Death Row for Traitors

Translation of 1993 DSP newsletter

2011-08-14T20:03:00.003+02:00

Well, today I remembered that I actually have a translation of the old DSP newsletter (I got on my photobucket), so I decided to post it here. The translation was not made by me and sadly I don´t remember where I got it in the first place, since it was buried unnoticed on my harddrive for years.

This is the newsletter I am talking about (view page two, a list of albums/prices, here):

(click for full size)

x = left out
[xxx] = paragraph deleted
{...} = comments by translator

We have started again!

There are some people that have tried calling us without getting any contact. The phone has been shutdown while we have used the last couple of months to moving and rearranging things. We are now hoping to be able to offer a more efficient service on postal-orders, and after while we´ll see if we will be able to open a store for sale again; we are working on it. It is still uncertain what will happen, but we will give you notice when we know something.

In about a week´s time the phone will be re-opened, and it will again be possible to phone in orders. On the back of this paper you will find a list over news that have come in lately, and more is happening. Call for more information - it will be possible to call between xx:xx and xx:xx monday through saturday. Outside this time you will be able to leave a message on the machine.

[xxx]

Because of all the noise with all the journalists, we have been laying low - and we intend to continue doing that. Therefore the phone has been registered SECRET, and similar precautions will be taken concerning other matters.

Some good news concerning concerts - the 24th of August there will be arranged a "Black Metal Night" in Oslo! This will all happen at a pub called "Lusa Lotte" (!) - it lies on x left of x. The price is 40,-. The bands playing are Emperor, Marduk and Dissection. It will be a great concert, so be there! The place rooms no more than a couple of hundred, so be there early!

{As you know, this was written shortly before he died (and sent the day he died!) so at this time everything was ready with this concert. Of course, one year later - may second through fifth the infamous "Black Metal Nights", not one night, but four nights, were held. All in honor of Euronymous. Also...this was the time the trials against Count Grishnackh was held. In court during the day, Black Metal shows at night.}

On the other hand we can mention there will be a recordfall of the rare kind. Only on our label - DSP - there are seriously starting to be released great albums. These can be expected:

1. Mayhem - "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas"
2. Sigh - "Scorn Defeat"
3. Enslaved - "Vikingligr Veldi"
4. Monumentum - "In Absentia Christi"
5. Abruptum - 2nd LP
6. Tormentor - "Anno Domini"

{Tormentor and Monumentum both were released on other labels - years later.}

and for the vinylfreaks, we may have a serious surprise towards the end of the year. We are not certain that everything will work out, but wait and see. We have also signed a new band, MYSTICUM, and you really have something to look forward to. Debut LP/CD "Serpent Mysticism" will be out this winter.

We will start sending out newsletters including lists over what albums have been released since last time, with (hopefully) set intervals. Once a year there will be released a main-catalog.

As usual the prices keeps going up, and we feel obligated to raise prices as well - LP 100,- / CD 150,- / mCD 120,- / Irritating, but necessary. The postage will stay the same with a maximum of 30,- plus 15,- for packaging. Some titles are getting seriously hard to come by on LP, but we refuse to go over to ONLY CD.

That´s all for now - call for more information (journalists can fuck themselves) - TLF: xx xxxxxx

18 years

2011-08-10T16:03:00.003+02:00

" [...] I hate that period of my life. It´s disturbing to me that I didn´t mourn Euronymous properly. I didn´t go to his funeral. I think lots of people went, but I had no information about it, same as when Dead died. I felt upset that no one told me the date or anything about the upcoming ceremony, but I didn´t take any steps to find out things for myself. For sure, I wouldn´t have known what to do there. I´ve still never been to his grave. I need to have a reason or a plan. I can´t just go there. I would need to be mentally strong. I have thought seriously about going there for over ten years, but it never seems right. One day I will know I am ready, but I can´t guess when that will be. I passed where Helvete used to be in a cab around 1996 and felt spooked. In 2009, I met a friend at a cafe that opened next door to where Helvete used to be. I still felt spooked.

Now there´s a semi-official "black metal tour" in Oslo organized yearly by the Inferno Festival where they go to see Euronymous´s grave, and even visit the old cellar of Helvete. Maybe for those people, it doesn´t take anything from them to peer at his grave and take a photo of the tombstone. Those things happen because of all the interest in the media, just like people want to see Jim Morrison´s grave in Paris. I´m sure people who were close to Jim Morrison don´t like that, either. Of course, there´s nothing you can do about it - people will go to his grave. I think many people fail to comprehend that Euronymous was actually a real person, but most of the tourists are teenagers or nearly so. There were a lot of things I had a hard time grasping when I was their age, too.

I truly miss Euronymous. I miss the pre-Helvete time, our friendship prior to the early ´90s, when black metal became such a big thing. He was my closest friend for a long time, and I have many memories of our incredible times. You don´t make many friends like that in a lifetime. We were almost in complete agreement, not about everything, but we liked the same things. His murder is still the most horrible thing that ever happened to me. I understand that now, but at that time I did not."

- Metalion

Quote taken from the recently published "Slayer Mag Diaries",
page 265 - 266

Unsurprising "news"

2011-05-24T17:42:00.002+02:00

I received a comment to the article "New Burzum album "Fallen" in March" today. My comment turned out to be rather long and also I think maybe others are interested in reading my views on this (not just those who occasionally browse the comments), so I turned the original comment and my answer into an article.

Comment by "Anonymous":

"Maybe there are news again; the Cunt put some new interviews and reviews onto the official Burzum site, maybe you find something new to comment. Thanks again for your work so far.
Oh, and he now refers to “Blood and Soil” crap and “Jedem das Seine” (unpopular here in Germany due to the Nazis using that slogan) on his new album, and plans to re-record older stuff. Maybe you can find something to write about that."

My answer:

I have read the newest interviews and reviews over at Burzum.org, but well, what´s there to write about actually? He is just back to his former self and I doubt that anyone could claim with a straight face this is a surprise to them. Except for maybe the (Norwegian) mass media like Dagbladet who seem to have swallowed his "I am not a Nazi and I never was" bullshit. But apart from them, anyone surprised? I doubt that. I guess he just waited for the moment his face is not all over the mainstream press anymore to "return" to his old self. So, long story short, writing about this would turn out to be something like:

"Vikernes back to his former Nazi self, surprise..."

Not that a compelling read, I guess.

Also, I am not surprised that there is not one single word at Burzum.org until this day about his interview to the Israeli fanzine...guess he would have pissed-off a lot of his die-hard fanboys if they found out he gave an interview to Israelis. So, keeping silent about this just fits in with his opportunistic personality.

The other recent news on his homepage are, in my opinion, not interesting enough to write about. Re-recording his older stuff...guess he needs money and/or craves a little more attention. And his fanboys will happily buy anything he publishes, as usual...

Bottomline: guess I will wait until he comes up with some new lies and/or contradictions concerning Euronymous / the murder (or maybe he finally publishes the book he was talking about...) to write something new. Also, I don´t want this blog to be too "political" (since I already have an article dealing with his Nazi views (as I said above). I hate the NSBM idiots but I just as much hate the left-wing idiots and their "political correctness" whining (surprise...? Since this blog is pro-Euronymous, maybe it´s indeed a surprise to at least some that I don´t share his political views...though I doubt he was ever serious in his communist views, but that´s another story...) - so I don´t want to give the impression I want to "take a side" in the political issues. This blog started as a means to give exposure to Vikernes´ various lies, contradictions, etc. but mostly in the context of the murder and his former relationship with Euronymous. I am not very much (or rather: not at all) interested in dealing (any more than I have done so far) with the political bullshit (of either side) Vikernes is involved in.

New Burzum album "Fallen" in March

2011-01-13T15:46:00.007+01:00

...according to Plastic Head (which is his official distributor, so I am pretty sure the info is legit even though there is no info concerning the new album on his official homepage, yet.)

Well, on to a new cycle of pointless hype, generic interviews, etc... can´t wait...

By the way, Vikernes was recently interviewed for an Israeli (!!!) webzine, you can read it here:

Metalist Magazine

Interestingly, not a single word about that interview on his homepage (at least not yet while I am typing this - the interview was published about 2 weeks ago)...

Until the liar takes us

2010-11-11T22:26:00.009+01:00

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 Anglo-Saxon chronicle)

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."

(Source)

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...

Beyond the image

2010-10-31T01:56:00.002+02:00

Yes, I am still updating this blog - the only problem being that there is hardly anything at the moment I could update it with since Vikernes has remained rather silent over the last months, apart from some generic interviews here and there which are of no use for this blog.

By the way, from what I have heard Vikernes has left Norway which is a rather strange move for an outspoken nationalist like he is, isn´t it?

