The nature of an underground music genre invariably fosters rivalry among specific scenes from different localities, countries, or the individual bands themselves. Such was the case with the Swedish and Norwegian Black Metal crowds, with leading members of both groups competing for primacy in the ambiguous, amorphous “Black Circle.” Samoth of Emperor recalls, “Several people from Sweden were in Norway on occasion. There’s no doubt that what happened in Norway made an impact on several other countries.”6 There was a certain degree of cooperation between the two groups, but the recent frictions had been strong enough that when Øystein Aarseth was found slaughtered in the stairwell of his apartment building on August 10, 1993, the initial suspicion of many was directed at the Swedes.
The death of “Euronymous” shook the Black Metal scene to its core. Until that point, many felt they could continue to escape the repercussions of their deeds unscathed—deeds which by now had become a veritable shopping list of church arson, murder, burglary, death threats, grave desecration, and vandalism.
METALION
DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING BEFORE THE MURDER?
I didn’t expect it at all. I hadn’t spoken to Euronymous for a while before, and things were very quiet. All of the sudden this happened, and it was very surprising to me. I didn’t even think it was Grishnackh who did it. I was confused and it took a very long time before I realized anything.
It was very strange. A cop came to my place and I was brought in for questioning. They raided my place and were looking through all my stuff. I wrote a letter to Grishnackh and told him about the stupid police coming to my place, and he gave me total support. He said, “Fuck them, just tell them nothing,” and stuff like this. So I didn’t know. I was surprised, I must say so.
WHO DID YOU THINK KILLED HIM?
I thought it was just some lunatic who was living in Oslo, or some drug people had killed him for some stupid reason. I didn’t have any reason to suspect anyone, because the people in Sweden I didn’t think were capable of doing anything like this.
THE NEWSPAPERS SUGGESTED HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN KILLED BY SWEDES?
I never believed that. I knew those people and they weren’t capable of it.
DID YOU THINK IT COULD BE SOMEONE FROM THE BLACK METAL SCENE?
I didn’t really know what to think. At first I thought it was some druggies, people who killed him for some money or something. Some crazy accident or incident. Because I couldn’t think of anyone who wanted to kill him.
WHAT EFFECT DID IT HAVE ON THE BLACK METAL SCENE?
The effect was that a lot more people were attracted to Black Metal because it was in the newspapers. People who never knew what Black Metal was, or Death Metal, or Metal at all, were attracted to this because they thought it was cool. People who never knew Grishnackh and never knew Euronymous. “Oh yeah, Black Metal—that’s the new thing.” There were so many new bands starting at this time in ’93 who were influenced by the writing in the newspapers. People braindead who are not capable of thinking for themselves, who just follow trends. Maybe now the worst trend people who have followed it have switched to something else. I hope these people get another hobby.
In the days following the fateful, late-night murder in Oslo, police launched an investigation into Øystein Aarseth’s death, interviewing numerous personalities in the Black Metal scene which he had almost single-handedly founded. Vikernes allegedly told police the murder was surely the handiwork of Swedish pseudo-Satanists, who were envious of the more hardcore Norwegian Black Metal ideology. At one point a police spokesman even stated about the rivalry, “These groups really hate each other and they are capable of using almost any method to punish one another.”7
Investigators also questioned many who hung on the coattails of Black Metal, and on August 13th they spent eight hours talking with Ilsa Raluce Anghel, a 16-year-old Swedish girl who had lived for a brief time with Aarseth. She cryptically told police:
I am quite sure that I know who killed Øystein. The murderer was jealous and wished to take over Øystein’s leading position in the scene. ... I do not believe that Øystein was killed by Swedish Satanists. Most of the Swedes are too cowardly to ever commit a murder. I will not reveal the name of the real killer. The Black Metal scene will exact its own revenge against him.8
She also explained that in recent conversations Aarseth had told her the feud between the Swedish and Norwegian Satanists had ended; thus there was no motive for them to have murdered him. She elaborated on the background of the murderer:
The one who I think is the killer is part of the Norwegian scene. Many of the others I have been talking to in the Norwegian scene have already reached the same conclusion. I cannot give the name of the person I believe to be the killer because I would be risking my life.
