TRAILER: Vikernes' Lies About Euronymous and His Murder

 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FyKtFqociI

 "There are millions of idiots spreading retardation on the internet, and Vargtards are just one little species. They don't matter much and I don't care much about them. But I must draw a line where they flood their leader with the sickening thanks and praise he seeks by regularly shitting on the memory of the man he murdered.

Everyone familiar with Black Metal has heard the story of Euronymous' death. Few are aware of the evolution of Vikernes' story over the years. Even apart from his devoted sect of fanboys, he has managed to convince millions of casual fans and outsiders of some if not many of the lies he spews about his victim, who is unable to defend himself.

You can expect a documentary-length examination of Vikernes' lies about Euronymous and his murder."

That sounds VERY promising, looking forward to the finished video.

Until the liar takes us

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

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

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

*****

[01:23]

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


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

*****

[08:50]

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


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

Source (and probably any Burzum fanpage)

*****

[09:58]

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


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


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

(The 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...

New articles at Burzum.org

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 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.

Glass fragments part 2

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 these 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

Fuck you Varg

New article soon...

"Glass fragments 2009"

(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...

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

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

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!