Anyway, until I have some new material to work with (thinking of that, what about the book he was talking about in the interview for Dagbladet? Guess I won´t need to hold my breath on it being published one day...?) I wanted to post a very short text that I have written some time ago, originally for some other purpose but since that never came to (and never will come to) happen, here it is...

*****

To give a (very rough) insight along the lines of an explanation of what might have led Euronymous to adopt the extreme image (he eventually became trapped in) in the first place - here is a quote from a very old interview (done in 1988) with him:

"What are your feelings towards religious concepts?"

"I hate religions as for they are responsible for many wars and inconceivable human suffering. I don´t understand how people can call themselves Christians after all what they have done over centuries.

The with hunt: millions of people have been burned alive; it´s one of the most painful and slow ways to die. It´s impossible for us to imagine the suffering these people endured - they were lucky if they died asphyxiated from the smoke of their own incinerated flesh. It makes me furious when I think about what all these Christian bastards have done. Now they act like if nothing of this ever happened and if you tell them about it they say, "Oh, it was a long time ago". It´s like if a Nazi was coming to tell you "Hey forget about the millions of Jews we gassed, it was a long time ago." It doesn´t surprise me that some people become Satanists to oppose Christianity - this ideology advocates you to do what is the most natural within each of us."

This is far away from the total evil-and-death-worship he came up with in later interviews. It´s of course highly speculative, but - maybe he created his image around his views on (organized) religion in general and Christianity in particular by taking the violence and disrespect towards people of other beliefs and the negation of individual freedom found in fundamentalist religious views and took it to the utmost extreme - to present some kind of "mirror" to these people - to present them a view of their own evil within.

(Translation of the quote by Sam.)

Euronymous - the myth and its roots

2010-08-09T16:46:00.010+02:00

by Rex Sacriticulus

(I realized after posting that for some weird reason blogspot messed up the posting date; this article was actually published on the 10th of August, 3.20 PM, Central European time.)

*****

As of today - 10/08/2010 - 17 years have passed since the murder of Euronymous.

Those of you who followed this blog know that it is dedicated to exposing and debunking the negative myths spread all over the web about this highly influential underground musician and ideologue. Hopefully this dedicated work has somewhat disrupted the ongoing character assassination campaign directed against the memory of Euronymous by the very man who assassinated him physically and who is still considered for some reason a reliable source about this matter by too many braindead idiots.

Today we shall try to approach the subject from a different angle and analyze the life work of Euronymous and its origins as objectively as possible. As we have seen, the man was surrounded by myths from the very beginning. The negative myths spread by Vikernes and his followers were meant to counter the positive myths (by Black Metal standard) that were common before and right after his death.

One thing remains the same: an underground Metal musician surrounded by myths - something we have not seen in the last 15 years regarding anyone in the Metal scene despite the flux of impressive albums released since then. A culture incapable of producing new myths indicates its incapability to produce or reproduce the great cultural phenomenae of its past which generated the myths in the first place.

Just think about the absence of new cosmogonical myths since the last 2500 years anywhere in the world. Newer doctrines like, for example, Christianity and Buddhism simply recycled older myths into their own philosophy. This is a clear indication that colossal natural and celestial events of the prehistoric past no longer happen in later times, and that the "myth making epoch" has come to an end as a result.

The same process is shown to happen in cultural spheres like underground Black Metal. It has since then been downgraded to just another socially acceptable form of entertainment, much like the rest of the Metal scene. It is now just another music genre like Folk and Jazz.

What was it about the second wave of Black Metal that generated such myths and reactions? What part did Euronymous play in this arena?
The proper place to start answering these questions is of course the first phase of his career in the mid 1980´s, when the first wave of Black Metal was still at its peak.

*****

Euronymous made his first move in the extreme Metal underground during its earliest heyday in the mid 1980´s through the legendary "Deathcrush" demo. It has been already reviewed by many others so we won´t go into too many details here.

Suffice to say it gained people´s respect for its primitive and brutal treatment of Bathory & Hellhammer, and as such can only be compared to very few demos of that era.
Sarcofago´s "The Black Vomit", Necrovore´s "Divus de Mortuus" and Salem´s "Destruction till Death" obviously come to mind, yet there was an "extra" dimension to Euronymous´ work already then: who else could have convinced Conrad Schnitzler - of 1970s Electro Prog band Tangerine Dream and respected film soundtrack composer - to create the infamous "Silvester Anfang" intro? Who else could have come up with such an idea as early as 1986?

(Read what Conrad Schnitzler has to say about his encounter with Euronymous here.)

This early interest in Electronic and Avantgarde music - a very unusual interest for an extreme Metal musician back then - is the key to understanding the inspirational sources that shaped the later musical works of Euronymous and his later emulators.

A wide spectrum of influences other than extreme Metal and the ability to synchronize diversified elements into a coherent structure has proven to be crucial to the creative process of the more original Metal bands, and Mayhem was one of the most original bands during its heyday of 1986 - 1993; its atmospheric achievements are unmatched to this day.

Another crucial factor was the ability to compose instinctively rather than technically. This is the essence of the second wave of Black Metal, created by musicians who formerly played technical Death Metal and were inspired by Euronymous to abandon this style in favor of minimalistic atmospheric tunes. While technically easier, it is mentally much more difficult to come up with such tunes unless the musician has very strong instincts, so the most minimalistic riffs turn out to be the most enduring ones.

To sum it up - the genious of Euronymous as a musician comes from amalgamating the raw aggression of early Black Metal with the dark ambiance of early Electronic and Avantgarde music, without falling into the trap of synth-based extreme Metal that plagues the genre since the mid 1990´s. In short, Euronymous reshaped the 1990´s underground Metal on the foundation of seemingly unrelated 1980´s separate musical movements.

Of course, this is only part of the picture, and as we said in the first part of this article, music alone does not create the mythology around the musician.

The second ingredient in the Euronymous-myth would be his effort to turn Black Metal into a lifestyle, rather than just music - something that has been completely absent since his demise.
In the third part of this article we shall see how the ideas and actions of this man shaped the second wave of Black Metal in its early stages.

*****

The classic Mayhem line-up was formed in 1988 when Dead joined the band and the whole bunch relocated to a secluded cabin in Kråkstad outside of Oslo. A relocation of a whole band to such premises has previously been done by the biggest bands at the peak of their careers - Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even Celtic Frost. It has never been done by a little known underground band as Mayhem was at the time.

Although it is unknown yet how exactly they managed to fund the whole thing - interviews from that era reveal a gloomy picture of several young men in poor living conditions, nearly starving sometimes. Yet they have chosen this lifestyle for the sake of devoting everything to the band and its yet to become classic album "De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas".

Could something similar happen today? Could modern Metal kids devote their life to the goal of creating underground music in a dying genre as Black Metal was in the 1980´s? I seriously doubt it.
But back then extreme Metal was more than just a music genre. If you were into it, by definition there was something different about you than the average guy on the street. You were drawn to this music and the related lifestyle precisely for this reason. Not so today, when even Black Metal has become a socially acceptable form of entertainment that is even promoted by certain Scandinavian governments as a form of "cultural export".

While the promising Death Metal scene of the late 1980´s slowly degraded into the cartoonish garbage of countless Cannibal Corpse clones, the natural way to turn your back on it was going back to the basics of Bathory and Celtic Frost and taking it from there. Parallel movements emerged in Sweden, Finland and Greece, but Euronymous has been there long before that regardless of the trend d´jour.

The emergent second wave of Black Metal presented blatant hostility towards the Death Metal trend and sought to separate itself from it in every way imaginable. In nowadays "anything goes" scene, it is hard to imagine such a mentality but since the Black Metal explosion up until the late 1990´s there was a strong sentiment of hostility towards Death Metal from the imposing Black Metal audience, even though Black Metal itself later became a commercialized caricature of its former self.
This strong vibe against technical overproduced synthetic Metal meant that anyone who wanted to gain recognition had to work harder and come up with unique atmospheric music of his own making, and he had high standards to meet.

The man who set the standard, musically and ideologically was Euronymous.

Many reviewers have noted a watermark line between the Dead-era Mayhem and the post suicide-Mayhem. The suicide supposedly "pushed Euronymous over the line" and sparked the 1990´s Norwegian Black Metal movement.

One more aspect worthy of scrutiny is the fascination to Communism by Euronymous. During the 1980´s it seemed to have been rooted in the idealistic youth ideology so common within the Punk scene, and certain letters by Euronymous available today (view scans of some of his letters here) tend to support this hypothesis, as they demonstrate his similar mindset at the time.

