Varg Vikernes is a Norwegian musician. In 1991 Vikernes conceived the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal scene. In Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, director Sam Dunn described Vikernes as "the most notorious metal musician of all time".
"After creating in the course of four early albums an impressive body of art that essentially ended black metal as it was by raising the bar beyond what others could easily participate in, Vikernes was imprisoned for sixteen years for his alleged role in church arson and murder. During the time he was in prison, he put out two more impressive keyboard-based albums and several books’ worth of writings before falling silent around the turn of the millennium." (source: www.deathmetal.org)
Since then and after his release in 2009, he has authored several writings on Nordic/Germanic neopaganism and European nationalism from a primitivist and naturalist stance focused on cultural values in the community and family.
Honestly this was a very depressing book, but it gave me insight into Norwegian prisons that I didn't have before. I was very wrong about how they operated. They are not a hotel in the least. There are many instances in this book of shocking cruelty and inhumane treatment and conditions.
As for varg's experience, he pretty much spent 15 years alone in a cell. What a depressing reality. It's really a shame he made the choices that he made to put himself in such a position. A waste of two lives indeed. I always wondered why he looked like a frail 60-year-old when he got out. Now it makes sense
As with everything he writes, you know there will be lies, half-truth, things conveniently left out, and everything of course filtered through his very warped perception of reality. Some of these stories you know did not happen the way he perceived them, like the time when a prison counselor supposedly smiled like a maniac and ranted about him being ugly and stupid for an hour while he just sat there reading. The next time he saw the guy, he kicked him straight in the ass out of his cell and never saw him again. Did that really happen the way he perceived it? Probably not.
Also as usual with vikernes, unintentionally funny moments. Like when he hijacked a car- the family claims that he stopped them and said he needed the car, then when they asked him why he said "because of this" and brandished a pistol, which he claims was just a flashlight, but he doesn't deny saying the line. He was in his supervillain era, for sure.
Anyway the best takeaway anyone could get from this book probably is more insight into the Norwegian Justice system. Maybe this book can help put to rest the rumors about Norwegian prison being some kind of delight to live in
Read it cover to cover this evening; I couldn't put it down. The things he's been through and had to endure are nothing short of jaw dropping. He said it best by referring to so much of it as absurdity. Varg stayed true to himself throughout and never once broke character or tried to pretend he was anything other than who he is despite, or possibly in spite, of the broken judicial system and MSM.
Part 3 is the most interesting up to date. It gives a good inside window to the Norwegian prison system, and the mind frame of Varg doing his time. Better written than past books and still the "plug" of his RPG Myfarog is the good touch.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.