The nature of the killing itself confirmed her suspicions, she said. “I don’t think [Øystein] would have let a stranger into his apartment; that wasn’t his style. That makes me even more sure about who the killer was.”9
Of course she was alluding to Varg Vikernes, and it didn’t take long for the police to piece together what had actually transpired. Many in the scene knew of a feud between Vikernes and Aarseth, but they didn’t suspect it could have reached such intense proportions. Some were more cynical, and assumed the killer must have come from “within” the scene, and there were few possibilities about who it could be. Ihsahn of Emperor first heard about the murder on the evening news:
I turned on the TV at home, and heard the words “Øystein Aarseth,” and I wondered—what could he be doing on TV? Oh shit, Grishnackh killed him, I thought. Then I called Samoth and said, “I think Grishnackh killed Euronymous.” We knew that they weren’t friends anymore and that they hated each other, but Samoth didn’t think it could be so. I was kind of shocked, because I knew him quite well at the time. But it didn’t change anything else for me, Euronymous being dead.10
Aarseth had been forced to close the Helvete store a few months earlier, due to overwhelming attention from the media and police after the initial Black Metal church fire revelations. His parents were upset about all the negative publicity and, since they had helped him finance the shop, they successfully leaned on him to shut it down. Vikernes sarcastically points out how Aarseth’s inconsistent nature often resulted in deference to his parents’ wishes instead of adhering to the black and “evil” image he supposedly embodied: “Øystein once came to one of the newspapers wearing a white sweater, and later apologized to the scene, in case he had insulted anybody! It was all because of his parents. He was 26 years old!”11
After only four days of investigative work following the interview with Ilsa, the police had enough evidence and testimony to confidently make their move against the slayer of Øystein Aarseth. On August 19, 1993, they arrested Varg Vikernes in Bergen. As the case unfolded, they would eventually be able to bring charges against him for far more than just the killing.
There are endless speculations on the motives for the killing of Aarseth. Certainly the relations between him and Vikernes had soured. Øystein owed Varg a significant sum of royalty payments from the Burzum releases on Deathlike Silence, although given the poorly-run nature of the record label, this was hardly unusual or unexpected. Vikernes denies there was any monetary motive behind his actions. Others claim the attack came about as a result of a power struggle for dominance of the Black Metal scene, although astute insiders like Metalion are skeptical: “That’s stupid reasoning, because you can’t expect to kill someone and have everyone think of you as the king and forget about him. That’s very, very primitive. It’s something more than that, I think.”12
IHSAHN: I knew they had a conflict. Euronymous had said he thought Grishnackh was an asshole. Grishnackh thought Euronymous was an asshole. To some degree I think it was a fight for leadership. In some way they both wanted power, and to be the leading man. They had both done a lot; Grishnackh started the church burning, but Euronymous had the shop and kind of started the scene up. They were both imp
ortant people for the progression of the scene. Maybe I’m speculating too much.
SAMOTH: It did not come as a shock really. I was hoping that it wasn’t Vikernes who did it, because I knew that this would lead to a lot of shit. But Vikernes was arrested shortly after, and then the ball started to roll. The police began a huge investigation of the whole scene, both in Norway and Sweden. The fact that Euronymous died did not affect me much personally. But because of his murder, the whole thing collapsed and we all got bloody arrested and ended up in prison. I was okay with Euronymous, but I was also okay with Vikernes. I’d heard Vikernes talk shit about Euronymous and vice-versa, but I didn’t want to take any sides. After the confessions and trials there was a lot of tribulation between some of us. Vikernes was obviously pissed off, as he went down for a lot of stuff. These days I’m hardly concerned about the death of Euronymous at all. I think some people made a little bit too much fuss about him being “the king” and all that. He was once important for the scene, but I am my own master.
METALION: The final recordings of the Mayhem album and the financial situation between Grishnackh and Euronymous—I think that was the thing that started it all, and ended it all. Øystein never mentioned Grishnackh, he would just say he was having problems with certain elements in the Norwegian Black Metal scene, but of course it was him he was talking about. It was only financial matters—he owed him royalties from the first two Burzum albums, which I think Grishnackh never received. That’s because Euronymous wasn’t a good businessman and I don’t think he had the cash to pay him. Also Grishnackh’s mother paid for the studio recording of the first album, and Euronymous owed her money which she was supposed to get back. I don’t think it ever happened. All this added up with the aggression between them. And Grishnackh wanted to sign with another record label, Candlelight or Earache.
VIKERNES IN KERRANG!
ØYSTEIN “EURONYMOUS” AARSETH
BÅRD EITHUN
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT ØYSTEIN’S MURDER?
I was supposed to visit Øystein, the night he was killed, but instead I waited and went to visit him the day after. I was walking up to his apartment and then I was in the middle of the investigation by the cops. There were people there from the TV and newspapers and that’s how I heard that Øystein was killed.
WERE YOU SURPRISED?
Of course, because I didn’t expect it at all. It was like something that doesn’t happen to people you know, only to those you don’t know. I tried to pick out who might have been there to do it, but I couldn’t recall.
YOU DIDN’T THINK IT WAS VIKERNES?
I didn’t, not at all. I didn’t know he was so stupid that he could do it.
DID YOU KNOW ABOUT A FEUD BETWEEN HIM AND ØYSTEIN?
I knew there were disagreements between them, but I don’t think Øystein took it very seriously. 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 was-n’t any big deal really, because he was an easy going, very controlled person. There was also a disagreement about some money that Vikernes had lent to ystein. Øystein had needed money to release the first Burzum record, which of course he didn’t have the ability to pay back. Vikernes was angry about all that. But he knew that Øystein needed time to pay back the money because he had to get the business into a good condition. Anyway, it wasn’t any reason in that to kill him, just for some money... at least he can’t get it back now!