Later on he seemed to have finally grasped the insidious nature of Communism, yet he showed it explicitly with brutal honesty. He often said he supported Communism because it is "evil" and he wanted to use it against humanity which he hated. This is very different from the average Communist ideologue who pretends to have humanity´s best interest in mind, while actually working to destroy society from within to fulfill his nihilistic goals.
It is no wonder that "Rød Ungdom" - the party Euronymous was a member of for a while had a lasting appeal for Norwegian radical intellectuals who always and everywhere promote Communism as a means to destroy the society they live in.

Apart from the escalating nihilism and misanthropy, Euronymous had developed a tendency to present strict behavioural codes such as aversion to humor or any other "positive" emotion, and constangly maintained "grim" moods and appearances. Anyone who knows the 1980´s Darkwave scene will notice the similarity between this particular genre and the second wave of Black Metal circa 1990 - 1994 as it has been shaped by Euronymous and his influence over the younger musicians surrounding him. Perhaps in this aspect it was indeed a psychological reaction to Dead´s suicide: embracing the emotional trauma as a lasting mental state and turning it to a mandatory social code.

Either way, all those processes converged exactly 17 years ago when a former protégé of Euronymous gone rogue has ended his life and ignited the media frenzy with its devastating results.
Black Metal has never been the same again, although the musical momentum for the very least carried on until 1996.

Perhaps today we can reflect back to how things were done back then to better understand why the music of that era was far superior to that of today, by any standard, and maybe someone, somewhere will be able to capture something of the old spirit.

*****

Sticking the needle

2010-01-06T02:15:00.002+01:00

...by Antipod. Another great guest article!

*****

When Chagrynn first approached me with a request to write this article I must say I was a bit sceptical.

Why bother mentioning the trivial facts while snotty chatroom kids are the dominant masses in what once was the mighty Black Metal movement that meant so much to underground aficionados in the years 1981 - 1996 (That is between Venom´s "Welcome to Hell" and Darkthrone´s "Total Death")?

But after observing the hilarious phenomenon of Kristian Vikernes (aka "Varg", "Grishnakh", "The Cunt") given the treatment of a Pop idol by those same chatroom kids I felt it was necessary to offend them. Whenever I see a bloated bubble such as this I can´t help it, I just have to stick the needle in it.

But who exactly is Vikernes?
During the short two years of 1991 - 1993 that turned him into the poster boy of everything that destroyed the underground scene we knew and loved up until then, he went through so many phases of reinventing himself that when discussing those days on his homepage he obviously becomes trapped in his own web of lies and comes up with an evergrowing list of laughable self-contradictions. Being the highly specialized demagogue that he is, Vikernes has no problem with that. Like his (former?) gurus - Joseph Goebbels & Adolf Hitler - he understands very well that a lie repeated often enough will become a truth in the eyes of the mindless masses and that the bigger the lie is the faster it will be perceived as truth.

We shall now point to several more contradictions in his writings in addition to those already analysed by Chagrynn:

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The murder motive

According to all sources we have from those days, Vikernes started his career as a groupie of Euronymous.

This is obviously clear by looking at statements he made in the press and in letters to his penpals and even according to the interview given by his own mother to the authors of Lords of Chaos, and I quote:

Q: "Did you know Øystein Aarseth?"

A: "I met him a couple of times and felt that Varg initially looked up to him a lot. He was very proud that he was the one who had gotten the record contract and not the others. That Øystein who was 5 years older achieved such an enormously strong grip on Varg made me a little wary...

I´ve never seen anyone have such a status with Varg as Øystein did in the beginning. Varg was very disappointed after a while. He lived with Øystein for a few months and then I think he saw things from a completely different angle."

In my opinion this is the key to understand the real trigger behind the murder of Euronymous. It´s a classic case of developing intense hatred towards your former idol, so at least in that aspect Vikernes is not very different from those dorks who killed John Lennon and Dimebag Darrel.
So much for his heroic "death and life struggle" as depicted in Vargsmål and elsewhere. Stabbing an unarmed, half naked man who was physically smaller than him and who had just woken up at 3 AM in the night - yeah, it sounds very heroic indeed.

Given Vikernes´ utterly paranoid personality, he may have actually convinced himself that Euronymous was imminently going to torture him to death, then reacted like a hot headed Gangsta Rapper (Yes, the very same "stereotypical Negro" he likes to deride so much...) by "snatching" the man, but of course he cannot admit it, otherwise he´ll have to admit that he wasted 16 years of his life for absolutely nothing.

*****

The commercialization

The pivotal event that started rolling the snowball of ruining the Helvete-based underground scene was actually the January 1993 interview Vikernes gave to Bergens Tidene. He´s been whining for years about "the snitches" that screwed him up for such a long prison sentence, but he was actually the first who snitched about the whole thing!

This is obvious from watching the "Satan rides the media" documentary. Despite the inherent flaws in such a mainstream media documentary, we are given first hand details about the background of the interview: According to the journalist, Vikernes gave him specific details about the gay murder and church arsons so he could verify it with the police. Otherwise he would not publish an anonymous interview without a factual basis.
No one ever thought of connecting those things with the Black Metal scene until Vikernes snitched about it, so he can only blame himself for all the never-ending stream of sensationalist headlines that followed.

He also has by now two conflicting stories (as usual) as for why he gave the interview in the first place:

According to the first version it was a publicity stunt to boost the customers´ interest in Helvete. By the way, if this is true, Vikernes has just presented himself as a PR puppet for Euronymous (who was, according to Vikernes, supposedly a "total whimp", "poser", "homosexual", etc.).

According to the second version he did it so Euronymous could "scare away trendy kids with skateboards and other weak personalities" (How would he get more customers then? By scaring them away?)
Either way, he made a complete buffoon of himself with both of his versions - which are probably false anyway:

According to the "Once upon a time in Norway" documentary Euronymous had no interest in mainstream publicity and thought that Vikernes commercialized the whole movement with his silly PR stunts and pranks.

The whole thing demonstrates that Vikernes has no respect for the truth and that he´s counting on the very short memory and low IQ of his fans.
Sad but true.

*****

At the bottom line, we should ask ourselves some very serious questions: How come such a pathetic clown with mediocre musical capabilities became so influential within the extreme Metal underground? The following disgusting trends can be traced directly to his influence:

A) The media circus commercialization of the scene.

B) The introduction of Nazi punk motifs that were totally alien to the Metal underground up until then. As a result, many self proclaimed fans of the genre actually believe Black Metal has something to do with Folkism/Racism/family values/the future of the "Aryan race" - you name it.

C) The popularization of "Synth Black Metal" crap that started with his 3rd album with a miserable attempt to incorporate German ambient music into his own cheap imitation of Bathory. (This is yet another concept he stole from Euronymous without giving proper credit, but Euronymous was smart and talented enough to convey those ambient motifs with his guitar exclusively. That´s what separates the talented ones from the imitators.)

But hopefully those who are smart enough to see through the smoke screen will know how to separate the truth from the lies, the originators from the imitators and the real Metal from the fake and diluted garbage promoted as such by greedy leeches.

Salem

2009-12-30T23:15:00.003+01:00

Here is another piece of history that Vikernes probably would prefer to be forgotten about - when he tried to kill Ze'ev, frontman of Salem, with a mailbomb. The following text was written by Michael of Salem and he gave me permission to publish it here.

*****

The story goes back to 1988 when we released our second demo "Destruction Till Death" - the first one was never officially released - and we sent it to many Metal magazines that were around at that time, the magazine METAL FORCES from England, one of the biggest at that time, gave us a great review and compared our music to Sodom.

Euronymous contacted us and asked for the demo; we already knew Mayhem since our vocalist got the first album, so we sent it and we have been in good contact with him. He also wrote to us that he is going to start his own record label - Deathlike Silence - named after a Sodom song and also said if we ever wanted to release an album he would like to do so along with an invitation to leave Israel and to come over to live and play in Norway.

Later on in October 1990, a third demo came up - "Millions Slaughtered" - about the Holocaust. Euronymous was first in the thanks list, then a letter from Varg comes in and he was asking for it. We didn´t know who he is and sent him the demo as we sent it to anyone else.

Then he wrote back that he likes the music but why have we been not writing about Satan and wars in our lyrics and some other things I can´t remember; it was a childish letter. He was 15 back then. We told him to grow up, then a hate mail from him came back that said: "Hail Hitler, hail Genghis Khan and hail Saddam Hussein and shame that the last one didn´t finish the job and kill all the Jews." (He was sending bombs to Israel during the first gulf war in 91). We sent him a letter with a big FUCK YOU in it and forgot about it.

Then a policeman came to our vocalist telling him he was sent a mailbomb to his address, he never got it, it has been found at the post office before that on x-ray. We have all been freaked out, he at first didn´t remember why he was sent such a thing - because it was sent many months after the original letters from Varg, but he remembered eventually and told the policeman the whole story, showing him the letters and gave it to him as evidence. I believe it was sent to Interpol also and later we started to hear about all the church burnings and about the murder of Euronymous.

