has interviewed artists and figures such as power electronics founder Whitehouse,[11] Unleashed,[12] Bathory,[13] In the Nursery,[13] Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey,[14] controversial figure Charles Manson,[15] Peter Steele of Type O Negative, discussing Social Darwinism,[16] Misfits founder Glenn Danzig,[17] Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV founder Genesis P-Orridge,[18] and Swans founder Michael Gira.[19]
In 2001, Moynihan co-authored The Secret King with Stephen Flowers. 2001 also saw Moynihan also editing a reprint of Introduction to Magic, originally published in 1929, and in 2002 edited the first English language translation of the 1953 book Men Among the Ruins, both by Julius Evola and both published by Inner Traditions - Bear & Company. In 2005 Moynihan edited and published a collection of essays by British writer John Michell's The Oldie entitled Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist.
Moynihan collaborated with Boyd Rice from 1989, and in 1990 the two moved into an apartment in Denver.[6] Like Rice and Thomas Thorn, Moynihan was a member of the Church of Satan at this time.[7] Moynihan appeared as a guest with Rice on Bob Larson's "Manson Maniacs", a special for Larson's Christian radio talk show. During the summer of 1991, Moynihan states that he was visited at his apartment by agents of the United States Secret Service about an alleged plot to assassinate then President of the United States George H. W. Bush.[5]
Moynihan agreed to a polygraph test and no charges were filed. Moynihan stated that it was a simple case of intimidation stemming from his correspondence with Charles Manson and visits to Sandra Good. Moynihan stated that he felt that the he had been being monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 1984, that they had taken his luggage on an occasion, and that they had once called his father, admitting to him that they had taken a parcel from his mail. Moynihan cited his then-friendship with Peter Sotos as a potential cause.[5]
Differences between Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan led to an acrimonious split between the two in the mid-1990s,[5] though Rice would later remember their time together fondly and refer positively to Moynihan.[6] After the split, Moynihan disassociated himself with Rice and was no longer involved with the Abraxas Foundation.[5] Moynihan has been a member of the small Asatru collective Wulfing Kindred since 1994.
In 1995, Moynihan released the first full length album by Blood Axis, The Gospel of Inhumanity and moved from Denver to Portland, Oregon where he became an editor at Feral House, a publishing company owned by Adam Parfrey.[7] After studying language and history at the University of Colorado and Portland State University, Moynihan received his B.A. in German language in 2001.
Moynihan is one of the editors of TYR: Myth - Culture - Tradition and the North American editor of Rûna.[8]
In 1992, Moynihan edited and published a collection of writings by ex-National Socialist Mansonite James N. Mason into a book entitled Siege: The Collected Writings of James Mason.[4][9] Published by Feral House, he co-authored the 1998 book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground with Norwegian journalist Didrik Søderlind won the 1998 Firecracker Alternative Press Award.[4]
During this period Moynihan contributed to various magazines and journals, including Seconds and The Scorpion,[10] and has interviewed artists and figures such as power electronics founder Whitehouse,[11] Unleashed,[12] Bathory,[13] In the Nursery,[13] Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey,[14] controversial figure Charles Manson,[15] Peter Steele of Type O Negative, discussing Social Darwinism,[16] Misfits founder Glenn Danzig,[17] Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV founder Genesis P-Orridge,[18] and Swans founder Michael Gira.[19]
In 2001, Moynihan co-authored The Secret King with Stephen Flowers. 2001 also saw Moynihan also editing a reprint of Introduction to Magic, originally published in 1929, and in 2002 edited the first English language translation of the 1953 book Men Among the Ruins, both by Julius Evola and both published by Inner Traditions - Bear & Company. In 2005 Moynihan edited and published a collection of essays by British writer John Michell's The Oldie entitled Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 593 reviews
March 20, 2008
Okay. I'm reading this because I'm a music fanatic and fascinated by fanaticism and counterculture, not because I'm a Satanist OR a fan of black/death metal. That said, this book is hilarious. If you read between the lines, you see a bunch of scrawny, insecure boys who stumbled upon a way to scare the crap out of their country, and beyond. Come on -- how can you really boast that you're an evil agent of Satan when you have to borrow money from your mom to put out your band's record? Seriously. Sadly, though, in the big game of countercultural chicken that these mooks played, some landmark churches were destroyed and two people were killed. Overall, an interesting read, though scattered and biased in spots.
UPDATE: *Finally* finished this monster. Had to put it down for a bit due to schoolwork. By the end, though, I was checking to see how many pages until I was DONE. I have to believe there were some chunks in the middle that could have been edited down -- maybe some of the gratuitous scene gossip, or the on-again, off-again editorialization by the authors. I don't know. It's still a great read for music junkies. Lots of interesting stuff about the relationship between adolescent identity crisis and counterculture movements.
UPDATE: *Finally* finished this monster. Had to put it down for a bit due to schoolwork. By the end, though, I was checking to see how many pages until I was DONE. I have to believe there were some chunks in the middle that could have been edited down -- maybe some of the gratuitous scene gossip, or the on-again, off-again editorialization by the authors. I don't know. It's still a great read for music junkies. Lots of interesting stuff about the relationship between adolescent identity crisis and counterculture movements.
February 25, 2013
I'm telling you these people are Satanists. As I sit here, they are satanists. Look, look, the world is full of these kind of things - black masses, mutilations. Mutilations. The incubus, the succubus. [Editor's note: Yes, I am making a The 'Burbs quote medley here. Pretend I'm Sting trying to satisfy an audience who only came to hear The Police hits when he wants to push his new album.]
Ray Peterson: [chanting] I'm not going to listen to this, I'm not going to hear this now.
Art: Ray! Ray! You're chanting!
[points to book]
Art: Ray, unconscious chanting! You're chanting!
Ray Peterson: [continues chanting with fingers in ears]
Art: [chants] I want to kill everyone. Satan is good. Satan is our pal.
Art: Hey, once they get in here...
[points to Ray's head]
Art: ...it's over, pal.
Justin Bieber walks away from the crossroads paved in his gold records with his devil given talent to be awesomely incredible and derring-do to sell hair care products. The pop culture history books are riddled with such mysteries. "How does anyone sound so damned good?!" Oh wait, I meant that whole Robert Johnson myth. Music and satan the angels hand in hand doing the lazy person's business. I want to be evil but I don't really feel like it, you know? But these metal guys in Norway were like no, I want to shred with real power. I want to do six evil things after my shredded wheat. Paint yourself to look like a mortician's Kiss cover band and go be a real fucking prick to everyone you meet. Black Metal is born.
That's what this Euronymous guy must have said when he started his band Mayhem because this Euronymous was a total bastard. Think about what Kiss look like when you see them without makeup. They look just as ugly with and without makeup as Kiss. Euronymous must've worn the makeup when he saw Gene Simmons get some. He must have told his prospective boyfriends how satanic sodomy was. "The bible is against it, man! You wanna?" [Editors note: I haven't listened to Mayhem. The photos are so silly.] When his bandmate Dead (my favorite person in the whole story because he demonstrated a sense of humor once. His suicide note read "Pardon all of the blood". My favorite person because he was dark because it was in him, not to impose on others) blows his brains out this asshole makes jewelry out of the leftovers (and I mean leftovers as in what he didn't put in a stew) for his closest friends. I bet the people left out were all "What a bastard! I thought we were friends!" I guess that's what being evil was all about. Going by all accounts of his personality it was all for show to live the image of EVIL. He is a "communist". The kind that also believes in making money for himself, as they all do despite being boring and running off at the mouth constantly about anti consumerism. Some time later he says he's a Nazis and one of the other guys in the scene didn't buy it. "No, sadly he's a communist" (because that's the tragedy here). His record shop stiffs the bands. No one much likes Euronymous. When does it stop being an act or you're just an asshole? (One time Dead couldn't sleep because Euronymous wouldn't stop playing synth music. What an asshole! Dead goes to sleep in the woods and the asshole follows him outside to shoot at birds. I'm just saying.) Euronymous is murdered by Burzum front-man Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnakh (yes, from The Lord of the Rings. His band was originally called Uruk-hai). The self defense isn't hard to believe in that Euronymous was the kind of guy that would go around talking big talk about how he was going to kill Vikernes. The cover-up plot was pretty ludicrous, though (he rented a video and a friend was supposed to use his ATM card for a time alibi. Ever heard of surveillance cameras?). My favorite bit was his accomplice who claimed to not even know Euronymous. He was in his band! They were best friends! Snorre Rich came off as kind of retarded to me when he's interviewed for the book. Maybe he forgot he was in his band. He gets eight years for being there. He regrets being in prison, a bit. I wonder about Norway for giving him (he's mentally incompetent!) the same sentence they give to Eithun for killing a guy. Vikernes gets the max of twenty-one years because of the media circus. Vikernes in his 1990s prison is quite bitter that he is given over to the authorities with one eyewitness per crime. The murder seemed an afterthought to the coppers, and to Vikernes, no doubt because of the attention. It's all about the churches. (I loved it when he's defensive in the documentary about his sentence. "But here it is the max!" You better believe Americans watching would go "That's nothing!" I find it disturbing that there are a lot of people who see pictures of Norwegian prisons and WANT to go there because it is nicer than American prisons. They aren't in American prisons! It is also important to note that he didn't go to the halfway house until after he had served half of his sentence. He was allowed a computer and whines in the book about the times they take it away as punishment. This is the guy who boasted upon being arrested that he wasn't mistreated enough and they should throw him in a hole. And um... Pussy! Personally, I'm all for not treating convicts like animals until they can no longer integrate into society. It is disturbing that Norwegians are viewed as too lenient. It is disturbing that I also felt a twinge of envy for their prisons in case it ever happened to me. And these black metalists apparently rebelled because they had it too good?) They would have been caught anyway. Fellow black metal murderer Bård "Faust" Eithun bragged about his own murder of another homosexual to some chick (it was touching when Vikernes will later say that women aren't snitches except for this one "Rumanian bitch"). Everyone in the scene can't stop talking fast enough, many landing themselves in the slammer for their eagerness to talk the talk. Black metal scene seems to me to also be about talking about being an asshole as much as it is about being one.
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground should be called something like A bunch of assholes get together for a platform to spout their racist bullshit. Of course, I mean the people featured in this book. Moynihan is largely concerned with Vikernes. Fellow racist black metal murderers from different countries are also featured. Like Vikernes, the murders are of "I didn't like him" variety and the music to get attention for woes of immigrants moving into their neighborhoods. They burn churches because they had no vision to note that there were other things for their privileged and bored asses to fight against? It was the most shocking and too many other bands used photographs of holocaust victims? That's the theory of the satanic appeal, anyway. Wouldn't it be shocking? The who's who of the scene are interviewed. Some good points are made about satanism. You have to care about Christianity to begin with, right? Unless it's just an image, which it was here, whatever the reaction the perps got from their fellow citizens.
