Thursday, November 11, 2010

Until the liar takes us

While the actual documentary "Until the light takes us" doesn't feature any new statements from Vikernes - he more or less just rehashes parts of what he has already published in his various articles (and said in interviews) - the 46-minute bonus interview with him is quite interesting - for the purpose of this blog, that is...

Well, as in the actual film, where you usually only hear the answers from the interviewed persons (because the questions are mostly asked off-screen) - it's handled the same way in the bonus material. In case there is a question asked on-screen, though, I included it as well.

I typed the excerpts from the interview down as accurately as possible, which means that I left recurring expressions like "you know" and the like in. Doesn't make it easier to read, I know, but I wanted to keep this as true to the original source as possible.


*****


[01:23]

"My time in Iraq meant for me, is that I know more about the Muslim culture than others. So I know that, well, like when in Algeria these rebels cut the throats of people. We of course think: oh, that's terrible - why don't they just shoot 'em? But...because of my time in Iraq I know that it's more honourable to kill face to face."


Oh...really? And by the way - it's actually possible to shoot people face to face...


*****


[08:50]

"I believed I was releasing an album on a normal label, right? This is a label, they are releasing records - good. But he (Euronymous) actually borrowed money from me to be able to release the record. And of course I should have understood at this point that this is not the right thing to do. But anyway, I was gullible enough to let him borrow the money. And when he sold out the records - and he did, quite quickly actually - in one or two months, 1000 records - which was at the time...was regarded as great, you know. We sold maybe 100 or 200 demos and thought oh cool, you know - sold 200 demos. So, 1000 records, or 500 CDs and 500 records...were regarded as good. And instead of printing new records he used this money to pay his rent. So, at this point, of course, I started to realize that, you know, this isn't going to work."


I suppose he is talking about his debut-album "Burzum" here. The way he puts it, it looks like there was one release of this album (1000 items in total) and never a reprint. But that's not true - there are actually two releases of this album in total on DSP; one in early 1992 and one in early 1993 - even with minor graphic differences.

Source (and probably any Burzum fanpage)


*****


[09:58]

"It was planned that several people should attack simultaneously, all around the country. Because, you know, they were living all around the country. You had some Heavy Metal guys there, some there and some there. So, the plan was that everybody should attack on the same day - the day of the historical day of the Viking attack on..., you know, the day when the Viking age begun - as well as the D-day, actually. And that was the point - everybody should attack at the same date. There are some discussions whether that is the correct date - some say it is 6th and some say the 8th of June - but the point is...that's not the point. So everybody was supposed to attack on the 6th of June."


Nice try...well, there actually are discussions about the correct date of the raid on Lindisfarne (= the beginning of the Viking age) - but the dispute is not about whether it was the 6th or 8th of June - but if it happened in January or June --


A.D. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery, dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter. Siga died on the eighth day before the calends of March.



The more popularly accepted date for the Viking raid on Lindisfarne is June 8; Michael Swanton, editor of Routledge's edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, writes "vi id lanr, presumably [is] an error for vi id lun (June 8) which is the date given by the Annals of Lindisfarne (p. 505), when better sailing weather would favour coastal raids."

Also, check my older article on Fantoft/Lindisfarne.


*****


[10:42]

"When the day came one single church was burned. Nobody did anything. Everybody just had a big mouth, everybody "oh that´s cool" - nobody did anything. And basically that is because these Heavy Metal guys were, and still are, a bunch of wimps who play Heavy Metal because they are not capable of doing anything else...probably...just a bunch of losers. And they didn't do anything. So, one single church were burned, in Bergen, by the way (laughs). And...I'm found not guilty of burning it, by the way...just to mention that. Everybody believed I did burn it, but I'm found not guilty. And of course - if the court says I am not guilty - I am not guilty."


Shooting yourself in the foot again?


*****


[12:59]

In '91 we didn't even think of the term Black Metal. In '92 I think it started to be used. We started to use the term just to be different from Death Metal. Just to make people show that this is not Death Metal. And in 1993, when the media coverage started to...when the media started to cover the case - everybody had always played Black Metal. And Aarseth - he forged my demotapes...and wrote "Black Metal" on them, you know. From '91. I never wrote "Black Metal" on them, but he wrote "Black Metal" on them and sold them in the shop - because he wanted it to be Black Metal.


1st: So, Vikernes - the "proud, strong Viking" - actually didn't have the guts to tell Euronymous that he doesn't want his demotapes to be sold with a cover that features the words "Black Metal"...?

2nd: I would like to see ONE interview pre-August 1993 where Vikernes objected to Burzum being labelled "Black Metal" - rather the opposite, actually (I have used this quote already for another article, but well):


"Only MAYHEM, BURZUM and DARKTHRONE play Black Metal."


(Vikernes interviewed in Charontaphos zine #1; 1993 Pages one, two - quote taken from page one)


Here is the democover in question, by the way.


*****


[scene continued]

"And...you know...so, everybody suddenly started to play Black Metal and all of these Heavy Metal bands had always played Black Metal, you know - they said, of course. Because...it was this issue of being "true Black Metal" band, you know. And it was very important to have a history."

Q: What was that issue of being true?

"I think...it was some idea of Aarseth - the fact that he was "true" because he had listened to Black Met...to this crude Black Metal music since 1984...and this was also, you know, a lie - because, if you take a look at the mini-album of Mayhem - it's a Funcore album, you know - it's not Black Metal - it's Funcore. You know, it's exactly the same type of music that Aarseth hated later on. So it's, you know...it's...but of course nobody understood that at the point, you know. And he was the "veteran"; he was all about being a "veteran", you know."


So...Deathcrush = Funcore...? wtf...


*****


[scene continued]

"And even 17-year old kids in 1993 claimed that they listened to Venom when they were kids...and of course...of course they didn't - they were like four, five years old when Venom were to be bought in the record shops, you know."


And they couldn't have bought Venom's records a few years later, when they were old enough...? It's not that Venom's records were released just once, in a couple hundred items, without any reprints thereafter.

For Venom's album "Welcome to hell" for example - there are 17 (LP and CD) versions, released from 1981 to 2003, and probably a ton of (tape) bootlegs.


*****


[30:35]

"In a radio show in '94 some journalist asked me, you know: "you regret anything?"...And I told him...yeah, sure I regret I didn't kill the other guy as well. And of course they made a big deal about it. But...you know, that was just, you know, like a way to insult him, you know, really. But seriously...I think it's silly to regret anything - because what is done is done, and in fact I believe what is done is meant to be done...and sure it's caused me a lot of troub...problems, like a lot of other things I've done in my life. But, you know, problems are a part of life...and we grow, we thrive when we face problems, you know. "Regret" is not a part of my vocabulary, really."


He really "earned" his probation, didn't he...


*****


[44:47]

Q: Does it bother you at all that you've killed someone, I mean, in a sense of being a self-defenser, whatever...but just --- ?

"No, not at all. I've killed ants when I was a kid...killed bees - sub-human, communist punk - same category."


No comment...