New articles at Burzum.org

2009-12-26T15:18:00.006+01:00

Over the course of the last few weeks there have been several new articles at Burzum.org - dealing with various topics like the announcement of his upcoming album, the announcement that he renamed this album, some kind of explanation why he feels like using a new font for the Burzum "logo" (which actually isn´t supposed to be a logo...but anyway - for details check his article on this) on the new album, etc.

I was actually a bit surprised that he changed the title of the album (some time back he probably wouldn´t even have thought about doing something like this) - so either he is very desperate as to not piss off too many people with the original album title in order to sell as many copies as possible once it´s released or maybe his parole officer "suggested" this move to him.

Anyway, I would now like to deal with this article:

The Lords of Lies: Part VI - The Lords of Chaos Movie

While I personally think that this movie is about the last thing I want to be made, Vikernes is the last person on earth who should have a right to complain about this. Why do I actually think so? Well, short and simple - if he hadn´t murdered Euronymous there wouldn´t have been a media uproar this massive (and anything that followed due to it) and very probably a book like "Lords of Chaos" wouldn´t even exist. So he should blame himself in the first place and then those who are trying to to make a quick cash-in out of it. (Those are certainly to be blamed as well, though. But what is to be expected from people who are slaves to a society that is mainly about money, "fame", sensationalism, etc...?)

Now some quotes from the article itself.

"Unfortunately the Lords of Chaos story is not only nonsense; incoherent and utterly contradictive..."

As if his own accounts are not contradictory...

---

"If I want to I can always tell the true story myself, later on, ..."

So, he actually admits that his prior accounts are not the "true story"...? Interesting...

---

"Now, I really don´t like it when others spread lies about me, and I can tell my truth well enough without their movie promoting my name..."

MY truth. Well, which isn´t necessarily the truth, now is it...?

---

"...so if the movie is a complete failure I will only be happy. If it is a success I will also be happy because that will increase my market value even more. So; good luck, guys, or don´t... I really don´t care. It´s a win-win situation for me."

So if he really doesn´t care either way why did he bother to write this?

---

"They never asked Euronymous´ family for permission to use his tragic story."

How would he know? I somehow can´t imagine they would talk to him about this (or talk to him at all). Vikernes was probably rather thinking along this lines - hey, they didn´t ask me so they probably didn´t ask anyone else - but this doesn´t necessarily need to be the case. Anyway.

The part which really made my jaw drop onto the keyboard was "tragic story" - I really don´t know what to think of this. Is this a try to pretend something along the lines of "regretting" the murder? I doubt that. Though I can imagine that there are some people who would read something like that into this statement, something like - oh look he actually seems to care in a way - or whatever. It´s very subtle and basically people can read into that whatever they feel like. Which was probably what Vikernes was aiming for.

Also, this "tragic story" statement somehow sounds as if he was only a noninvolved bystander to this and not the CAUSE.

*****

Next is about this article:

The Lords of Lies: Part V - Outlaw

"[...] so I don´t have the time to translate "Vargr í Véum" ("wolf in the temple", meaning "outlaw"), the book mentioned in "Dagbladet". Not sure when or even if I will translate "VíV" either, because, frankly, I am not very interested in the subject (Black Metal anno 1991-1993) anymore."

And I wonder why he doesn´t at least publish the Norwegian version of the book (judging from the article/interview in Dagbladet it seemed to be finished)...? I supppose there are plenty of Norwegian-speaking Burzum fans and/or people who are generally interested in reading this. Somehow this only makes some "sense" when taking a look at the following sentence:

"I am more likely to simply rewrite the whole book in English instead - some time in the future."

So, I am pretty certain this won´t come to happen before his probation is over and if it´s actually going to happen I wonder if he will come up with something completely new (by the way, I am only referring to the part which deals with the murder) - which would be kind of difficult since he is slowy running out of "possibilities" to come up with something completely new. Let´s see, as of now, for example, he already came up with the following (just as a quick reminder - check my other articles for in-depth analyses):

- The blade of the knife was 8cm / 10 cm / undefined length (but definitely long)
- It was sharp / not sharp but pointed
- He inflicted about 3 or 4 stabs / about 14 - 15 (in contrast to the 23 stabs stated in the official reports)
- He wore gloves / he didn´t
- The first stab was to Euronymous´ face / chest / shoulder or back
- Euronymous fought back / he didn´t but fled right away

Hm...so my guess is rather that Vikernes will "adjust" the part of the book that deals with the murder to be more in accordance with his prior accounts (the parts dealing with the first stab now being to the face and the statement that Euronymous actually fought back before running are taken from the excerpts of the book reproduced in the Dagbladet-article) - or more likely he won´t write a new version of the book at all. But there has to be a reason why he won´t at least publish the Norwegian version...

*****

Next thing that made me wonder is this contact email-address now available at his homepage - there is of course no way to tell if he maintains it himself but if not it´s probably done by someone close to him. What actually made me wonder is that this address is hosted at Gmail - if I remember correctly Vikernes has a strong dislike for U.S. Americans and their culture, etc. but it doesn´t seem to bother him to have a contact email with an U.S. American hoster while he just as easily could have one with a Norwegian, for example.

Fantoft, Lindisfarne and Black Metal

2009-10-24T01:38:00.012+02:00

"I was not found guilty of burning the Fantoft Stave Church in
Bergen, but anyways that was what triggered the whole thing.
That was on the 6th of June, and everyone linked it to Satanism, because of the 6-6 and it was on the 6th day of the week.

What everyone overlooked was that on the 6th of June, year 793, in Lindisfarne in Britain was the site of the first known Viking raid in history, with Vikings from Hordaland, which is my country.

Nobody linked it to that - nobody."

(Vikernes in Lords of Chaos; page 88 - 89)

Very probably nobody linked it to that simply because it´s not
true - the raid on Lindisfarne actually happened on the 8th of June 793.

Sources for example here, here and here

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

(Vikernes interviewed in Charontaphos zine #1; 1993

Pages one, two - quote taken from page one)

---

The essence of Burzum was in the beginning the total destruction of Christianity in Scandinavia. Is it still the same?

"Yes, and Burzum is still not Black Metal!"

(Vikernes interviewed in I Return to Darkness zine #6; 1998
Pages one, two, three, four, five, six - quote taken from page three)

---

Then this:

The Reasons for the Development of Burzum away from 'metal' music.

(Article on Burzum.com; unknown date)

---

And most recently:

I want to bide my time, so that the product sounds the way I like it. It’s going to be metal, and the fans can expect real Burzum, he explains.

(From the English translation of Vikernes´
most recent interview in Dagbladet)

Going full circle, huh?

*****

Speaking of that Dagbladet article (again) -

"I’ve never been a nazi, and I’m not one today."

Well, maybe he should take a look on what he said some years ago in the (above posted) interview for "I Return to Darkness zine #6"... if that´s not the "textbook definition" of a Nazi-worldview then what is?! I hate to link to bullshit like this, but there´s no way around doing so, I guess. You will see what I mean when you read the interview...

I wonder what else he could come up with until his followers realize his ongoing changes of mind and the (constant changing) pathetic attempts of piecing himself a background together that´s far away from the truth.

Yes, I know I have addressed that before, but I didn´t provide the interview back then, only the photo of Vikernes at the court session so I decided to deal with that topic again to make it clear once and for all.

*****

To close this article, another quote from Lords of Chaos (page 153):

"The one thing they [the Satanists] lack is honor. When they say "survival of the fittest" they mean survival of the most callous. Survival of the guy who shoots you in the back. Survival to the guy who attacks you ten-on-one, or who cheats and lies. That´s Satanism."

Oh, the irony...

Stupidity...

2009-10-03T00:22:00.011+02:00

...taken to a whole new level...over at Youtube.

Just when you think you have seen it all...

A Vikernes-follower wrote a comment so stupid I actually had to read it twice to believe my eyes are not deceiving me - on the video of Euronymous´ grave. I have taken a screenshot in case it gets deleted or something:

Helping someone who just blew the upper half of his head off with a shotgun...yep, would like to see how that´s possible...

In the unlikely case you don´t know what picture(s) he is talking about: here

According to his profile ClearlyAnon is 33 years old...obviously Vikernes has just the followers he deserves...stupid, braindead idiots. ClearlyAnon´s other comments are not that much better, by the way...

Euronymous - From Mayhem to the grave

2009-09-12T15:51:00.010+02:00

I am proud to be able to post this great guest-article by Absinthe Pretty. Thanks and hails!