There are some interesting ideas about violence banned in all Norwegian cinema and television. There has been one horror Norwegian film. Ever. I think that goes to show that the theory that violent films and horror films are to blame because they desensitize people to violence may not be as much as the story as some people want it to be. That may be why the fans found the gothic imagery and lyrics to be appealing. But why did the musical acts feel driven to crime? Is it like gangsta rappers and their prison time street cred? I was reminded repeatedly of Charles Manson and his family. Manson more than anything else. From Vikernes theories to enlist followers by attracting women (who would then attract more male followers) to his court room shenanigans to how did all of these nutjobs find each other anyway to all of the racist shit and violence. People will follow anything, right? I am amazed that there are people who listen to Varg Vikernes and think he has good things to say. Blah blah Macdonalds blah blah. Really, NO ONE else doesn't like Macdonalds? You can't hear that ANYWHERE else? So the racist shit must be true too? He ran an organization from prison and it is said that he has "leadership" qualities. He has the dull eyes of a liar who gives you nothing, the slow feet of a man going nowhere. Why does anyone follow this? If their satanism was because nothing meant anything then aren't they already done?
There are present in every individual, besides his personal memories, the great "primordial" images, as Jacob Burckhardt once aptly called them, the inherited powers of human imagination as it was from time immemorial. The fact of this inheritance explains the truly amazing phenomena that certain motifs from myths and legends repeat themselves... It also explains why it is that our mental patients can reproduce exactly the same images and associations that are known to us from the old texts. The primordial images are the most ancient and the most universal "thought-forms" of humanity. They are as much feels as thoughts; indeed they lead their own independent life...
Moynihan quotes from Carl Jung.
In 2000 coauthor Didrik Søderlind interviewed Vikernes again. Lords of Chaos was published in 1998 and most of the interviews and photographs are from 1995 or before, with the exception of this new section. Søderlind interviews and also writes all of the sections about Norwegian history and politics. It wasn't hard to tell even without the introduction from Moynihan. I made my "Are you fucking kidding me?" face when he states that the most impressive talent of Varg Vikarnes is his ability to mythologize himself. Cut the fannish crap, Moynihan. He lies, and not all that interestingly at that. He changes his story to suit himself and again when someone is listening to him.He is quite fawning, even referring to Vikernes by his ridiculous name of "The Count".
Before he is arrested he is a satanist.
No, the media misrepresented me. I'm a heathen! He's a Nazis before prison, not a Nazis while in prison (although much of what he says makes this what my sub-editor says is a flaming lie), a Nazis out of prison. He talks a lot about Odinism and then in 2000 it is Aliens. He still maintains his website (I haven't looked in depth, though) and I know that he changes tact there as well (he changes his story about Moynihan! There and back again, like in The Hobbit. Sorry, I know he was firmly in camp Sauron. My apologies! Please don't bitch about me on your website). I found him difficult to listen to because I simply wasn't that interested in his ideology. Moynihan may be on to something with Jung about a black metal world that was born not made already beneath their constructed black metal world of evil posturing and make up that pulls their fibers to what is underneath. It's mindlessness again, whoops. But I think Vikernes is boring and I really don't want to listen to/read him anymore. I know that there are people in the world who want all white people already.
This is my theory: They want to be violent. They want to be assholes. Yeah, Vikernes says (and also retracts and confirms as he is retracting) that he wants to walk down the street and kick someone for the pleasure of kicking them. His mother can say all of his troubles started when poor little boy Kristian (he changed his name to Varg because he thought Kristian and all of its counterparts are lame) spent a year in Iraq (his father programmed computers for Saddam) and gasp! had to spend time with non-whites. If they had to have it be REAL then they are not the average Erik who kills Lara Croft over and over again in a depressive funk (I don't know what the average Erik is like). They are not searching for alternatives to Christianity if their message is wiping out who is different. Maybe if you scratch the surface there's a Saint Olaf story in every Swede. Put on a horned helmet and rape and pillage along the Irish coastline. To the people who listen in the dark to black metal and feel themselves in death and the dark (as Vikernes points out that the Odin dark blade is in fact the light) it could be safe and natural. But the other cases in the black metal scene, these true crime stories of this book? The German teenagers who killed that boy in their school they didn't like? Also racist assholes. One of them, Sebastian, is into the neo-folk scene that is also home to racist assholes. People have always made art, right? They've expressed themselves, been violent, raged against authoritarianism. (Weeeeeell, if they want the Nazis back I would say that puts the "The Christian church is keeping us down!" thing further into the corner. According to this book the average Norwegian doesn't live their life inside a church. I can't know if that is true, of course.)
I don't know what their art is like to know if it disappears into their real lives. I read a lot about living the scene. I wish I knew WHY rather than what the agenda was, I guess. My feeling is if he got what he wanted he would want something else. Whatever would get him attention.
I like to scratch my head and wonder if there's something alike in people underneath the surface. If our blood carries the old myths and desires. Besides Oslo the other black metal capital is Tampa, Florida. Maybe it is our sunlight. Maybe it is their darkness. Or it is just like those stupid kids in Florida who wrote about killing another kid and "Can I borrow your X-box?" in the same breath. That breath isn't inhaled in me when it comes out of him. I'll scratch my chinny chin chin and let in another thought. I love the black metal fan Richmond character on The IT Crowd (although he calls Cradle of Filth "dark wave". Dark wave is Wolfsheim!). I guess I'll think about him for black metal fans. When he had the filth to come home to after another disappointing day. Or Dead who wanted to die from when he was a little boy but did stick around long enough to make some music. (Vikernes has dissed the filth many times. I noted that their member wears a Burzum t-shirt when photographed in this book. Not knowing much about them, mind, they strike me as poseurs who would want to attach themselves to the image of the "dangerous" Vikernes.)
"Until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence on the news, there's no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value." - from "Clueless"
P.s. The best and worst part are the photographs. I wouldn't discourage any reader from checking this out for the pure cheese fest that were those promotional photos. But there's also a picture of Dead's brains blown out.
May 3, 2012
I've been looking forward to reading this for years, and only just got round to it. I think it's fair to say I got more pleasure out of the looking forward to than I did from actually reading it. The prose and editing are as bad as you'd expect in a Feral House book; I feel quite comfortable saying my freshman comp students could have given this a quick once over and made it as least twice as readable. The core story of the book - the origins and rise of Scandinavian black metal and the crimes committed by that scene's members - is fascinating and fairly well told, although the interminable interviews the authors throw in to every chapter make for painful reading. Only a fanboy could possibly care what the drummer of some random band thinks, especially when they all think more or less the same thing.
Once they move on from that story, though, the book turns to pulp: the authors' *ridiculous* sub-jungian musings couldn't even be of interest to the kind of people who attend seances; the stories and interviews with copy-cat criminal metalheads add literally nothing to the first half of the book; and the closing chapters, detailing a range of mediocre musicians across the world, are worse than pointless. There are some amazing black metal records, but you'd never know it from this book.
On the upside, Moynihan and Soderlind avoid moralizing, and the photos are worth the price of the book. What did I learn from this book? The only thing more ridiculous than a person who acts exactly like everyone else is a person who spends all their time trying to act exactly unlike everyone else. Bow down to the dark lord of pathetic, adolescent rebellion!
Once they move on from that story, though, the book turns to pulp: the authors' *ridiculous* sub-jungian musings couldn't even be of interest to the kind of people who attend seances; the stories and interviews with copy-cat criminal metalheads add literally nothing to the first half of the book; and the closing chapters, detailing a range of mediocre musicians across the world, are worse than pointless. There are some amazing black metal records, but you'd never know it from this book.
On the upside, Moynihan and Soderlind avoid moralizing, and the photos are worth the price of the book. What did I learn from this book? The only thing more ridiculous than a person who acts exactly like everyone else is a person who spends all their time trying to act exactly unlike everyone else. Bow down to the dark lord of pathetic, adolescent rebellion!
October 13, 2019
When I was a junior in high school, this book occupied pride of place on the shelf above my friend Paul’s television. Placed next to the book, ominously, was a wine glass that looked like a skull, and which often seemed to contain some mysterious red liquid. We were in Catholic school at the time, and the book seemed suggestive of occult mystery- everything, that is, that Brother Dan, our school’s strict and unrelenting disciplinarian, opposed. I remember listening, short of breath, as Paul related to me over illicitly-obtained 40s of malt liquor the unimaginably and blasphemously sordid tale of Varg Vikernes (otherwise known as Count Grishnackh, or simply ‘The Count’), who had released albums under the name of Burzum, and who was then serving time in a Norwegian prison for having killed a guy known in the Norwegian black metal scene as Euronymous, who had himself found his bandmate in a group called Mayhem, a singer who called himself Dead, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and then made necklaces out of the remnants of his, Dead’s, skull, and gave them to the remaining group members as presents. Dead’s rather unsentimental suicide note read: ‘pardon all the blood.’
I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read it in high school. The story of the murder is interesting, and would make a good magazine article. The parts about the ‘Satanic panic’ in Norway had the potential to be interesting, but the material is stretched thin at 370 pages, and the authors get bogged down in the minutiae of the differences among a number of ‘philosophies’ (the differences between, for example, Anton LaVey’s idea of Satanism and some of the Norwegian black metal bands’ ideas of Satanism), each of which is equally stupid and undeserving of analysis. I understand that Vikernes is in large part the subject of the book, but the authors go into great detail about his dumb beliefs- Odinism, white supremacy, hollow earth- and almost treat him with reverence. For example, there is a good amount of prose along the lines of, “Vikernes, despite his heathenism, has in certain respects set himself up as both avatar and Christ-like martyr for his cause, willing to suffer in prison for his sacrifice.” It's not easy to get through hundreds of pages of that. But at least they don’t call him The Count.
This book also contains the word ‘corpsepaint’, which I’d never even known was a word, a minimum of twenty-five times. That’s too much.
February 1, 2024
10/2012
Subcultures, music, satanism, paganism ... I'm listing the things fascinating in this book. The difference between the European mindset and American. Cult crimes, murder. A bunch of Norwegian teenagers in "corpsepaint." Endlessly entertaining. The book went on too long though. It seemed to take forever to read.
Subcultures, music, satanism, paganism ... I'm listing the things fascinating in this book. The difference between the European mindset and American. Cult crimes, murder. A bunch of Norwegian teenagers in "corpsepaint." Endlessly entertaining. The book went on too long though. It seemed to take forever to read.
May 27, 2022
Lords of Chaos is an extremely irresponsible book. Originally published in 1998, and revised in 2003, as it stands, this book borders on the dangerous. Oftentimes meandering, occasionally bafflingly tangential, and criminally uncontested, this book needs revision and extension in 2022 or a sequel that allows more commentary to level out this book.
Lords of Chaos is a book about heavy metal. Not all heavy metal. The heaviest, harshest, darkest, black metal. Black metal is trash. It is abrasive to listen to, it is inaccessible by choice, and it is created by abrasive inaccessible people. At least it was. Black metal today is still heavy, harsh, and dark, but it is commercial. In the late 80s and early 90s when black metal took Norway by firestorm, it was as underground as possible. Nominally the Norwegian black metal scene is the impetus of this book and its wider “study” of the rise of satanism.
