As Vikernes gets closer to Euronymous’s lies, the more he feels he has a point to prove about his own integrity. Euronymous is painted as both a musical pioneer and a master of the dark arts: visionary in steering rock music in a new direction, while scaremongering about his band in the press. Euronymous, Rory Culkin, eventually pushes past his own scene snobbery and lets Vikernes in on the secrets behind the band’s success. In the movie, the pair are powerful but opposite centres of gravity for the movement: Vikernes, played by a chillingly emotionless Emory Cohen, enters as a Mayhem fan desperate to get in with his heroes. His new film Lords of Chaos focuses in on the friendship between Vikernes and Euronymous, as the creative bonds they form early on eventually drive them apart.
Icier still were the scene’s proprietors, with bands like Mayhem, Burzum and Darkthrone donning grimacing black and white makeup - so-called ‘corpse paint’ - and bloodying themselves on stage. There was true horror in the cacophony, with sped-up riffs buried under thick layers of sleet, blast-beats like static TV emissions and shrieking eldritch vocals wrenched from the gutter. As police and journalists zoomed in further, it appeared the arson was being committed by members of a niche new music subgenre, a ground-breakingly bleak twist on black metal coming straight out of Oslo.ĭubbed the “Necro Sound”, Norwegian black metal was icy, impenetrable - far more atmospheric and unknowable than any metal before it. In 1992, global news reported on a unique new crime-spree gripping southern Norway: teenagers were burning down churches.
To accompany this cover story, Jonas Åkerlund has submitted his ten favourite black metal tracks, and exclusive behind the scenes stills he took on the set of Lords of Chaos.
Taken from autumn 2018 issue of Dazed. You can buy a copy of our latest issue here.
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