*****

On Friday, March 22nd 1968 a boy was born in Surnadal (Norway). The boy was Øystein Aarseth. By the age of 25 he was to meet a violent end but before that he would found and lead a whole new movement in music. Norwegian Black Metal.

Black Metal began with Aarseth’s interest in British thrash metal band Venom - he shared this interest with another teenager - Jørn Stubberud - together they would start their own band and launch a whole new brand of metal. At the age of sixteen though first names like Jørn and Øystein just didn't sound tough enough especially when you are trying to be taken seriously so name changes were called for.

Death, guts and fucking were their interests; the music they played was dark and echoed these themes their new names must also put fear into people so were born Destructor (Aarseth) and Necrobutcher (Stubberud). With others Mayhem began both musically and in a literal sense. From now on metal music in Norway (and subsequently in other places) would never be the same.

They were dark, mysterious, 'satanic'. Early promo photos of the band showed members with their long black hair almost obscuring their faces and creating a dark atmosphere. Unbeknown to Venom who wrote their lyrics simply for shock value a darker meaning had been taken from the songs they wrote by this handful of teens from the far north.

'Black Metal' a Venom song title was used by Aarseth to name this new movement to describe what his own band played. This was like nothing anybody had ever seen before and for teens who were already metalheads this was the next thing, the next extreme step. Very soon Mayhem would spawn countless other Black Metal bands - only a few of who still exist 25 years after Mayhem themselves first picked up their guitars and screeched and growled down the microphone. Of the ones who are still in existence Emperor, Satyricon, Gorgoroth, Immortal and Darkthrone would all have members who would later be part of what the resulting media frenzy would dub The Satanic Terrorists.

By 1989 things were really taking off in the Mayhem camp - Aarseth had now changed his name to Euronymous - it meant Prince of Death in Greek and the band including the newly recruited drummer, Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) and Swedish vocalist Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin), were now living in a house together, rehearsing, shooting birds in the forest in the middle of the night, conducting experiments and generally intimidating the townsfolk. Things were about to get a whole lot darker.

They had already released an EP, Deathcrush back in 1987 with vocalists Maniac and Messiah (on two songs) - By the time 'De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas' would finally be released in 1994 Euronymous would have followed Dead to the grave having been brutally slain by jealous one time 'friend' Varg Vikernes 'The Count'.

In the sixteen years since the murder Vikernes has risen as some hero amongst those dumb enough not to question anything he says. When journalists over the years have attempted to quiz him over one of his many contradictory comments, he has leapt on the defensive and ended with more contradictions and of course more lies.

By 1991 Euronymous had moved to Oslo and opened his own record store 'Helvete'. He had always created and maintained a dark image for himself and his band but by now Euro himself had gotten into the darkness even further - this followed the discovery in 1991 of Dead's body after having blown his head off. Fuelled by shock, trauma and possibly depression (though never admitting this). Euro's mood changed. His wearing of corpse paint increased and the style in which he wore it was also darker.

Here was a young man battling with emotions which he could let have free reign, at the same time running his store, starting up his own label and keeping his band going, gigging and rehearsing. How he kept up with this we will never truly know and soon he was to have a bigger problem in the form of 'The Count'. All of Euro´s hard work would soon be undone within the next year. Vikernes would single handily destroy Euro but also the scene that he created. It was a destruction born out of sheer jealousy on the part of Vikernes.

At 3:00AM on August 10th Euro was woken by the buzzer - sleepily he answered - it was The Count demanding to be let in. Euro without knowing the real reason why he was being visited let him in. Their friendship had by now soured but Euro being laid back and easygoing was not concerned. Sadly for Euro Vikernes did not have Euro´s easygoing approach to these things and had now proclaimed Euro an enemy and a threat to his life (wtf) and decided to kill him.

Unarmed and recently roused from sleep Euro had no chance against Vikernes and his knife despite V's claims to the contrary. The Godfather of Black Metal was dead and now so was the true scene. In the weeks and months which followed Bård Faust and Samoth would also be jailed for different crimes.

Had he been allowed to live Euro would now be 41 years of age - possibly still continuing with Mayhem but definitely he would have still be the talented musician that he was up until the age of 25. I think of Euro constantly and I wonder how his life would have panned out if August 10, 1993 had ended differently.

As I write this his murderer has been released from jail and is desperately trying to worm his way back into the BM scene, for whatever that is these days. He also has a wife and kids. The opportunities that he robbed Euro of.

Euronymous and his work will never be and never should be forgotten.

Øystein Aarseth - March 22,1968 - August 10, 1993 R.I.P

Glass fragments part 2

2009-08-29T21:00:00.013+02:00

I have been thinking for quite some time now what to write about next - then some days ago I found a translation of the Dagbladet-article my "Glass Fragments 2009"-article dealt with. So I decided to cover some more statements from this one before going over to something else. You can check out the translation here.

Before I start I wanted to point out that I am not only dealing with outright contradictions - some of Vikernes´ statements "just" don´t make a lot of sense.

*****

"I was very surprised when I got out of prison and realised the picture the media had painted of the situation. Every page was filled with ‘the Count’, a nickname the journalists had got from Øystein, who used it because I’d applied the pseudonym ‘Count Grishnack’on my debut record."

So this shouldn´t come as a big surprise, should it...?

*****

"I’m not the ‘Count’ depicted in the media. It’s just sad. Those which have known me the longest does not recognize themselves in what’s been written. But I’m partly to blame for this portrayal. Thats the reason I’ve written this book, that I hope will be published."

Yep, another account of history-revisionism after Vargsmål and countless articles written in the past... I wonder if he someday will make up his mind on what "really happened" - I strongly doubt that he will ever come up with the truth (and who would believe him anyway after his countless contradicting accounts...) but maybe he should at least settle with one of his versions one day...and not come up with something new about every 5 years...

*****

"It’s striking that none in the bands considered ‘true’ ever was indicted or prosecuted for church arson, except yours truly, of course."

No? What about Bård “Faust” Eithun (Emperor), Jørn Inge Tunsberg (Hades; changed name to Hades Almighty in 1998) and Samoth (Emperor) for example? Correct me if I´m wrong but this bands were considered "true" back then, right?

*****

During razzias at Vikernes home in Bergen 1993, the police found 150 kilos of explosives and around 3000 rounds of different caliber. The media speculated whether he was about to blow up the Nidaros Cathedral.

"Nonsense. I had gathered this for defence in case Norway was attacked. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were the ones most likely to attack us. We had no reason to trust either government, the royal family or the armed forces considering what went down the last time anyone attacked. We are left to ourselves, he says."

There is also another theory on why Vikernes had stored 150 kilos of dynamite --

"Given how much valuable information LOC does present, it is some-what incredible that the book fails to note that at the time that Vikernes murdered Euronymous, he was also planning to destroy an Oslo-based punk anti-fascist squat called Blitz House. After his arrest for murder, the police discovered that he had about 330 pounds of stolen dynamite in his possession. Vikernes may have felt that he had no choice but to kill Euronymous before bombing Blitz House because "the Communist" would almost certainly have opposed such an act- Recall in this context that Vikernes also claimed that Euronymous had been plotting to have him killed- It may well be true that Vikernes really did murder Euronymous for petty personal reasons. By refusing to even mention Blitz House, however, LOC glides over another potentially highly relevant motive."

(From the article "How Black is Black Metal")

*****

The 8th of August this year, the following happen, according to Vikernes: At home in Bergen, Vikernes is played a private phone conversation between a friend of the same age and Øystein Aarseth. Vikernes is informed that Aarseth is planning his murder. This in spite of Aarseth having signed Vikernes on his record label ‘Deathlike Silence Production’.

Exactly...planning to kill the best-selling artist on your record label...makes perfect sense, doesn´t it...?

*****

Because of the phone conversation and the false letter, I was mad at Øystein. And when I’d made it up the stairs to his apartment, he must’ve seen it, because he was very frightened. Either that, or he considered his own plans of killing me, experiencing discomfort as I suddenly arrived. He could just have opted leaving and never writing me a letter. I didn’t want anything to do with him.

Or Vikernes could have just ignored the fucking letter...as I said in my first article.

*****

"They judged me in advance and whipped up so strong emotions against me that even the once so ‘tough’ and ‘hard’ black metal musicians were lining up in front of police stations to turn me in, blaming it all on my person. Of course they did; I’d just killed their idol in a power struggle of Øystein’s imaginary organization."

Let´s have a look at this quote again:

“In 1991 most of the metal musicians in Norway believed Euronymous was a so-called cool guy, but in mid or late 1992 most of us realized that he was not.”

(A Burzum Story: Part II - Euronymous)

So, whose idol if, according to Vikernes, most of the metal musicians in Norway had started to dislike Euronymous...?