I want to stress the good about this book before I deconstruct what is bad. For those who have heard about the early black metal scene, this is a great primer on the scene. It describes early satanic inspirations in music (mostly to shock people into free publicity), the culture of Norway at the time (mostly irreligious, where violent media is taboo), and the principal figures of the early black metal scene, Dead, Euronymous, and a shithead named Varg.
Norway has a high standard of living, little to no diversity in its population, an extreme aversion to violent media of any type, and a stagnant, indifferent relationship with religion. The majority of the population is Christian, but most are not active in any sense of the word. They are baptized, married, and buried by the church, and that is about it. So what happens when naturally rebellious (and in some cases those with clear mental health problems) get a taste of the “satanic” music like Black Sabbath and Mercy Fate? They push it to the edge. They want more. Since there is little to no violence in Norwegian media, there isn’t the suspension of disbelief that accompanies a lot of American views on media violence. It was taken at face value, then scorned when the commercialism was made apparent. Like an addict, however, they got the taste. Harder, harsher, more aggressive, actual real evil and Satan worship became the name of the game.
Enter Dead and Euronymous. Dead clearly is the one with mental health problems, most likely some sort of severe depression. Euronymous seems more of a hanger-on that inherited the head of the movement and was in way over his head. That is the good of the book. It establishes the setting, and the scene, indicates some potential influences, and details some of the key figures. It is not a spoiler that Dead commits suicide, and the Euronymous is killed. Before, during, and after Dead and Euronymous’ death, there is a smattering of church burnings that vaulted this underground scene into the international spotlight.
This is where the bad of the book begins, and it is no coincidence that the bad beings with the festering shitpile of a human being who goes by Varg Vikernes. Dead and Euronymous were part of the band Mayhem. While a few other bands were also prominent in the black metal scene, the one-man project is known as Burzum also held sway. Burzum is Varg Vikernes. Imagine Donald Trump with no money, but musical ability (ability, not talent). Varg was a satanist, but not really. The media put that term on him for their own agenda. Varg is really a heathen. But not really, the media put that on him too. Varg is an Odinist, which we should have known from the start, obviously. Also, as history has shown, Varg is a racist, nationalist, a murderer (he killed Euronymous), and is mostly responsible for the destruction of the Fantoft Stave Church.
Two of the pinnacles of black metal are dead, and the remaining tentpole is Varg. I doubt black metal would have ever been mainstream in any sense of the word, but it is undoubtedly Varg’s influence that has made black metal one of the genres attributed to what we would call the alt-right of today. In the 90s and early 00s, we were content to just call them neo-Nazis.
What is bad is the irresponsibility in which Varg is handled in this book. He is essentially given a platform to talk, unchallenged, under the auspices of an interview. The author never challenges Varg, because without Varg there would probably be about 150 fewer pages in this book. Lords of Chaos is about 30% history, 40% Varg soliloquy, and the rest is nonsense.
It is 2022. I hate the “it is {insert year here}” as a basis for an argument, but here it is appropriate. It is 2022, and if any time is given to an alt-right, neo-Nazi, fascist, nationalist, murderer, there needs to be equal time spent deconstructing the arguments. Letting these statements stand in a vacuum is dangerous. I came to this book because I am a fan of metal. Not all metal, but a fan enough to know about the general story of Norwegian black metal. Someone who is already feeling like an outcast and finds themselves in their local black metal scene and wants to know more is going to see Dead, and Euronymous, and Varg shit head Vikernes and possibly see a kindred spirit, and that is unacceptable.
Oh yeah, there is a whole chapter about Nazis and UFOs, which… is so strange and unnecessary.
I put this book back on the digital shelf and felt so conflicted. Without more, it is irresponsible. Without a revision, or a volume 2, this is a Varg Vikernes platform sandwiched between footnotes in metal history. As it stands, I don’t think I can recommend it to anyone. Also, the author, unsurprisingly, has been criticized for alt-right sympathies. So it is no wonder Varg is mythologized instead of torn down as he should. Stay away. 2/5.
Lords of Chaos is a book about heavy metal. Not all heavy metal. The heaviest, harshest, darkest, black metal. Black metal is trash. It is abrasive to listen to, it is inaccessible by choice, and it is created by abrasive inaccessible people. At least it was. Black metal today is still heavy, harsh, and dark, but it is commercial. In the late 80s and early 90s when black metal took Norway by firestorm, it was as underground as possible. Nominally the Norwegian black metal scene is the impetus of this book and its wider “study” of the rise of satanism.
I want to stress the good about this book before I deconstruct what is bad. For those who have heard about the early black metal scene, this is a great primer on the scene. It describes early satanic inspirations in music (mostly to shock people into free publicity), the culture of Norway at the time (mostly irreligious, where violent media is taboo), and the principal figures of the early black metal scene, Dead, Euronymous, and a shithead named Varg.
Norway has a high standard of living, little to no diversity in its population, an extreme aversion to violent media of any type, and a stagnant, indifferent relationship with religion. The majority of the population is Christian, but most are not active in any sense of the word. They are baptized, married, and buried by the church, and that is about it. So what happens when naturally rebellious (and in some cases those with clear mental health problems) get a taste of the “satanic” music like Black Sabbath and Mercy Fate? They push it to the edge. They want more. Since there is little to no violence in Norwegian media, there isn’t the suspension of disbelief that accompanies a lot of American views on media violence. It was taken at face value, then scorned when the commercialism was made apparent. Like an addict, however, they got the taste. Harder, harsher, more aggressive, actual real evil and Satan worship became the name of the game.
Enter Dead and Euronymous. Dead clearly is the one with mental health problems, most likely some sort of severe depression. Euronymous seems more of a hanger-on that inherited the head of the movement and was in way over his head. That is the good of the book. It establishes the setting, and the scene, indicates some potential influences, and details some of the key figures. It is not a spoiler that Dead commits suicide, and the Euronymous is killed. Before, during, and after Dead and Euronymous’ death, there is a smattering of church burnings that vaulted this underground scene into the international spotlight.
This is where the bad of the book begins, and it is no coincidence that the bad beings with the festering shitpile of a human being who goes by Varg Vikernes. Dead and Euronymous were part of the band Mayhem. While a few other bands were also prominent in the black metal scene, the one-man project is known as Burzum also held sway. Burzum is Varg Vikernes. Imagine Donald Trump with no money, but musical ability (ability, not talent). Varg was a satanist, but not really. The media put that term on him for their own agenda. Varg is really a heathen. But not really, the media put that on him too. Varg is an Odinist, which we should have known from the start, obviously. Also, as history has shown, Varg is a racist, nationalist, a murderer (he killed Euronymous), and is mostly responsible for the destruction of the Fantoft Stave Church.
Two of the pinnacles of black metal are dead, and the remaining tentpole is Varg. I doubt black metal would have ever been mainstream in any sense of the word, but it is undoubtedly Varg’s influence that has made black metal one of the genres attributed to what we would call the alt-right of today. In the 90s and early 00s, we were content to just call them neo-Nazis.
What is bad is the irresponsibility in which Varg is handled in this book. He is essentially given a platform to talk, unchallenged, under the auspices of an interview. The author never challenges Varg, because without Varg there would probably be about 150 fewer pages in this book. Lords of Chaos is about 30% history, 40% Varg soliloquy, and the rest is nonsense.
It is 2022. I hate the “it is {insert year here}” as a basis for an argument, but here it is appropriate. It is 2022, and if any time is given to an alt-right, neo-Nazi, fascist, nationalist, murderer, there needs to be equal time spent deconstructing the arguments. Letting these statements stand in a vacuum is dangerous. I came to this book because I am a fan of metal. Not all metal, but a fan enough to know about the general story of Norwegian black metal. Someone who is already feeling like an outcast and finds themselves in their local black metal scene and wants to know more is going to see Dead, and Euronymous, and Varg shit head Vikernes and possibly see a kindred spirit, and that is unacceptable.
Oh yeah, there is a whole chapter about Nazis and UFOs, which… is so strange and unnecessary.
I put this book back on the digital shelf and felt so conflicted. Without more, it is irresponsible. Without a revision, or a volume 2, this is a Varg Vikernes platform sandwiched between footnotes in metal history. As it stands, I don’t think I can recommend it to anyone. Also, the author, unsurprisingly, has been criticized for alt-right sympathies. So it is no wonder Varg is mythologized instead of torn down as he should. Stay away. 2/5.
August 11, 2015
I wanted to give this book four stars for a long time, but i changed to three, because there were anyway too many things that annoyed me to some extent. Let me start with explaining myself. I have gotten very much into Black Metal lately and although I already listened to Satyricon ten years ago, I never really got into it. This finally happened, better late than never, haha! There are many bands I love and enjoy, there are also enough bands that I simply cannot get into. And Burzum is one of them. So I was not too excited that half of the book is about Varg or connected to him. I understand his significance in the scene, but at times I wanted to know more about other bands. Moyniham ignores so many other bands that emerged, just because they did not burn a church? Okay, I see that the book is trying to find out how Black Metal evolved, where it comes from, its motives and how the violence can be explained. But not only murderers and arsonists are part of the scene, this seem to have been forgotten a bit.
Now about the rest of the book, mainly talking about how Black Metal, its ideology was born. As other reviewers noted, the focus was too much on fascism. I see Black Metal now, many years after its birth. And seriously, I think Moyniham again focused too much on the people that got into the press because of murder and arson. What about all the bands that are absolutely not fascists? I also do not see what he describes as moving from Satanism to Heathenism. Ok, it most likely happened, but look at all the awesome Black Metal bands, that still have Satanic imagery and lyrics. It did not die out and I'm sure it will not.
What also bothered me was the part about Black Metal on other countries. Were was Greece in that? Greek Black Metal was its own style (Fenriz' Black Metal university forever, ha!) and it was not mentioned at all. Just because Greeks did not burn churches and kill? It seems like it, because only countries are mentioned, were some crimes happened. Also Finland is left out. I'm saddened, because it is a neighbour and also brought forth bands like Beherit, who have some cult status.
The great thing about this book is the many interviews conducted. Many interesting facts and so much info on what really went on. This was definitely a lot of work and I appreciate how Moynihan is very neutral. He attacks noone and lets everyone speak freely. Murders and motives were explained to him, I guess mostly because he was so neutral in his approach and people trusted him. That is a big plus in this book.
Black Metal appeals to me because of many things. I lived six years in Finland and I understand fully the darkness and the despair. I understand self-destruction, but not violence. I do understand the meaning behind church burnings, although I love ancient buildings and would never support its destruction. What I completely disagree with is fascism. I think it was too easy to jump onto that wagon to explain the church burnings and the whole scene. Maybe I have a too "Finnish" idea of Black Metal, but I think there are many other motifs why Black Metal was born and this is not spoken about enough, in my opinion.
Now about the rest of the book, mainly talking about how Black Metal, its ideology was born. As other reviewers noted, the focus was too much on fascism. I see Black Metal now, many years after its birth. And seriously, I think Moyniham again focused too much on the people that got into the press because of murder and arson. What about all the bands that are absolutely not fascists? I also do not see what he describes as moving from Satanism to Heathenism. Ok, it most likely happened, but look at all the awesome Black Metal bands, that still have Satanic imagery and lyrics. It did not die out and I'm sure it will not.