EMPEROR LIVE IN ENGLAND, 1993
WHAT ABOUT THE STORY THAT ∅YSTEIN WAS PLANNING TO KILL VIKERNES?
I don’t know because I was in England at that time with my band, Emperor. I heard that Øystein called Mortiis [Emperor’s bassist at the time] and was talking about how he wanted to kill Vikernes, but I heard this after the murder. But honestly, I can’t see any reason for him to want to kill Vikernes. Maybe something happened when I was in England, I don’t know.
WHAT ABOUT THE SELF-DEFENSE STORY?
That’s bullshit. There’s no reason why Øystein would attack Vikernes after he’d just woken up, still in his underwear. He wouldn’t do it.
I can understand it though, because Vikernes wanted to get away from a twenty-one-year, first-degree murder sentence. It’s a natural move—it was the same with me in court, I tried to get away from it by claiming self-defense. But it’s not easy in Norway to get away with such stuff.
VIKERNES PROMO PHOTO, 1993
DID YOU HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH VIKERNES AFTER THAT?
None at all. He was arrested after the murder and I was arrested two weeks later. We were in different prisons and I had no interest in writing to him because he killed Øystein, who I had known for six years and who I liked more than Vikernes at that time. Vikernes had started to get a very big ego, after he had been in the news at that time, and he believed he was important. Øystein was more down-to-earth. Vikernes always had all these plans about all kinds of shit. One night it was plans about killing different people, one night it was about burning stuff, and then it would change again. He was always talking about burning down churches. It wasn’t very realistic.
VARG VIKERNES
WHERE DOES THE INCIDENT WITH ∅YSTEIN COME INTO EVERYTHING?
Øystein has nothing to do with anything! He knew us, and every time someone burned a church he was going around talking to everybody, boasting that we have burned another church. He was always saying “we” because he wanted to be part of it. The only criminal thing that I know he’s done was a burglary, a break-in of a church, and then the terrorizing of another Black Metal guy [this was the threat made against Stian “Occultus”], which actually I convinced him to join in on.
He was just following me. Øystein was just a big mouth—of course we used that consciously. If I wanted to implant a meaning into the whole scene, I could just tell him and he’d say, “Okay, yeah, that’s right!” and he’d tell everybody “I’ve got a new idea.” Suddenly everybody knew the same. It was the simple way. He was a big mouth, and we joked about him being the “mouth of Grishnackh.” I told this to Øystein before he died, and that was one of the reasons he was so against me—because I revealed his true nature.
ØYSTEIN WASN’T INVOLVED IN ANY OF THE CHURCH BURNINGS?
Not the crimes. He did not plan or do anything else either. He did nothing.
DID OTHERS DISLIKE HIM IN THE SCENE?
Darkthrone realized what a jerk he was. They didn’t want anything to do with him. Fenriz liked Øystein, but the other guys hated him. That’s damn sure. They cursed him in rituals—they were Satanists.
WHY DID PEOPLE HATE HIM?
Because he was nothing of what he presented himself as. More and more people realized that he was just lying. When he was sitting in his shop drinking Coca-Cola and eating Kebab from the Paki shop next door, it was all our money he bought everything with. It was dishonest pay. He was a parasite. Also he was half Lappish, a Sami, so that was a bonus. Bastard!
He was ripping everyone off, all of us. When he gave records away and people thought, “Oh, Øystein is so cool, I got a free record from him,” it was us who paid for it. More and more people got pissed as he ripped people off. I got orders in advance for the Aske mini-album, and since I was in prison I just gave the orders to him so he could have them. He just took all the money and didn’t send one single album out.
YOU WERE GETTING MORE AND MORE FED UP WITH ØYSTEIN?
Yeah. We didn’t want anything to do with him, and he was always phoning up and asking, “Can I stay at your place when I’m in Bergen?” We’d say, “No.” But the reason I tried to kill him is actually quite simple: he tried to kill me.
He also told Samoth and some people—and one of them phoned me and said Øystein was planning to kill me. And he [Øystein] did not tell everyone about it, which he usually did. So this time it was serious, obviously. Also because he didn’t boast about it or say anything (except to those
people he trusted, who of course reported to me) I thought, okay, maybe that’s serious.
So I just drove straight to his home and asked, “What the fuck are you thinking?” and he panicked. If you plan to kill someone and the guy turns up at your apartment at three o’clock at night, you panic, quite simple. He planned to kill me, but when I turned up at his place he probably thought I was going to kill him, so he panicked. And in his panic he attacked me.
He kicked me in the chest, and I was quite stunned. Then I threw him to the floor. Suddenly he tried to run for a knife in the kitchen. I said, okay, if he’s going to have his knife then I’m going to have a knife, and I pulled my knife. I managed to stop him before he got his knife and I stabbed him. Then he tried to go to the bedroom where he had his shotgun—the gun Dead shot himself with.
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