*****

Now while being finished with the Dagbladet-article I would like to go back to Vikernes´ text about Euronymous. Vikernes stated that Euronymous was about to go to jail for four months at the end of August 1993 - according to an old interview with Occultus this was actually true --

"I have to learn all the trax for it and Euronymous is going to jail for 4 months because he cut a guy so he had to sew 38 switches."

(Master of Brutality Zine, Issue 2, 1992)

As I said in my first article, if this was true, there was not much Vikernes would have had to fear about (at least during the four months of Euronymous´ incarceration).

*****

I found a very interesting comment regarding this statement:

"By then Euronymous was back on his feet. He looked resigned and said: "It's enough", but then he tried to kick me again, and I finished him off by thrusting the knife through his skull, through his forehead, and he died instantaneously."

[...]

"When I jerked the knife from his skull he fell forward, and rolled down a flight of stairs like a sack of potatoes - making enough noise to wake up the whole neighbourhood (it was a noisy, metal staircase)."

From this article, in the user comments:

"A dull knife through the forehead? Vikernes was either built like a linebacker, Aarseth had a skull like a papier-mache egg, or Vikernes is absolutely and utterly full of shit about putting the knife through the guy’s skull while he was alive – not to mention, unless it was a really fucking big knife, the frontal lobe of the brain doesn’t control motor and involuntary functions, so he wouldn’t have died instantly, anyway.

Not to mention, Aarseth would have had to have fallen through Vikernes if he “fell forwards down the steps” after Vikernes yanked the knife out of the guy’s forehead."

Since I couldn´t have said it any better I felt like using this quote. It´s sad, though, I didn´t think of this myself before...

*****

Well, that´s it for now - I am not sure yet what to write about next (I was thinking about an article dealing with Vikernes´ statements in and about Lords of Chaos, either this or I will wait until Vikernes comes up with something new...we´ll see...) since I started the blog with the most controversial article; anything else is just a "nice" addition to what´s already been said. Those who didn´t get it by then that Vikernes is a pathetic liar probably never will, no matter what I or others might come up with in the future.

10th August 1993

2009-08-10T15:08:00.003+02:00

Fuck you, Varg

New article soon...

"Glass fragments 2009"

2009-07-07T01:53:00.008+02:00

(Yes, I know the title does not make any sense at first glance, but it will eventually as you read on...)

So, very recently Vikernes was interviewed for Dagbladet (in Norwegian; English translation (Google) here) - and I have to admit that I was quite surprised by that taking Vikernes´ general opinion on journalists into consideration.

"The morally bankrupt propagandists (a.k.a. "journalists" and "reporters") of the mass media has, it seems, made it their mission to spread their malevolent lies about me as much as they can."

(The Lords Of Lies: Part I - Lords Of Lies)

Also, I thought that after being released from jail he wanted to live a life in relative solitude - away from society...and among the first things he did after being released is talking to a newspaper...ah well...

Anyway, emerging from this article Vikernes apparently wrote a book in jail (the article features some excerpts) - his own version on what happened in the Black Metal community of the early 90s... why am I not surprised... since about any account by other people who were involved are "lies", "misinterpretations", "exaggerations" and whatnot in his view... (well, basically what I already wrote about in the Introduction).

Since the article in Dagbladet and the excerpts are in Norwegian - and as for my knowledge of the Norwegian language is very limited and the Google translation feature is not that reliable... I will only concentrate on some statements that stood out the most...the ultimate what-the-fuck moments of this article so to say... I will start with the interview itself and then go over to the excerpts from his book.

- "Do you regret the killing?" (Angrer du på at du drepte?)

"I can´t regret that I took the life of the one who would have killed me." (Jeg kan ikke angre på at jeg tok livet av en som skulle drepe meg.)

...and he probably never will (regret the murder)...so that´s when I started to wonder why he was released on probation...I thought probation is for those who at least realized during their incarceration that they fucked up?

*****

- "Can you kill again?" (Kan du drepe igjen?)

"All people can kill. But there is less chance that I will kill again, because I've been in that situation before [...] Had I been in the same situation today, I had contacted the police first. [...]" (Alle mennesker kan drepe. Men det er mindre sjanse for at jeg vil drepe igjen, fordi jeg har vært i den situasjonen før [...] Hadde jeg vært i samme situasjon i dag, hadde jeg kontaktet politiet først. [...])

And then kill him...?

*****

"I have never been a Nazi, and I am not now" (Jeg har aldri vært nazist, og er det heller ikke nå.)

No, of course not... what about this for example? He adopted this kind of appearance just "for fun" then, I guess...?

*****

"It is nonsense that I have started racist propaganda groups." (Det er bare tull at jeg har startet rasistiske propagandagrupper.)

What about the Norwegian Heathen Front (Norsk Hedenks Front)? It´s kind of odd that he denies having started this organisation - by denying this he denies a part of his past and thus a part of himself...

Sometimes I really wonder if he beliefs in all the bullshit he comes up with himself...

*****

- "Are you racist?" (Er du rasist?)

"Yes. But I hate no one." (Ja. Men jeg hater ingen.)

He has to be one of very few racists who do not hate people of other races...

*****

By the way - the new Burzum album to be released (probably next year) will be Metal...consistency is a virtue...!

The reasons for the development of Burzum away from "Metal" music

*****

Ok, now on to the excerpts from Vikernes´ yet unpublished book. As I said above, the excerpts are in Norwegian, so I can not by any means guarantee for the translation, also I of course don´t know if the excerpts are reproduced correctly in that article. So I will just concentrate on the part that deals with a new account (surprise...) on what happened on the night of the murder...

Also, I will only stick to the sentences that seem most important (as for the translation issue). I will deal with the whole book then once there is an English translation available.

"At the same time I jumped in front of him. I produced a small knife I had in one pocket. It was actually a boot knife, with an about ten cm long blade. The knife was not sharp, but rather pointed, and I stabbed him in the face."

(Samtidig hoppet jeg fram foran ham. Jeg fisket opp en liten kniv jeg hadde i den ene lommen. Det var egentlig en støvelkniv, med et omtrent ti centimeter langt blad. Kniven var ikke skarp, men relativt spiss, og jeg hogg ham i ansiktet.)

Now the first stab was to his face...?

"I jumped out in front of him and managed to stop him before he got his hands on the kitchen knife. At this point he had showed his intentions, so when he ran for the bedroom I figured he was going for another weapon. [...] I gave chase, stabbed him and was a bit surprised when he ran out of the apartment instead.

(A Burzum Story: Part II - Euronymous)

Though Vikernes does not explicitly state it - "I gave chase, stabbed him..." implies that the first stab had to be in the back or shoulder.

"The first stab was in the chest. The whole time he was trying to run away, so I had to stab him in the back."

(Lords of Chaos; page 123)

*****

"Øystein shouted for help and stopped for a fight. I parried his blows with the knife, so that every blow caused a stab in his arm or body."

(Øystein ropte på hjelp og stoppet for å slåss. Jeg parerte slagene hans med kniven, slik at hvert slag ble et knivstikk i hans arm eller kropp.)

What the fuck...seriously... in his various prior accounts on the murder Vikernes couldn´t seem to repeat it often enough that Euronymous fled right away instead of fighting back...oh, let me guess: those stabs that emerged from the fight are a new try to "explain" the 23 stab wounds, replacing the glass fragments...?

"It made no sense to flee and it made me angry to know that he had started the fight, but the moment it didn't go his way he decided to flee instead, instead of fighting like a man. Such is always something I have disliked strongly.

(Some people have claimed I slew a helpless and unarmed man, but first of all he tried to get a knife before I did, and certainly he could have armed himself if he had chosen to stay and fight instead of running away like a coward. There was a number of other things in his apartment he could have used to defend himself with, when he failed to get hold of his kitchen knife.)"

(A Burzum Story: Part II - Euronymous)

No further comment necessary, I guess...

Euronymous

2009-06-25T02:37:00.027+02:00

This article is about A Burzum Story: Part II - Euronymous by Varg Vikernes.

(...or whatever he calls himself these days (in Norwegian) - click here for (Google) translation into English.)

All of Vikernes´ statements I use in this text are from that article except if stated otherwise...

*****

“In 1991 most of the metal musicians in Norway believed Euronymous was a so-called cool guy, but in mid or late 1992 most of us realized that he was not.”

Like who exactly...?

-- Did you view Euronymous as the leader of Black Metal?

-- Yes, definitely. He was like some kind of brother for me. He had a very strong personality. His death was the biggest loss that could have happened to the Norwegian scene.

Infernus of Gorgoroth
(Interview in Circle of the Tyrants #1 (1996)

-- Do you think that Euronymous maybe opened some doors of
opportunity for Mysticum with his support?