What also bothered me was the part about Black Metal on other countries. Were was Greece in that? Greek Black Metal was its own style (Fenriz' Black Metal university forever, ha!) and it was not mentioned at all. Just because Greeks did not burn churches and kill? It seems like it, because only countries are mentioned, were some crimes happened. Also Finland is left out. I'm saddened, because it is a neighbour and also brought forth bands like Beherit, who have some cult status.
The great thing about this book is the many interviews conducted. Many interesting facts and so much info on what really went on. This was definitely a lot of work and I appreciate how Moynihan is very neutral. He attacks noone and lets everyone speak freely. Murders and motives were explained to him, I guess mostly because he was so neutral in his approach and people trusted him. That is a big plus in this book.
Black Metal appeals to me because of many things. I lived six years in Finland and I understand fully the darkness and the despair. I understand self-destruction, but not violence. I do understand the meaning behind church burnings, although I love ancient buildings and would never support its destruction. What I completely disagree with is fascism. I think it was too easy to jump onto that wagon to explain the church burnings and the whole scene. Maybe I have a too "Finnish" idea of Black Metal, but I think there are many other motifs why Black Metal was born and this is not spoken about enough, in my opinion.
March 14, 2019
Videorecensione: https://youtu.be/FzPiD8WB99Y
September 30, 2012
This book came out just as I was beginning to explore the black metal musical genre, and it served as a kind of guide and context for my embrace of a new sound. In retrospect, it's probably not as "perfect" as my five-star rating would imply, but its impact on my life cannot be ignored.
What Moynihan and Sonderlind attempted was to write an analysis of a new musical subculture that contains a critique of the rock world and the society that creates it. They also examine some of the contradictions inherent in a "terrorist" pop music phenomenon. For those who don't know (and a of us lot didn't, back in 1998), black metal is a form of heavy metal particularly popular in Scandinavia but with branches all over the world, which emphasizes blasphemic anti-religious or Satanic lyrics, guttural or growled vocals, rapid beats and jarring or unpleasant guitars, and is often associated with highly theatrical makeup and costume. Each of the above generalizations may or may not apply to any given band, however, and as is usual for current rock subcultures, any ten people you ask will give ten different definitions. Probably the most difficult distinction for most non-fans is the difference between black metal and death metal, and like any two frequently-confused sects, fans of black and death metal thrive on denouncing and hating one another.
I have said that black metal is associated with Scandinavia, and much of the book is dedicated to documenting its rise from bands like Bathory in Sweden and especially Mayhem in Norway. According to the authors, one of whom is Norwegian, the isolated and small music scene of Norway, plus national characteristics of the country, made for fertile ground for the flourishing of extreme ideas, grounded as much in action as in words and attitudes. Metalheads who loved “evil” began to experiment with it more seriously, leading at first to crimes like grave robbing, and vandalism, then to burning several of the country’s historic “stave” churches, and finally to murder and suicide of some members. The story proceeds out into Germany and the USA, where imitative crimes have occurred. The journalistic coverage of the crimes (still recent at the time of writing) is compellingly thorough, although there is no doubt that the sensationalism of the story is part of what got the authors a book deal, and they aren’t above playing it up with gory photos and interviews with metal criminals proudly strutting as neo-Mansons.
The prose is enjoyable and far more erudite than one expects from a rock history, and much of the analysis rises above the sensationalist material, however. The many photos add to the story, illustrating the style of the movement, as well as the many sources it draws upon. One criticism is that the lack of an index makes it harder to use as a reference. Similarly the bibliography and endnotes are discouragingly short, seemingly inadequate to document the many hours of interviews the authors claim to have performed. I recently heard this questioned; apparently some of the interviewees have claimed they were misquoted, which amounts to nothing more than a rumor, but seeing the lack of precision with which these interviews are documented here, I find it at least possible (although bearing in mind the types of people involved and the soap opera that is the black metal scene, I also consider it possible that this is a form of “sour grapes” over the book’s success).
Black metal has grown musically and philosophically since this book was published, or at least some of its participants have. Still, this remains a fascinating document of the roots of a genre that continues to explore the meaning of evil in the post-modern rock universe, and in spite of any misgivings about its scholarship, I recommend to anyone interested in the genre.
What Moynihan and Sonderlind attempted was to write an analysis of a new musical subculture that contains a critique of the rock world and the society that creates it. They also examine some of the contradictions inherent in a "terrorist" pop music phenomenon. For those who don't know (and a of us lot didn't, back in 1998), black metal is a form of heavy metal particularly popular in Scandinavia but with branches all over the world, which emphasizes blasphemic anti-religious or Satanic lyrics, guttural or growled vocals, rapid beats and jarring or unpleasant guitars, and is often associated with highly theatrical makeup and costume. Each of the above generalizations may or may not apply to any given band, however, and as is usual for current rock subcultures, any ten people you ask will give ten different definitions. Probably the most difficult distinction for most non-fans is the difference between black metal and death metal, and like any two frequently-confused sects, fans of black and death metal thrive on denouncing and hating one another.
I have said that black metal is associated with Scandinavia, and much of the book is dedicated to documenting its rise from bands like Bathory in Sweden and especially Mayhem in Norway. According to the authors, one of whom is Norwegian, the isolated and small music scene of Norway, plus national characteristics of the country, made for fertile ground for the flourishing of extreme ideas, grounded as much in action as in words and attitudes. Metalheads who loved “evil” began to experiment with it more seriously, leading at first to crimes like grave robbing, and vandalism, then to burning several of the country’s historic “stave” churches, and finally to murder and suicide of some members. The story proceeds out into Germany and the USA, where imitative crimes have occurred. The journalistic coverage of the crimes (still recent at the time of writing) is compellingly thorough, although there is no doubt that the sensationalism of the story is part of what got the authors a book deal, and they aren’t above playing it up with gory photos and interviews with metal criminals proudly strutting as neo-Mansons.
The prose is enjoyable and far more erudite than one expects from a rock history, and much of the analysis rises above the sensationalist material, however. The many photos add to the story, illustrating the style of the movement, as well as the many sources it draws upon. One criticism is that the lack of an index makes it harder to use as a reference. Similarly the bibliography and endnotes are discouragingly short, seemingly inadequate to document the many hours of interviews the authors claim to have performed. I recently heard this questioned; apparently some of the interviewees have claimed they were misquoted, which amounts to nothing more than a rumor, but seeing the lack of precision with which these interviews are documented here, I find it at least possible (although bearing in mind the types of people involved and the soap opera that is the black metal scene, I also consider it possible that this is a form of “sour grapes” over the book’s success).
Black metal has grown musically and philosophically since this book was published, or at least some of its participants have. Still, this remains a fascinating document of the roots of a genre that continues to explore the meaning of evil in the post-modern rock universe, and in spite of any misgivings about its scholarship, I recommend to anyone interested in the genre.
January 9, 2018
I picked up this book as a huge black metal fan. By the end, I found it to be a disappointing, alienating, and tedious experience. If there's one lesson here, it's that the founders of black metal as we know it are complete idiots, practically every single one of them. I have a deep love for this music but can say that without ambiguity. About halfway through I could hardly bring myself to read any more of the interviews. Varg in particular has a way of getting on one's nerves almost instantaneously.
Granted, the authors have assembled a relatively impressive oral history of the Norwegian black metal scene, and the book does a pretty good job of telling the core story regarding Varg and Euronymous. And the book is well conceived, digging past the hype around the genre's Satanism to excavate the paganism, conspiracy theory, and radical right-wing idiocy that underlies so much of the genre's culture.
But the book has way too many glaring flaws to call it a good book. The writing reflects some kind of ad-hoc skill, but is more often than not overwritten and pretentious. The interviews are a slog, with repetitive questions and stupid answers from figures that aren't relevant to the book's subject matter. But maybe the bigger problem with the book is structural. It's totally disorganized. There are way too many irrelevant digressions, recounting crimes with tenuous connections to heavy metal or all-purpose Satanism. The book's own title refers to a totally irrelevant band of American teenagers who committed unspeakable crimes, but with nothing to do with black metal. There's even an interview with the police officer or whatever that handled their case. Honestly, why is that in the book?
There are numerous examples of this. The book needed an editor. The book needed two editors.
The book's own flaws are symptomatic of the most frustrating and repulsive aspects of black metal culture at large. That, perhaps more than anything, makes Lords of Chaos a must-read for fans like me, whose love for black metal in its aesthetic dimension remains unfortunately unconditional.
Granted, the authors have assembled a relatively impressive oral history of the Norwegian black metal scene, and the book does a pretty good job of telling the core story regarding Varg and Euronymous. And the book is well conceived, digging past the hype around the genre's Satanism to excavate the paganism, conspiracy theory, and radical right-wing idiocy that underlies so much of the genre's culture.
But the book has way too many glaring flaws to call it a good book. The writing reflects some kind of ad-hoc skill, but is more often than not overwritten and pretentious. The interviews are a slog, with repetitive questions and stupid answers from figures that aren't relevant to the book's subject matter. But maybe the bigger problem with the book is structural. It's totally disorganized. There are way too many irrelevant digressions, recounting crimes with tenuous connections to heavy metal or all-purpose Satanism. The book's own title refers to a totally irrelevant band of American teenagers who committed unspeakable crimes, but with nothing to do with black metal. There's even an interview with the police officer or whatever that handled their case. Honestly, why is that in the book?
There are numerous examples of this. The book needed an editor. The book needed two editors.
The book's own flaws are symptomatic of the most frustrating and repulsive aspects of black metal culture at large. That, perhaps more than anything, makes Lords of Chaos a must-read for fans like me, whose love for black metal in its aesthetic dimension remains unfortunately unconditional.
April 17, 2019
In the mid-1990s Norway was scandalized by a series of church arsons. The true nature of the crimes became a media sensation when it was revealed that a number of native black metal musicians were tied to the crime spree. Murders soon followed arson as the crimes became even more bizarre and shocking.
“Lords of Chaos” is an in-depth look at the scene that spawned these incidents. Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind have authored one of the oddest true crime stories that I have ever read. It's clearly an ambitious work, and it often suffers from trying to cover too much ground at once. It's a black metal history that turns into a true crime novel and finally morphs into a sociological treatise on Theistic Satanism and Nationalism.
It profiles a number of the prime movers in the Norwegian black metal scene, and has an amazing number of interesting photographs and illustrations that provide tremendous depth of detail into the subjects at hand. Moving quickly from a short history of the development of black metal, the authors begin to delve into the tragic events surrounding the band Mayhem. Mayhem's leader Oystein Aarseth (stage name Euronymous) and his cohorts set out to form the most sinister band imaginable, setting a cartoonish Satanic image up against a furious wall of metallic sound. Mayhem would provide the blueprint for a generation of followers, not only in sound but in background philosophy. Mayhem intended to live out their Satanic image to the hilt, proving to all that they were no mere posers. This desire for authenticity would eventually lead to a crime wave that still reverberates today, as grave desecrations and church arsons eventually led to murders and a rise of Nationalistic imagery not seen since the heyday of the Nazis.
