What I'm Reading
Lords of Chaos exists somewhere between true crime and music history. Through interviews, narrative, and rare photos (including a gruesome image of former Mayhem vocalist Dead after committing suicide), Moynihan and Soderlind detail a particularly violent period in the Norwegian Black Metal scene, including murders, suicides, and church burnings. The book focuses heavily on Varg Vikernes (known as Count Grishnackh), who is currently in prison for murdering former friend, producer, and bandmate Euronymous (Oystein Aarseth)—one of the most influential contributors to the scene and the former proprietor of Helvete, a record store that was in Oslo and the focus of much of the culture. The book also details the obsessions of the period and Vikernes: Satanism, Norse religion, and Neo-Nazi ideology. The prose isn't always consistent, but it’s a fascinating read if you can stomach it.
--Jason
posted by Subterranean Books @ 12:52 PM
2 Comments:
An excellent choice, Jason. I had Javier order this one for me a few years ago, and I've re-read it a few times since then. Oh, it has more than its fair share of typos and redundancies and redundancies (hee-hee!), but the chapters describing the Black Metal scene in its infancy and chronicling its eventual ugly adulthood are cracking. I had a Norwegian roommate in the late '90s, and he was horrified by Grishnack. Norway had never had anything so grisly happen, and it deeply disturbed him that I knew about his homeland's shameful secret. Which kinda says a lot about America, that I read this for entertainment and my roommate watched it unfold with horror.
That graphic image of Dead you mention also serves as the cover of the Mayhem bootleg "Dawn of the Black Hearts." When I think of "Lords of Chaos," I always picture that album cover and hear the music. They're linked, forever, in my subconscious!
And if you must see the infamous picture, it's availabe here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Of_The_Black_Hearts among other places. Thanks, Paul. That does say a lot about America. Wow.
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