-- He did absolutely. I think he really opened everything.

Robin Malmberg of Mysticum
(Interview in Worm Gear #8 (1994?)

- Me and the other people who knew Euronymous closely and also the people who knew what Euronymous stood for will keep the memory alive... We will NEVER forget what he has done for the whole scene...

Bård “Faust” Eithun

(Liner notes from "Nordic Metal - A Tribute to Euronymous" (1995)

- After the murder of Euronymous in 1993, everything was totally fucked up and I lost all contacts with the band. I had already returned to Hungary when I read the shocking news. My own life was heavily affected by that crime.

Attila Csihar

(Liner notes from "Life Eternal"(2009)

Albums / Demos dedicated to Euronymous (besides De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas and the Nordic Metal compilation):

Blessed in Sin - A Tribute to Euronymous (1995)

Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992)

Dissection - The Somberlain (1993)

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)

Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi (1994)
Gehenna - Seen through the Veils of Darkness (1995)

Gorgoroth - Antichrist (1996)

Myrkwid - 3 (1998)

Ophthalamia - A Journey in Darkness (1994)

Perished - In Hoc Signo Vinces (1993)
Perished - Through the Black Mist (1994)

Sigh - Scorn Defeat (1993)

Sigh - Infidel Art (1995)
Wurdulak - Ceremony in Flames (2001)

Just those I know of...

There is even a song dedicated to him:

Solefald - Red for Fire, Black for Death (2006)

*****

“When he sold all the Burzum albums he paid his private bills rather than print more records - or pay me back the money he owned me (and I never saw any royalties either, for that sake).”

-- How much money do you get for every 1000 copies you sell?

-- 10,000 NOK.. ca. 13-140 US$

Vikernes interviewed in
Putrefaction Zine #7 (1992)

*****

“I took the consequence of his incompetence and stupidity and started up my own label, called Burznazg [...] that was later (in late 1992) changed to Cymophane...”

-- DSP is doing their job well! Only DSP is real!

Vikernes interviewed in
Hammer of Damnations Zine (1992)

*****

"When I did the anonymous interview in January 1993 I exaggerated a lot and when the journalist left...

[...]

Euronymous had made a complete fool of himself by closing down the shop, and most of us agreed that he was a damn wimp and an idiot. I was angry at him for not taking advantage of the situation, which was why I had done that silly interview in the first place, and I didn't want anything more to do with him."

How very selfless... The interview was not done to raise interest in Burzum as well, no?

*****

“When he phoned me to ask me if they, the guys in Mayhem, could stay at my place when they were in Grieghallen sound studios to finish the Mayhem album, I said no.”

Now that seems a bit odd since Vikernes played bass guitar on this album (De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas). And by the way I think it´s a shame that his contribution remained on that album!

*****

“This is probably the reason people claim the killing was a result of a power struggle between two leading figures in the scene, but the truth is that this was only important to him. I couldn't care less about this.”

-- Vikernes was very much into making war with Øystein. He didn´t like him anymore, because obviously Øystein got more attention in the underground scene than Vikernes, and he couldn´t handle it. For Øystein it wasn´t any big deal really, because he was an easy going, very controlled person.

Bård “Faust” Eithun
(Lords of Chaos; page 118)

*****

“Later Mayhem got a new guitarist, Snorre W. Ruch of Thorns, from Trondheim, and when he moved to Bergen I let him sleep on a guest bed, in the living room of my apartment, until he got his own apartment. At this point Euronymous had begun to plot against my life. He wanted to kill me. In his view I was the problem, so by killing me he believed he problem would go away.

[…]

Also, in August 1993 he was about to go to prison for four months, after being convicted for injuring two people with a broken bottle, because they had "looked at his girlfriend" at a bus-stop.

[…]

The same day he told Snorre about his intentions to kill me (and thus indirectly told me, as I was listening to their conversation), I received a letter from him, where he pretended to be so very positive and where he was very friendly and wanted to meet me to discuss a contract that I had not yet signed. This was the only excuse he had to contact me, and it seemed like he was trying to set me up.

[…]

The same day I decided to drive to Oslo, hand him the signed contract and tell him to "f*** off", basically, and by doing so take away all the excuses he had to contact me ever again.”

There is no evidence except for Vikernes´ statements (or that of his friends) to support the claim that Euronymous wanted to kill him.

So, Vikernes received that letter from Euronymous that he presumed to be a “set up”. Since there is no proof that this conversation between Euronymous and Snorre ever took place – maybe this letter was indeed supposed to be what it looked like (a suggestion to talk about the contract and maybe come to terms on a friendly basis) and not a set up. But anyway – Vikernes felt threatened in some way and his reaction to this is to drive right away to the person he feels threatened by…? Makes sense... It´s not that Euronymous lived around the corner (so to say) but about 500 kilometers away. So I don´t think Vikernes would have had anything to fear about – he could have just sent the contract back and tell him by mail to “fuck off” or whatever. Or just ignore it.

Also, since Euronymous was supposed to go to jail for four months (and I am not even sure if that´s true; Vikernes probably made it up to add another twisted "justification" for the murder), he could have at least felt safe during that time. And in addition a lot can happen during four months – so if Euronymous really wanted to kill Vikernes, he could have changed his mind in jail. Anyway, I am just speculating here because, as I said above, I don´t believe he planned to kill him (and I never will).

*****

"Just before I left Snorre told me he wanted to come along, because he had some new guitar riffs to show him."

Interesting coincidence… anyway, some years earlier in his book Vargsmål (Life and Death Fight) he said:

“I came late in the evening, a friend of mine with come along with me for the alibi of the trip and show the "man" in Oslo some new music…”

*****

“Euronymous was waiting for me in entrance, looking very nervous, and I handed him the contract. I may add that of course he was nervous. The guy he planned to murder showed up at his doorstep in the middle of the night.”

If Euronymous had really planned to kill Vikernes I guess he would have either not let him in late at night (who in their right mind would actually do that?) or AT LEAST arm himself while Vikernes was walking up the stairs. But no, he welcomed him in nothing but his underwear. No weapon, no nothing. No wonder he looked nervous.

*****

“My belt knife was in the car, because it was in the belt I had left there, but I had a pocket knife, or rather a boot knife (with an 8 cm long blade) in my pocket.

[…] The blade was not sharp. It was so blunt I wouldn't have been able to cut a tomato in two with it without crushing it instead."

---

“The knife was little, about 10 cm length in the blade, and it was not sharp.”

(Vargsmål)

“Also I read an autopsy report and there was a wound through his chest which came out in the back! Which means of course I was angry and hit him hard. It was a very sharp knife.”

(Lords of Chaos; page 123)

How do you inflict a wound that goes through someone´s chest and comes out of the back with an 8 / 10 cm long blade…?

*****

"Some people have claimed I slew a helpless and unarmed man, but first of all he tried to get a knife before I did, and certainly he could have armed himself if he had chosen to stay and fight instead of running away like a coward."

He actually did not manage to get hold of a weapon so in fact he WAS unarmed.

*****

“I stabbed him (three or four times) in his left shoulder as he ran - that was the only part I could hit while we were running anyhow.

[…] but although the blood had splashed all over the walls inside the staircase, as we ran downwards, I had no blood in my face, only on my upper body.”

---

"The reason there were so many knife wounds (about 14-15, plus 8-9 cuts from glass pieces he fell on with his naked body. These cuts came from a lamp he crushed during his glorious escape), is due to my knife's modest size…"

(Vargsmål)

Blood splashes all over the walls from 3 or 4 stabs into the shoulder? Yeah, right…

Also the amount of stabs seem to diminish with every new version. I wonder what it will be like in the next (in case there will be one). Probably something like "I stabbed him once, he fell down the stairs and broke his neck".

*****

“The only reason I had pulled a knife was because he was trying to, and I figured it would be fair that I had a knife too, although the knife I had wasn't much.”

Repeating this doesn´t change the fact that, after all, he was actually unarmed.

*****

“He had showed his intention to kill me, and even though he was no longer a direct threat to me, there and then, I did not feel any bad for killing him. His cowardice had made me angry and I saw no reason to let him live, not when he had showed his intent to kill me.”

By doing what…?

*****

"Some have for some weird reason claimed that I killed Euronymous because of a girl...

[...] To my knowledge Euronymous didn't have a girlfriend, so it cannot be his girlfriend the people spreading this silly rumour were talking about either."

Huh? All of a sudden he didn´t have a girlfriend?

"Also, in August 1993 he was about to go to prison for four months, after being convicted for injuring two people with a broken bottle, because they had "looked at his girlfriend" at a bus-stop."

Ok, maybe he didn´t have this girlfriend anymore just before he was murdered - but well, still thought I point that one out since it´s definitely not clear from what Vikernes wrote.