The authors have great source material and were lucky enough to get firsthand interviews with a number of the primary subjects in the book. The writing moves along at a good pace, as the reader is taken on a whirlwind tour of the black metal scene.
My main gripe with the book was the substandard level of editing. There were numerous misspellings and printing errors throughout the book. Also, as I stated earlier, I thought that the authors really lost track of where they were going with the book. It's a crime book with a lot of music history and cultural observation......or maybe it's a music history intertwined with a true crime novel.....or perhaps it's a sociological deconstruction based on a true crime story with black metal for its background source. I don't know......it's confusing, but it somehow all works out in the end.
Truth is certainly stranger than fiction. There is no way that a writer could make up this cast of characters or the storyline that accompanies them. It's a truly amazing ride into a netherworld of Satanism and extreme music, where violence and aggression are rewarded and civilized society is reviled.
CODA: This is yet another one of my older reviews that I dusted off after taking another look at the source material. Interestingly enough, I’m now on my third copy of this book, having lent the previous two out and having them not return home. I guess that means it’s a keeper. I don’t think that I was putting much effort into my reviews at the time I originally wrote this. I was prone to making assumptions about my audience and didn’t think exposition was necessary. Hopefully I have matured as a reviewer since then.
“Black metal” is a somewhat amorphous term for a musical genre. It typically refers to a style of heavy metal that relies on dark, Satanic imagery and a codified reliance on “evil” as a state of mind. The music itself is often underproduced and low-fi, mostly by design as this is thought to give the recordings a more raw or authentic feel. The vocals are growled rather than sung, the lyrical content ranging from sadomasochism to cartoon Satanism. It’s a genre of metal that is ripe for parody, and at this point in history it has become monolithic to the point of being absurd.
I left out quite a bit of vital information in the original review. Oystein Aarseth was killed by one of his bandmates, a man named Varg Vikernes who also used the stage name Count Grishnackh. Vikernes admitted to the murder and served his time in the Norwegian correctional system. He has since been released, and continues to make music with his original band, Burzum. Vikernes has also become a prominent figure in Norwegian Nationalism, a far-right ideology with ties to white-supremacist and Nazi movements across Europe. This is part of an unfortunate trend of Nationalists and white supremacists making inroads into Pagan and Satanic organizations over the past decade, especially in traditions like the Asatru, who celebrate a Norse heritage.
“Lords of Chaos” has aged reasonably well, considering the fact that most of the bands mentioned are now defunct or doing nostalgia tours. Black metal is still very much a niche phenomenon, though a couple of the bands have managed to gain some sort of mainstream success. The best reference to recommend to you if you REALLY desire an exhaustive examination of black metal would be the massive Jon Kristiansen-authored “Slayer Diaries,” a 700-page reprinting of the complete run of his amateur underground fanzine with added biographical and background information included. Kristiansen was there on the ground in Norway as the black metal scene developed around him, and he was a fan and a participant in the movement and music. He knew most of the bands personally, and his insight lends him a high level of credibility that no other writer on the subject really has.
I almost rewrote this entire review from scratch, but decided on just adding the coda to it and leaving it at that. It’s a fun, interesting, and slightly disturbing book that you should definitely add to your shelf if you have any interest in the subject matter at all. It’s even a bit prescient when it describes the (then) nascent Nationalist movements that would eventually gain steam and give rise to ideologies such as Trumpism…...wait…..was Trump ever a fan of black metal? Did he and Varg share the same taste in reading material like “Mein Kampf?” Did “The Donald” ever put on corpse paint and play air guitar in front of his penthouse mirror??? Much to think about here…..much to think about…...yeah, it’s late at night, and I’m done.
“Lords of Chaos” is an in-depth look at the scene that spawned these incidents. Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind have authored one of the oddest true crime stories that I have ever read. It's clearly an ambitious work, and it often suffers from trying to cover too much ground at once. It's a black metal history that turns into a true crime novel and finally morphs into a sociological treatise on Theistic Satanism and Nationalism.
It profiles a number of the prime movers in the Norwegian black metal scene, and has an amazing number of interesting photographs and illustrations that provide tremendous depth of detail into the subjects at hand. Moving quickly from a short history of the development of black metal, the authors begin to delve into the tragic events surrounding the band Mayhem. Mayhem's leader Oystein Aarseth (stage name Euronymous) and his cohorts set out to form the most sinister band imaginable, setting a cartoonish Satanic image up against a furious wall of metallic sound. Mayhem would provide the blueprint for a generation of followers, not only in sound but in background philosophy. Mayhem intended to live out their Satanic image to the hilt, proving to all that they were no mere posers. This desire for authenticity would eventually lead to a crime wave that still reverberates today, as grave desecrations and church arsons eventually led to murders and a rise of Nationalistic imagery not seen since the heyday of the Nazis.
The authors have great source material and were lucky enough to get firsthand interviews with a number of the primary subjects in the book. The writing moves along at a good pace, as the reader is taken on a whirlwind tour of the black metal scene.
My main gripe with the book was the substandard level of editing. There were numerous misspellings and printing errors throughout the book. Also, as I stated earlier, I thought that the authors really lost track of where they were going with the book. It's a crime book with a lot of music history and cultural observation......or maybe it's a music history intertwined with a true crime novel.....or perhaps it's a sociological deconstruction based on a true crime story with black metal for its background source. I don't know......it's confusing, but it somehow all works out in the end.
Truth is certainly stranger than fiction. There is no way that a writer could make up this cast of characters or the storyline that accompanies them. It's a truly amazing ride into a netherworld of Satanism and extreme music, where violence and aggression are rewarded and civilized society is reviled.
CODA: This is yet another one of my older reviews that I dusted off after taking another look at the source material. Interestingly enough, I’m now on my third copy of this book, having lent the previous two out and having them not return home. I guess that means it’s a keeper. I don’t think that I was putting much effort into my reviews at the time I originally wrote this. I was prone to making assumptions about my audience and didn’t think exposition was necessary. Hopefully I have matured as a reviewer since then.
“Black metal” is a somewhat amorphous term for a musical genre. It typically refers to a style of heavy metal that relies on dark, Satanic imagery and a codified reliance on “evil” as a state of mind. The music itself is often underproduced and low-fi, mostly by design as this is thought to give the recordings a more raw or authentic feel. The vocals are growled rather than sung, the lyrical content ranging from sadomasochism to cartoon Satanism. It’s a genre of metal that is ripe for parody, and at this point in history it has become monolithic to the point of being absurd.
I left out quite a bit of vital information in the original review. Oystein Aarseth was killed by one of his bandmates, a man named Varg Vikernes who also used the stage name Count Grishnackh. Vikernes admitted to the murder and served his time in the Norwegian correctional system. He has since been released, and continues to make music with his original band, Burzum. Vikernes has also become a prominent figure in Norwegian Nationalism, a far-right ideology with ties to white-supremacist and Nazi movements across Europe. This is part of an unfortunate trend of Nationalists and white supremacists making inroads into Pagan and Satanic organizations over the past decade, especially in traditions like the Asatru, who celebrate a Norse heritage.
“Lords of Chaos” has aged reasonably well, considering the fact that most of the bands mentioned are now defunct or doing nostalgia tours. Black metal is still very much a niche phenomenon, though a couple of the bands have managed to gain some sort of mainstream success. The best reference to recommend to you if you REALLY desire an exhaustive examination of black metal would be the massive Jon Kristiansen-authored “Slayer Diaries,” a 700-page reprinting of the complete run of his amateur underground fanzine with added biographical and background information included. Kristiansen was there on the ground in Norway as the black metal scene developed around him, and he was a fan and a participant in the movement and music. He knew most of the bands personally, and his insight lends him a high level of credibility that no other writer on the subject really has.
I almost rewrote this entire review from scratch, but decided on just adding the coda to it and leaving it at that. It’s a fun, interesting, and slightly disturbing book that you should definitely add to your shelf if you have any interest in the subject matter at all. It’s even a bit prescient when it describes the (then) nascent Nationalist movements that would eventually gain steam and give rise to ideologies such as Trumpism…...wait…..was Trump ever a fan of black metal? Did he and Varg share the same taste in reading material like “Mein Kampf?” Did “The Donald” ever put on corpse paint and play air guitar in front of his penthouse mirror??? Much to think about here…..much to think about…...yeah, it’s late at night, and I’m done.
September 13, 2009
Here's the deal. I am a bleeding heart liberal, and completely politically opposed to everything these musicians, authors and even Feral House stand for. I can't help but find it interesting, though. I went through an anti-Christian phase when I was about 14, although for different reasons (feminist). I grew out of it, realizing there are PLENTY of awesome people with beliefs similar to mine and I can largely ignore the exclusive conservative sects, or oppose them in the proper political channels. However, some people just stay in a state of arrested development, and end up sounding ridiculous at age 40. If they really want to go back to an anarchic world ruled by might where they are free to rape and pillage, Somalia and Sudan are a plane ride away. Of course, whose to say that they would end up on top?
December 30, 2010
I read Lords Of Chaos when it was first published. Thanks to my friend, Lydia, being employed at a bookstore on Sundays, I received a copy of this new, updated edition. Hot dog! Black metal, murder and mayhem.
The story of Norwegian black metal is, perhaps necessarily, wrapped up in Satanism and pagan beliefs. Not to mention, of course, teenage angst, alienation and rebellion. From the genesis of bands like Venom, Slayer and Celtic Frost, a sound developed. More than a sound, though, there was almost a belief system, part and parcel of the overall package. So many teenagers go through a stage of being as "evil" as possible, stemming from feelings of rebellion. These kids took it quite a but further.
Lords Of Chaos revolves mainly around the rebellion of one Norwegian teen, Varg Vikernes, but encompasses the follies and foibles of a number of youths, some who took their own lives, some who took others', some who burned churches and robbed graves. It's incredibly fascinating, or it was to me, even though the actions and beliefs, not to mention the revisionist history of Varg Vikernes, Hendrik Mobus and the rest seem incredibly misguided and pitiful. The authors do a methodically complete job of analyzing the phenomenon of black metal and its inherent parts, interviewing psychologists, theologists, law enforcement and various involved persons. Their research is painstaking, almost to the point of overkill. There were definitely times, while reading Lords Of Chaos, that it felt like a bit of overkill.
The stories of the "protagonists" themselves, if such a term is fair to use, kept reminding me of incidents like Columbine. You have intelligent, well educated teens, angry and alienated, who create a fantasy world of sorts and lash out with violence at their peers and surroundings. It's an old story yet it never fails to shock and dismay.
Well worth reading if your interests stray in the direction of extreme metal, Satanism, paganism, youth culture, teen crime, etc. There's a little something for anyone with a yen for darker subject matter. It's been said before but Lords Of Chaos is certainly the definitive volume on black metal and the people who created it, as well as what might be called the fall from grace of its early adherents. Interesting and well done.
The story of Norwegian black metal is, perhaps necessarily, wrapped up in Satanism and pagan beliefs. Not to mention, of course, teenage angst, alienation and rebellion. From the genesis of bands like Venom, Slayer and Celtic Frost, a sound developed. More than a sound, though, there was almost a belief system, part and parcel of the overall package. So many teenagers go through a stage of being as "evil" as possible, stemming from feelings of rebellion. These kids took it quite a but further.
Lords Of Chaos revolves mainly around the rebellion of one Norwegian teen, Varg Vikernes, but encompasses the follies and foibles of a number of youths, some who took their own lives, some who took others', some who burned churches and robbed graves. It's incredibly fascinating, or it was to me, even though the actions and beliefs, not to mention the revisionist history of Varg Vikernes, Hendrik Mobus and the rest seem incredibly misguided and pitiful. The authors do a methodically complete job of analyzing the phenomenon of black metal and its inherent parts, interviewing psychologists, theologists, law enforcement and various involved persons. Their research is painstaking, almost to the point of overkill. There were definitely times, while reading Lords Of Chaos, that it felt like a bit of overkill.
The stories of the "protagonists" themselves, if such a term is fair to use, kept reminding me of incidents like Columbine. You have intelligent, well educated teens, angry and alienated, who create a fantasy world of sorts and lash out with violence at their peers and surroundings. It's an old story yet it never fails to shock and dismay.
Well worth reading if your interests stray in the direction of extreme metal, Satanism, paganism, youth culture, teen crime, etc. There's a little something for anyone with a yen for darker subject matter. It's been said before but Lords Of Chaos is certainly the definitive volume on black metal and the people who created it, as well as what might be called the fall from grace of its early adherents. Interesting and well done.
October 18, 2021
"It’s better to identify with evil than not to identify with anything at all. Black Metal is something strong that gives you respect and a sense of belonging."
My husband and I listen to a lot of black metal. Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Emperor, and the list goes on. My favorite being Darkthrone.
The murder of Euronymous happened before I even knew what black metal was but I was intrigued about it when I got older. There were a lot of theories surrounding the case and I was glad that there was a book that covered that and so much more.
Going into this I thought we were going to get an inside look at the metal scene, how it started, came to be, and how it lead to murders and church burnings. I believed we were going to be shown actual proof of things that happened but it seemed to be a lot of half-assed he said/she said. What friends of Varg and Euronymous thought and them pointing fingers.
What I enjoyed about this book were the interviews with members of the black metal scene who were close with those two, band members, and even Vargs mom. I liked their look at things from their sides. I also liked the in-depth look at the life and very bizarre death of Dead.
What I hated was the weak links from thing to thing without any actual proof. There were a lot of assumptions and we all know what they say when people assume things. I mean, just because I watch horror films, doesn’t mean that I'm going to slaughter random people. That is exactly what the authors of this book make the black metal scene feel like. They seemed to be grasping at straws to make these people seem like evil on earth.
Lords of Chaos was an okay read but take what they say with a grain of salt. It says a lot about this book and movie with the same title when the bands mentioned within wouldn’t allow them to use their music for the movie. I suggest watching a documentary called Until the Light Takes Us and looking up videos from Varg. You’ll get a better insight into these events.
My husband and I listen to a lot of black metal. Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Emperor, and the list goes on. My favorite being Darkthrone.
The murder of Euronymous happened before I even knew what black metal was but I was intrigued about it when I got older. There were a lot of theories surrounding the case and I was glad that there was a book that covered that and so much more.
Going into this I thought we were going to get an inside look at the metal scene, how it started, came to be, and how it lead to murders and church burnings. I believed we were going to be shown actual proof of things that happened but it seemed to be a lot of half-assed he said/she said. What friends of Varg and Euronymous thought and them pointing fingers.
What I enjoyed about this book were the interviews with members of the black metal scene who were close with those two, band members, and even Vargs mom. I liked their look at things from their sides. I also liked the in-depth look at the life and very bizarre death of Dead.
What I hated was the weak links from thing to thing without any actual proof. There were a lot of assumptions and we all know what they say when people assume things. I mean, just because I watch horror films, doesn’t mean that I'm going to slaughter random people. That is exactly what the authors of this book make the black metal scene feel like. They seemed to be grasping at straws to make these people seem like evil on earth.
Lords of Chaos was an okay read but take what they say with a grain of salt. It says a lot about this book and movie with the same title when the bands mentioned within wouldn’t allow them to use their music for the movie. I suggest watching a documentary called Until the Light Takes Us and looking up videos from Varg. You’ll get a better insight into these events.
May 23, 2023
La primera mitad del libro es un magnífico true crime. Un exhausto relato sobre los personajes principales de "la movida" noruega de los ochenta y noventa donde se comienza a cultivar el black metal y, por ende, sus creencias políticas, religiosas y musicales. El asesinato de Euronymous a cargo de Varg Vikernes culmina una primera parte de libro lleno de personajes extremistas rodeados de una sociedad que no entendía (y, posiblemente, siga sin entender) nada de lo que estaba pasando.
Una vez pasado el ecuador el libro decae enormemente hasta hacerse algo pesado. Excepto por las ultimas cincuenta paginas donde el relato revisa lo que sucedía en aquellos momentos en otros países del mundo, principalmente europeos, y presenta ciertas relaciones políticas del black metal con la derecha radical. Sin embargo, el resto son reflexiones de personajes de diversos orígenes y estratos sociales que nada aportan a la historia contada inicialmente y simplemente dan vueltas y más vueltas a los mismos hechos.
Cinco estrellas para la primera mitad. Dos, con suerte, para la segunda.
Una vez pasado el ecuador el libro decae enormemente hasta hacerse algo pesado. Excepto por las ultimas cincuenta paginas donde el relato revisa lo que sucedía en aquellos momentos en otros países del mundo, principalmente europeos, y presenta ciertas relaciones políticas del black metal con la derecha radical. Sin embargo, el resto son reflexiones de personajes de diversos orígenes y estratos sociales que nada aportan a la historia contada inicialmente y simplemente dan vueltas y más vueltas a los mismos hechos.
Cinco estrellas para la primera mitad. Dos, con suerte, para la segunda.
July 29, 2019
When you think about it, it's not that good.
October 10, 2019
Like a lot of people in their youth, I was into a lot of silly stuff. As degenerate as the fake friends who exposed me to such, metal music in all it’s forms strongly permeated my dark teenage years with a strong dose of, now retroactive cringe.While I happily dropped this puerile slop after high school, this music, especially in it’s black form, evidently has had far more more reaching impact to others who stayed on the crazy train from its inception.
In fact, it was during this second wave, post Bathory and Venom era, that Black Metal truly evolved into the ferocious form it is now. And this was the form I was most interested in reading about. Despite its exceptional accolades, still being received, some two decades down the road, its very title, Lords of Chaos best describes its lack of internal organization more than anything.
Falling short of expectations, a vast sprawling mess of innumerable interviews and a hefty overuse of images, horribly detract from any semblance of cohesion. What starts in something of a chronological fashion, swiftly devolves into a bevy of slipshod chapters that shriek and wail their way all across the milieu of Black Metal during its inception and well after. Drifting far into directions that dilute its scope, Lords of Chaos banks on its appeal to shock readers with its innumerable depictions of horrific crimes inspired by this most recent innovation in the realm of extreme metal, than a properly bodied non-fiction work would lead us to expect.
When its not merely content to shock and awe us with its truly blood-curling depictions of hair-raising mutilations, murders, and church burnings, the books ruminates this way and that from meditations on the connection between Satanism and Heathenism, all the way to UFOS. No matter how tangentially tied to such, way to much time was spent on such details that took us readers out from the intended scope of such. These sins find themselves unfortunately aggrandized alongside a cruddy organizational structure, that is excessive in its usage of interviews, and could have strongly befitted from a strong pruning by a seasoned editor.
Overbearing in all the wrong areas, a lack of pre-planned road from A to B, beginning to end, leaves us with a most unsatisfying ending.
In fact, it was during this second wave, post Bathory and Venom era, that Black Metal truly evolved into the ferocious form it is now. And this was the form I was most interested in reading about. Despite its exceptional accolades, still being received, some two decades down the road, its very title, Lords of Chaos best describes its lack of internal organization more than anything.
Falling short of expectations, a vast sprawling mess of innumerable interviews and a hefty overuse of images, horribly detract from any semblance of cohesion. What starts in something of a chronological fashion, swiftly devolves into a bevy of slipshod chapters that shriek and wail their way all across the milieu of Black Metal during its inception and well after. Drifting far into directions that dilute its scope, Lords of Chaos banks on its appeal to shock readers with its innumerable depictions of horrific crimes inspired by this most recent innovation in the realm of extreme metal, than a properly bodied non-fiction work would lead us to expect.
When its not merely content to shock and awe us with its truly blood-curling depictions of hair-raising mutilations, murders, and church burnings, the books ruminates this way and that from meditations on the connection between Satanism and Heathenism, all the way to UFOS. No matter how tangentially tied to such, way to much time was spent on such details that took us readers out from the intended scope of such. These sins find themselves unfortunately aggrandized alongside a cruddy organizational structure, that is excessive in its usage of interviews, and could have strongly befitted from a strong pruning by a seasoned editor.
Overbearing in all the wrong areas, a lack of pre-planned road from A to B, beginning to end, leaves us with a most unsatisfying ending.
March 12, 2015
The world of metal – even black metal – isn’t foreign to me. It doesn’t conjure up frightening images of animal sacrifice or Satanic black mass, nor does it undermine my worldview and reality. By my own admission, then, I was bound to be disappointed by this book: I don’t see black metal as the nefarious, shadowy enemy of goodness and light, and therefore Lords of Chaos is (in my case) a book to be scrutinized with a jaundiced, even jaded, eye.
As a composition, it's unevenly constructed: the first and final thirds of the book are well-executed, but the central portions are meandering, unfocused, and disorganized. It is a volume in desperate need of an editor. There’s little analysis of the subculture: only superficial commentary on appearance or rudimentary linking of actions to purported ideologies. The melodramatic typifying of the individuals and bands in the black metal scene is intellectually lazy and unambitious: like a sideshow barker encouraging people to step up and embrace their revulsion, the author – Michael Moynihan – (disingenuously) portrays black metal as a serious subversive threat to the nicely-ordered Christian world.
Moynihan isn’t a particularly skillful writer, nor does he present a well-reasoned account of the history and sociology of black metal. It’s difficult to understand his ‘end game,’ and this isn’t a compliment to supposed impartiality or journalistic integrity: rather, it’s a demonstration of his failure to create a readable, engaging book on a compelling subject. He uses the same emotional rhetoric and scare tactics employed by metal critics (Satanism! Devil worship! Evil! Violence!) to drum up the shock value of the black metal subculture. Moynihan fails to offer meaningful criticism on any element of the scene, which speaks more to his lack of critical thinking and insight than anything else.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a disproportionate amount of time and energy is devoted to Varg Vikernes, the infamous ‘Burzum,’ and his ideological grandstanding. Vikernes emerged as the media’s poster child of the subculture, burning churches and committing murder, before issuing racialist and political screeds from prison. He exemplifies the fringe, and is all too happy to indulge interviewers’ curiosities. In a bizarre lack of editorial organization, Vikernes is used as a jumping-off point to a byzantine (and lengthy!) exploration of Nazi UFOs, Norwegian collaboration with the NSDAP, and other unrelated subjects.