*****

“Even the people who criticize me for killing a fellow Norwegian are wrong. Euronymous was actually Lappish, as can be clearly seen from the pictures of him. His Lappish (Mongolian) facial features are very visible, his hair was typical Lappish (thin and straight) and his stature was revealing too (like most Laps he was very short).”

---

“Also he was half Lappish, a Sami, so that was a bonus. Bastard!”

(Lords of Chaos; page 120)

This statement about Euronymous being a Sami (or half…he seems to be indecisive) has to be one of the best examples of Vikernes´ ever-changing views. As Vikernes says himself it was clearly visible - so it was of course visible at times when they were good friends (even if he tries his best to downplay this these days). So, Vikernes either did not realize this back then (unlikely if it was so clearly visible!) - or rather he simply did not care! Now if that´s not a change of mind… Great example of shooting yourself in the foot. Also very interesting in this context:

“I was a skinhead when I was 15 or 16. Nobody knows that. People say that suddenly I became a Nazi, but I was actually a skinhead back then.”

(Lords of Chaos; page 146)

*****

"They still had no hard evidence against me, though. The only really usable thing they had was the confession from Snorre, but even he hadn't seen me stabbing Euronymous."

Well, but he had at least seen him bleeding like hell...

"Outside we met Snorre, who had finished his cigarette. All the doors looked the same, and Snorre was a pretty absent-minded fellow, so he had ended up in the attic, one floor up, by mistake. Confused he had gone back down and used his lighter flame to light up the door sign, trying to read it and figure out if this was the right apartment. As he was trying to read the door sign Euronymous came running out in his underwear, bleeding and screaming like a madman. Snorre was so surprised and terrified he looked like a ghost, and it looked as if his eyeballs were about to fall out of his head."

*****

“They suddenly claimed - two months after the killing and two months after I had been suspected of killing him (and they already had my fingerprints, from the January 1993 arrest) - they had found my fingerprints in blood on the crime scene. I was wearing gloves when I killed him, so I knew that was a load of crap…”

---

“I had military shooting gloves in my pocket – if this was a first degree murder wouldn´t I have worn the gloves? Of course! I came into the building with gloves halfway out of my pocket and he attacked. If I was going to kill him I would have put on the gloves and then attacked.”

(Lords of Chaos; page 122)

Impossible to say what´s actually true here, but in case his most recent account on this – to repeat the quote I already used above -

“The same day I decided to drive to Oslo, hand him the signed contract and tell him to "f*** off", basically, and by doing so take away all the excuses he had to contact me ever again.”

Wearing gloves (in summer!) simply to tell him to fuck off…?

Also, from another article (An analysis of the Book "Lords of Chaos") but in the same context:

"On Page 126 there is talk about fingerprints. Well, there are no fingerprints! It is just a bluff by the police, and attempt to make me "admit" the killing before the trial as they had no proof. This "fingerprints" evidence was not mentioned even a single time in court, no evidence was ever shown on this. Why? Because it simply does not exist. It was a bluff. It is -obviously- impossible for me to leave fingerprints with my right thumb when I hold the knife in my right hand."

Hm...

*****

"The media claimed the killing was a result of a "power-struggle" in a "Satanic movement", and that I had killed him to take his place as a leader (?). Now, that doesn't make sense. I mean, is that how it works? You kill somebody to take their place? If You want to be appointed director of a firm You don't achieve that by killing the current director. What kind of world do these journalists live in? Are they living in animal pack or what? It just doesn't make sense at all."

It´s definitely not how it works in a company but I can imagine that in the Black Metal movement of the early 90s this was seen as legitimate by at least some individuals.

Also I think that in Vikernes´ so admired "Viking times" doing something like this was not unusual.

The company analogy is thus very inappropriate to say the least.

*****

“They also tried to present the killing as so very brutal, and claimed he had died because both his lungs had been punctured. They further claimed I had stabbed him 23 times. First of all I knew very well that he had died when I stabbed him in the head. Secondly he had fallen into a pile of glass fragments in his underwear. Naturally this gave him a lot of cuts - even under one of this heels as he got back up in his feet after falling. They knew this too, but instead claimed I had stabbed him 23 times, just to make people think I was so very cruel, bestial and brutal.”

Yeah, since glass fragments usually lie with the sharp edges up…

Also I really don´t think it would have made any difference as regards to the sentence Vikernes received for the murder if it took him one stab or 23 or whatever so his remark about "they knew this too..." is a great example of his paranoid thinking...

At least Vikernes seems to realize that knife stabs look totally different from wounds inflicted by glass fragments (irregular in shape and size, etc.) unlike a lot of his followers who never seem to stop arguing about it ... I don´t know how many times I ended up in discussions with them on this... so, if you still don´t believe that you would see a difference bang your forearm hard into a pile of glass fragments and then stab a knife through it - this should give you an idea of what I am talking about...

*****

"In court they showed pictures from the autopsy to a terrified jury. The pictures showed Euronymous naked in a table, with all his hair shaved off and his eyes still open, and all the cuts numbered with a pen in his skin. I know it was humiliating for him to get killed, but when they showed pictures from the autopsy in court that was surely much worse. Killing scumbags is one thing, but I would never humiliate anybody like that."

"Interesting" try to present the murder as the lesser of two evils since no-one would have humiliated him like this if he hadn´t been murdered in the first place...

Introduction

2009-06-25T02:31:00.012+02:00

The purpose of this blog is - in short - to show the various lies, history revisionisms and (self)-contradictions Varg Vikernes has come up with over the years - mostly by comparing quotes (and commenting them) from interviews he has done or from articles he wrote himself. And also to show his change of mind over the years on several topics.

In his view now everything he said years ago (that he doesn´t agree with anymore, that is) is "taken out of context", "misquoted" or are just "nasty lies spread by his enemies", etc. ...while he is actually the one twisting the truth to fit his agenda... Pathetic. Needless to say that he sees himself as totally innocent and "misunderstood". While this is sad enough by itself it´s even sadder that there are a lot of people who fall for his lies completely.

Lies, if only repeated often enough eventually become true in the view of some people.

I have to admit that Vikernes is very skilled (and experienced) in what he is doing; that makes it even more dangerous - I can, to some extent, even comprehend how weak minds can fall for his lies.

When Vikernes murdered Euronymous he was ostracized from the Black Metal community - but of course he didn´t waste a single moment to claim that he didn´t want to have anything to do with them anymore. Sure, it definitely sounds a lot better if, for example, when you are fired from a job to claim "I quit because I didn´t like it anymore" than to admit "I was fired because I fucked up totally"...

I remember a time when Euronymous was hailed as what he was - the creator of Norwegian Black Metal (and now let´s face it - without him most of us wouldn´t even be listening to Black Metal... and probably no one would care about Vikernes or his music) - and not disdained and everything he has done diminished because of all the bullshit Vikernes (and those who fell for his lies and rumors) spread(s) about him. It became worse, much worse over the years, so much that for me personally it was enough by now - also the fact that Vikernes was now let out of jail on probation was the final impulse for me to start this blog. Well, actually I have had this idea in my head for some years (from the moment I for the first time read that outrageous article "A Burzum Story Part II: Euronymous" in fact - this is also the reason my first article on this blog deals with this text.) - but since normally I am not into writing at all, I was hoping that maybe someone else (with an interest for writing, so to say...) would have the same thoughts on this and start something like this blog. Well, until this day I haven´t seen anything like this, so well, here it is - my attempt in presenting the other side of the story... It was about time...

I am very well aware that my attempt in doing so is probably not the best possible outcome - so in case anyone feels inspired by this blog in trying to do better I would definitely welcome it! Also please keep in mind while reading that English is not my native language so any spelling / grammar errors are due to this.

Black Metal is sadly not much more more than a joke these days - but those of us who remember different times shouldn´t keep our eyes closed and shake our heads in frustration but instead we should try to do something about it - at least by keeping the old spirit alive; Euronymous was not an ordinary human being - he was special and no one who takes Black Metal seriously should deny this! Well, if you are one of those who believe in anything they read / hear because it sounds comprehensible at first glance without thinking further into it then Black Metal is not for you anyway...

Before I come to the end of this introduction I would like to point out that whenever I use quotes from the book "Lords of Chaos" I use the first edition, published in 1998.

In case you think I take quotes out of context - well, most of the sources I used are just a click away; Lords of Chaos is still in print (as far as I know, that is), etc. - so read the complete texts and see for yourself...

If you have anything to say, a question, etc. leave a comment - or leave your email-address and I will get back to you.

Special greetings and thanks to Drusilla for her support!!!

*****

I dedicate this blog to the memory of

Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth

Eternal Hails!