The book is a slapdash of interviews and commentary that, together, create a portrait of the black metal scene emerging in the early 1990s. Norway occupies the forefront of the scene, with small segues into Finnish, American, German, and Eastern European black metal. The interviews contained in the book vary in length and relationship to the subject matter. Moynihan is neither discerning nor insightful with his questions, instead often leading the interviewee towards various conclusions. There’s an over-emphasis on the political elements of black metal, with a lot of authorial winks and nods about the proto-fascism and neo-Nazi beliefs.
February 7, 2017
Empecé a escuchar música agresiva desde muy pequeño. Hablando de Metal y derivados, a estas alturas de mi vida he escuchado un poco de todo y tengo muy en claro cuales son mis géneros favoritos y cuales prefiero dejar de lado. En el caso del Black Metal, mi primera exposición hacía él fué también muy joven. No alcanzaba a entender que estabapa pasando, sin embargo, me gustaba mucho ese caos que casi se palpaba entre su infernal cacofonía. Conforme me fuí adentrando en el género, sin embargo, mi fascinación fue quedando un poco de lado. A pesar de que me gustaba su propuesta, lo cierto es que algunos mensajes en las canciones me empezaban a parecer un poco infantiles, por no decir ridículos en algunos casos. Claro que hay excepciones, hasta la fecha no me puedo resistir a un disco de Emperor o de Ulver, por ejemplo, sin embargo, en términos generales, creo que se trata de uno de los géneros que menos despiertan mi interés últimamente.
Un factor (no debo decir que no) del porque mi desapego al género, es, como ya mencioné, el mensaje que algunos músicos propagan en sus canciones. No digo que una canción no deba de ser un vehículo ideológico, sin embargo, de que se de la posibilidad y de que la ideología mostrada sea algo que valga la pena, hay mucho trecho. Pienso que en el caso del Black Metal hubo un afán de demostrar más de lo que en esencia se podía mostrar. Quienes pretendieron vivir con la imagen que se habían creado de si mismos sólo lograron cosas lamentables, como bien se muestra en éste libro, muy centrado en la figura de Varg Vikernes, líder de Burzum y una de las figuras claves para entender tanto las posibilidades de lo mejor que podía ofrecer el estilo, como de lo más lamentable del mismo.
El libro en si, ofrece un panorama bastante interesante del surgimiento del género. Contiene algunos datos muy interesantes y tiene entrevistas con muchas de las figuras claves de entonces. Como fuente de información, es infaltable entre los aficionados al género. Sin embargo, como ya dije, también tiene una ejemplificación de lo peor que el género dio. Entre esos afanes de protagonismo estúpido, así como complejos de mesianismo, creo que nos va dando un panorama bastante correcto del auge del que probablemente haya sido el género más difícil de digerir del Metal. Como documento histórico es indispensable. Como vehículo ideológico (algo que nunca pretendió el autor, pero que bien puede ser malinterpretado), es lamentable.
Un factor (no debo decir que no) del porque mi desapego al género, es, como ya mencioné, el mensaje que algunos músicos propagan en sus canciones. No digo que una canción no deba de ser un vehículo ideológico, sin embargo, de que se de la posibilidad y de que la ideología mostrada sea algo que valga la pena, hay mucho trecho. Pienso que en el caso del Black Metal hubo un afán de demostrar más de lo que en esencia se podía mostrar. Quienes pretendieron vivir con la imagen que se habían creado de si mismos sólo lograron cosas lamentables, como bien se muestra en éste libro, muy centrado en la figura de Varg Vikernes, líder de Burzum y una de las figuras claves para entender tanto las posibilidades de lo mejor que podía ofrecer el estilo, como de lo más lamentable del mismo.
El libro en si, ofrece un panorama bastante interesante del surgimiento del género. Contiene algunos datos muy interesantes y tiene entrevistas con muchas de las figuras claves de entonces. Como fuente de información, es infaltable entre los aficionados al género. Sin embargo, como ya dije, también tiene una ejemplificación de lo peor que el género dio. Entre esos afanes de protagonismo estúpido, así como complejos de mesianismo, creo que nos va dando un panorama bastante correcto del auge del que probablemente haya sido el género más difícil de digerir del Metal. Como documento histórico es indispensable. Como vehículo ideológico (algo que nunca pretendió el autor, pero que bien puede ser malinterpretado), es lamentable.
Read
July 24, 2016You'll might wanna read up on the rather unpleasant origins of what is today Norway's number one cultural export.
Meanwhile, for your documentary pleasure ::
The black metal portion of "A Headbanger's Journey" (in three video=parts) ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vJhG...
"True Norwegian Black Metal" ::
see gaahl's paintings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iX5l...
"Fenriz's Black Metal University" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-5ur...
The legendary Mayhem playing "Freezing Moon" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84gW_...
The mighty Dimmu Borgir and orchestra performing "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEVT0...
Emperor still sends all kinds of crazy shivers up the old spine ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHuugE...
Immortal's fantastic "All Shall Fall" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOebk...
Or just take in the whole show, "The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUB2Mk...
Enslaved's "Axioma Ethica Odini" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddes3p...
Don't miss VeganBlackMetalChef ::
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeganBlac...
Black Metal Babysitting ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHMU0...
Have a Hyperborean day!
Meanwhile, for your documentary pleasure ::
The black metal portion of "A Headbanger's Journey" (in three video=parts) ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vJhG...
"True Norwegian Black Metal" ::
see gaahl's paintings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32iX5l...
"Fenriz's Black Metal University" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-5ur...
The legendary Mayhem playing "Freezing Moon" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84gW_...
The mighty Dimmu Borgir and orchestra performing "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEVT0...
Emperor still sends all kinds of crazy shivers up the old spine ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHuugE...
Immortal's fantastic "All Shall Fall" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOebk...
Or just take in the whole show, "The Seventh Date of Blashyrkh" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUB2Mk...
Enslaved's "Axioma Ethica Odini" ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddes3p...
Don't miss VeganBlackMetalChef ::
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeganBlac...
Black Metal Babysitting ::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHMU0...
Have a Hyperborean day!
February 26, 2008
This might as well be called "Everything you wanted to know about Satanism in music but were afraid to ask." It's ridiculously comprehensive, and I would recommend that you skim some sections (unless you're fascinated about the late 1990s state of death metal worldwide, detailed on a country by country basis). After a while, you stop noticing that the authors have chosen to capitalize many words that you wouldn't necessarily think deserve it - Rock Music, Rapper, Punk, etc.
An excellent resource for learning about the 1990s Norwegian Death/Black Metal scenes - should you be looking for that - it includes interviews with Varg Vikernes (stabbed to death Euronymous, a founder of the scene and of the seminal band Mayhem) and others.
Now I'm just waiting for someone to ask me about the history of Satanism in rock music so I can go on at length about the influences of Bathory and Venom and the differences between Death Metal and Black Metal and how Norse gods fit into the whole scene. C'mon, you know you want to ask...
An excellent resource for learning about the 1990s Norwegian Death/Black Metal scenes - should you be looking for that - it includes interviews with Varg Vikernes (stabbed to death Euronymous, a founder of the scene and of the seminal band Mayhem) and others.
Now I'm just waiting for someone to ask me about the history of Satanism in rock music so I can go on at length about the influences of Bathory and Venom and the differences between Death Metal and Black Metal and how Norse gods fit into the whole scene. C'mon, you know you want to ask...
March 17, 2020
Morbidly interesting, and a good true crime novel for the first 150 or so pages before it devolves into a 200 page breakdown of fascist/nationalist movements in Eastern Europe. A lot of time is devoted to letting the murderers and fascists explain themselves, but they all come off looking like dumb little rich teens who have no idea what they are talking about, even though the author is set on stating that they are above-average intelligence over and over again. Varg Vikernes believes in ancient aliens and tried to get his mom to break him out of jail, what a fucking loser lol. Just listen to Cascadian Black Metal, it all sounds the same and it lacks the baggage of being made by murderous nazis.
June 22, 2007
one of my favorite nonfiction books of all time, lords of chaos is a detailed and fascinating look at the black metal culture in northern europe in the 1990s; specifically, of the scene that arose in oslo at the time, which ultimately culminated in the burnings of multiple historic churches, as well as a murder spree within the scene and multiple charles-mansonesque arrests (and resulting tabloid coverage). uncompromisingly told from the standpoint of a fan who's also an educated journalist, it's a balanced and unusually insider look at a phenomenon that's difficult to understand from any angle. highly, highly recommended.
February 18, 2024
Mmm... Where to begin... I can't sleep, and I'm thinking 'bout this book...
It's a book about Mayhem, Burzum, Varg Vikerness, the death of Death, Euronymous and others. Teenagers burning churches in Norway. The rise of satanism in the eighties and nineties in the Scandinavian subcultures. But it's mainly about the 'leaders' of the black metal scene: Vikerness and Euronymous.
I've read Vickerness' blog when he was in prison and seen some of his videos on YouTube. I've also read his MYFAROG. It's very interesting to read what happened in the nineties from another perspective. It's also interesting to read those old interviews... Who is right? What is wrong? What happened actually? He claims he is not a neo-Nazi, while the book claims he was leader of a nationwide neo-Nazi group in Scandinavia. With many folders, pictures and stuff of neo-Nazi Burzum propaganda.
It also features interviews with people who claim they are real satanists. Claiming they are Christians, but worship Satan. Others claim they are inspired by satanism in their thinking and everyday way of life but don't consider it as something religious. It's some sort of extreme liberalism, Individualist anarchism - liberalistic anarchism. A way to evolve as a person, and get the most out of your talents. It also features an interview with Lavey... Who isn't interested in music at all but is the writer of the Satanic Bible. A sort of satanic cult. A book that features satanic rituals, but also explains an individualistic / liberalism / anarchistic way of life.
It's very fascinating. It's also disgusting: there are pictures of Death, the original vocalist of Mayhem, shot through the head with a riffle. Murders and witnesses who tell in detail how people were killed. It's mainly thought-provoking. Everybody who listens to Black Metal should read this book, so they can really think through how the whole genre was created and realize to what they are contributing if they buy the music.
Black metal is a very difficult music genre, first for many people it's a cacophony of sounds, but if you listen closely it has influences of ambient, neo-folklorism and, of course, it is the child of punk and heavy metal. The ideas behind the lyrics... *sigh* ... Some bands just sing stupid pagan, gothic or satanic songs, which are mostly written by mainstream party bands like Amon Amarth, Finntroll, Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth, even the big 1st wave bands like Venom, Bathory, are guilty of this.
But the idea behind Some 2nd wave nineties Black metal, and especially Burzum, is some sort of desperate melancholic feeling to transform our society into a pre-christian one. An utopian simpler way of life, in harmony with nature, away from capitalism, oppression and politics. Some sort of escapism. With lyrics who are mainly about history, melancholic even depressive feelings or just descriptions of memories of an ancestor walking in a natural scene long-lost by our 'civilization'. For example, 'Burzum': the word is dark speech (from Lord of the Rings) for darkness. The music is the darkness it spreads in our too light world. Since Christianity stands for the god of light. Since the gothic, renaissance and baroque times our Christian cathedrals are a house of light. Other bands just provoke with Satanist ritualistic songs like it's some kind of horror: they try to be as extreme as possible. But the musicians of both kind of black metal bands burned churches. Was it just to get attention? Wanted they to make a statement? Others say it was for the aesthetic of a church burning in the night.
Neo-Nazis groups and skinheads use these pagan and satanic symbols to recognize each other, and they misuse history to spread their ideology with 19th century romantic flavor. Even Nazi-party members in the thirties used satanic - hedonistic symbols. So it's not something the neo-Nazis groups invented.
Which one is Varg Vikerness? I don't know... What is it? Odalism? Thuleism? What even is Thuleism? Neo-völkisch satanism? I thought the music in all its chaos was simplistic and comforting. Maybe Burzum was never part of it? The lyrics are very interpretive, so you can't really know.
This is a dangerous book. The writers give all those extreme thoughts an audience. It disgusted me of myself for listening to music which is written by these people. It clearly sheds this kind of music in another light or darkness. Likewise, it made me realize how thin the line is between ideologies and how logical it all can be if you follow the thought processes behind it.
Here a recent video which is somehow related to this confusing review
It's a book about Mayhem, Burzum, Varg Vikerness, the death of Death, Euronymous and others. Teenagers burning churches in Norway. The rise of satanism in the eighties and nineties in the Scandinavian subcultures. But it's mainly about the 'leaders' of the black metal scene: Vikerness and Euronymous.
I've read Vickerness' blog when he was in prison and seen some of his videos on YouTube. I've also read his MYFAROG. It's very interesting to read what happened in the nineties from another perspective. It's also interesting to read those old interviews... Who is right? What is wrong? What happened actually? He claims he is not a neo-Nazi, while the book claims he was leader of a nationwide neo-Nazi group in Scandinavia. With many folders, pictures and stuff of neo-Nazi Burzum propaganda.
It also features interviews with people who claim they are real satanists. Claiming they are Christians, but worship Satan. Others claim they are inspired by satanism in their thinking and everyday way of life but don't consider it as something religious. It's some sort of extreme liberalism, Individualist anarchism - liberalistic anarchism. A way to evolve as a person, and get the most out of your talents. It also features an interview with Lavey... Who isn't interested in music at all but is the writer of the Satanic Bible. A sort of satanic cult. A book that features satanic rituals, but also explains an individualistic / liberalism / anarchistic way of life.
It's very fascinating. It's also disgusting: there are pictures of Death, the original vocalist of Mayhem, shot through the head with a riffle. Murders and witnesses who tell in detail how people were killed. It's mainly thought-provoking. Everybody who listens to Black Metal should read this book, so they can really think through how the whole genre was created and realize to what they are contributing if they buy the music.
Black metal is a very difficult music genre, first for many people it's a cacophony of sounds, but if you listen closely it has influences of ambient, neo-folklorism and, of course, it is the child of punk and heavy metal. The ideas behind the lyrics... *sigh* ... Some bands just sing stupid pagan, gothic or satanic songs, which are mostly written by mainstream party bands like Amon Amarth, Finntroll, Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth, even the big 1st wave bands like Venom, Bathory, are guilty of this.
But the idea behind Some 2nd wave nineties Black metal, and especially Burzum, is some sort of desperate melancholic feeling to transform our society into a pre-christian one. An utopian simpler way of life, in harmony with nature, away from capitalism, oppression and politics. Some sort of escapism. With lyrics who are mainly about history, melancholic even depressive feelings or just descriptions of memories of an ancestor walking in a natural scene long-lost by our 'civilization'. For example, 'Burzum': the word is dark speech (from Lord of the Rings) for darkness. The music is the darkness it spreads in our too light world. Since Christianity stands for the god of light. Since the gothic, renaissance and baroque times our Christian cathedrals are a house of light. Other bands just provoke with Satanist ritualistic songs like it's some kind of horror: they try to be as extreme as possible. But the musicians of both kind of black metal bands burned churches. Was it just to get attention? Wanted they to make a statement? Others say it was for the aesthetic of a church burning in the night.
Neo-Nazis groups and skinheads use these pagan and satanic symbols to recognize each other, and they misuse history to spread their ideology with 19th century romantic flavor. Even Nazi-party members in the thirties used satanic - hedonistic symbols. So it's not something the neo-Nazis groups invented.
Which one is Varg Vikerness? I don't know... What is it? Odalism? Thuleism? What even is Thuleism? Neo-völkisch satanism? I thought the music in all its chaos was simplistic and comforting. Maybe Burzum was never part of it? The lyrics are very interpretive, so you can't really know.
This is a dangerous book. The writers give all those extreme thoughts an audience. It disgusted me of myself for listening to music which is written by these people. It clearly sheds this kind of music in another light or darkness. Likewise, it made me realize how thin the line is between ideologies and how logical it all can be if you follow the thought processes behind it.
Here a recent video which is somehow related to this confusing review
June 19, 2025
Per gli appassionati del genere è un approfondimento dettagliato sulle origini e sulle sfaccettature di questo fenomeno. Ti fa anche capire come va apprezzata la composizione musicale mantenendo le distanze dalle ideologie di alcuni interpreti. Dal mio punto di vista il Black Metal va vissuto come un turista: si apprezza l'arte senza farsene coinvolgere.
April 5, 2013
Un trabajo periodístico exhaustivo sobre el origen y el desarrollo del black metal. Una de las grandes ventajas del libro es que puede ser leído por cualquier persona, aún desconociendo el género, y seguramente podrá encontrarlo interesante.
He leído algunas críticas (particularmente de los músicos entrevistados o referenciados en el libro) sobre su tono sensacionalista. Personalmente, pienso que no hay tal. Es muy posible que actualmente muchos de ellos se arrepientan de algunas estupideces que cometieron en su juventud, pero los hechos criminales relatados en el libro (los asesinatos, la quema de iglesias, etc.) existen, fueron probados y juzgados y no hay mucho que puedan hacer al respecto de ello. Si parece que tiene un tono sensacionalista en ocasiones es dado precisamente por la naturaleza de esos crímenes y el simbolismo que conllevan.
En todo caso, se le puede reprochar en una medida mínima a los autores por no guardar la objetividad suficiente, en aras (supongo) de remarcar las ideologías polémicas que forman parte de muchos en el movimiento de black metal noruego. Sin embargo, creo que es un trabajo fundamental para entender por qué un género musical tan "extremo" surgió en los tranquilos y civilizados países nórdicos, y las razones por las que tantos de de sus miembros sostienen ideologías de extrema derecha radical, como Varg Vikernes, la figura central de libro.
"An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom" es una cita de Baudelaire que aparece al inicio de uno de los capítulos del libro y que creo que sintetiza perfectamente el origen y desarrollo de esta música.
He leído algunas críticas (particularmente de los músicos entrevistados o referenciados en el libro) sobre su tono sensacionalista. Personalmente, pienso que no hay tal. Es muy posible que actualmente muchos de ellos se arrepientan de algunas estupideces que cometieron en su juventud, pero los hechos criminales relatados en el libro (los asesinatos, la quema de iglesias, etc.) existen, fueron probados y juzgados y no hay mucho que puedan hacer al respecto de ello. Si parece que tiene un tono sensacionalista en ocasiones es dado precisamente por la naturaleza de esos crímenes y el simbolismo que conllevan.
En todo caso, se le puede reprochar en una medida mínima a los autores por no guardar la objetividad suficiente, en aras (supongo) de remarcar las ideologías polémicas que forman parte de muchos en el movimiento de black metal noruego. Sin embargo, creo que es un trabajo fundamental para entender por qué un género musical tan "extremo" surgió en los tranquilos y civilizados países nórdicos, y las razones por las que tantos de de sus miembros sostienen ideologías de extrema derecha radical, como Varg Vikernes, la figura central de libro.
"An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom" es una cita de Baudelaire que aparece al inicio de uno de los capítulos del libro y que creo que sintetiza perfectamente el origen y desarrollo de esta música.
January 26, 2011
The start of this book was well-done. Moynihan thoroughly details the genesis of black metal, the evolution of its ideals, and the roots of those ideals in bygone history and spirituality. I found the latter point the most interesting, as things like black metal can so easily be written off by the masses. The connection of its ideals with pre-Christian pagan ideals and Jungian archetypes offered a deeper analysis than the majority of music-related books.
However, at some point "Lords Of Chaos" loses focus, drifting into discussions of events and individuals with only tangential connections to the music originally described. When he starts delving into murders in Florida, the Electric Hellfire Club (not a metal band), or the rise of far-right political parties in Russia, he dilutes the impact of the book's earlier half. I understand the desire to connect a seemingly small, isolated group of individuals with fairly arcane tastes to wider social trends, but those connections were not necessarily borne out by the book.
And then there's Moynihan's questionable political leanings, which may or may not influence the content, but that's a whole different can of worms that I have no desire to pry open.
However, at some point "Lords Of Chaos" loses focus, drifting into discussions of events and individuals with only tangential connections to the music originally described. When he starts delving into murders in Florida, the Electric Hellfire Club (not a metal band), or the rise of far-right political parties in Russia, he dilutes the impact of the book's earlier half. I understand the desire to connect a seemingly small, isolated group of individuals with fairly arcane tastes to wider social trends, but those connections were not necessarily borne out by the book.
And then there's Moynihan's questionable political leanings, which may or may not influence the content, but that's a whole different can of worms that I have no desire to pry open.
November 15, 2011
Read this when I was much younger, so was neat to go back and check it out again. I am a huge, HUGE fan of black metal, have been since I was 12. When I was a kid I loved the imagery of it- the EVIL, the satan action, anti church, everything. These days, my older, mellower self still loves the music, but cringes at the imagery now- man, what was I thinking? One thing hasn't changed- I respected them for their anti church stand. I did not at all condone the methods, and the fallout of everything, but kudos to these guys for trying to recliam their heritage. As time has shown, in many ways they have (look at the latest Enslaved CDs, or even Amon Amarth/Unleashed/the tons of vkiking folk metal bands that have popped up since those times for proof.)
August 2, 2019
Un libro que hace mucho tiempo quería leer y no decepcionó. Un completísimo reporte al llamado "metal satánico noruego" y sus personajes clave: Euronymous y Varg Vikernes. Muchísimo material como entrevistas, recortes de prensa, análisis del satanismo y posterior paganismo nórdico que sirvieron para nombrar bandas e inspirar la escena (análisis a la figura de los lobos y los berserkers). Un apartado especial a la controversia por la quema de iglesias y cómo la prensa termina inspirando toda la escena, que en principio era muy pequeña. Y cómo el seudosatanismo en verdad tenía que ver más con Tolkien que con Satanás.
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December 29, 2015This book is fucking fun. When you're, say, a 14 year old boy, the notion of forest-at-night black metal seems super-cool, and when you're a 22 year old boy, you can reflect on that through this well-compiled set of oral histories. I am rather annoyed that they chose to focus on the (albeit way more out there) history of Mayhem rather than going in depth on Emperor, Ulver, and ESPECIALLY Gorgoroth, but whatever, this shit's alright.
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