Lords of Chaos

by Michael Moynihan

  HE LIVED AND DIED BY THE SWORD...

  But the thing is, he was not a swordsman. He wasn’t as tough as he claimed. He didn’t receive a just death—that would be too stupid to say—but he got a just death according to who he posed as.

  I liked Øystein for what he was, but he refused to admit that he was like that. He took away what I found to be sympathetic about him. After a while, when we were in the same room, he refused to be the cool guy that I knew. He refused to let go of his mask.

  Snorre today maintains the same story which he told in court, presenting himself as the ambivalent accessory to Varg’s crime. However, his comments in the above interview are made questionable with his remark about the murder when he states, “I was neither for nor against it. I didn’t give a shit about Øystein, I had nothing to do with him.”

  The truth of the matter is that Snorre had shortly before joined Mayhem as a second guitar player. It is difficult to believe that he could have cared less about killing the founder of the band he was in—doubly difficult given Mayhem’s position as such a legendary group in the underground. In hearing his and Vikernes’s versions of the story, both are flawed. With his history of mental problems, one far-fetched explanation may be that Snorre was too daft to comprehend what he was actually participating in.

  VARG VIKERNES

  IT SEEMS ODD YOU WOULD GO TO MURDER SOMEONE WITH AN ACCOMPLICE WHO WAS THEIR FRIEND.

  The guy who went with me joined me because he was going to show Øystein some new riffs on the guitar! They were playing in the same band. He was in Mayhem at the time, he was the second guitarist besides Øystein. He was his best friend.

  DID THAT COME UP IN COURT?

  I tried to bring it up; they just suppressed it. ... [Snorre] testified against me. He did his best to nail me. But he did it so well that he nailed himself—he got eight years for doing nothing. Just because he was with me. They said that he supported me psychologically. They sent him to prison for eight years, for doing nothing. He regrets it very deeply now, but it’s too late. He didn’t think about that then—too bad.

  HE LIVED IN BERGEN?

  He was living in my apartment for a limited time. He was a common friend of ours; Øystein’s best friend—my worst friend! But I’m not blaming others, because I’m the fool who socialized with such idiots. I must have been quite a fool to not realize these guys were just losers. The only foolish thing I did and the only thing I regret, is not killing [Snorre] as well. If I’d killed him as well I would not have gotten any more punishment if I was caught, and secondly, I wouldn’t have been caught. That’s what I regret.

  PRO-VIKERNES FLYER

  HELLHAMMER

  WAS THE GUITARIST IN MAYHEM DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE KILLING OF EURONYMOUS?

  Varg and Blackthorn were living in Bergen, about seven hours’ drive from Oslo. It was planned that they were going to kill him. So he was part of the murder but he didn’t stab him, he just stood and watched.

  YOU DON’T SOUND SO UPSET ABOUT THIS YOURSELF.

  I’m not.

  WEREN’T YOU CLOSE TO EURONYMOUS?

  Well, I liked him a lot, but the fact that he was a communist offended me. Euronymous wanted to be the most extreme person, and he thought that communism was very extreme, with the things in Soviet Russia you know? But after awhile, a couple of years, he found out that communism was total shit. He realized this and then claimed to be a fascist, but I don’t know about that. He was a communist, sadly.

  BARBARIAN ETHICS

  Although he steadfastly maintains that Øystein’s death came about as partial self-defense (based on a pre-emptive strike), Vikernes is quick to point out other justifications for ridding the world of Aarseth. Communism and homosexuality are mentioned, along with Øystein’s dishonesty (which friends of Aarseth dismiss as merely the result of ineptitude in business affairs), false nature and weakness, summing him up as “the god of laziness in earthly communist manifestation.”14

  Once asked why he did not realize these extreme flaws in Aarseth’s character earlier, Vikernes replied:

  Because Euronymous lived five hundred kilometers from Bergen; so seldomly did I meet him. It took me half a year of weekly contact by phone, mail, and some visits, to find out what a loser he truly was. But he was a good actor, and a good liar for sure.15

  Many who knew Aarseth concur that the extreme Satanic image he projected was, in fact, just that—a projection which bore little resemblance to his real personality. Vikernes also asserts that many in the Black Metal scene applauded when they heard about Aarseth’s death, and this is no doubt true. Vikernes also appears genuinely perplexed that anyone cares about Øystein’s premature departure from the scene, and in this Varg fails to realize that even if they did not always like him personally, Euronymous fulfilled the role of figurehead for the music genre which had held so many in sway during their younger, impressionable years.

  PRO-VIKERNES FLYER

  What is striking about members of the Scandinavian Black Metal circles in general is how little they cared about the lives or deaths of one another. When Dead killed himself, it became merely an opportunity for Aarseth to hype Mayhem to a new level. When he himself died violently two years later, his own bandmates speak of the killing with a tone of indifference more suited to a court stenographer.

  After enough time extolling “death and evil,” some began to take it seriously indeed. Vikernes stated frankly from jail while on trial: “Basically I am a worshipper of Odin, the god of war and death. Burzum exists exclusively for Odin, the one-eyed enemy of the Christian God.”16 Varg’s obsession with war and death is shared by others, or so they proclaim in the pages of fanzines and CD booklets.

  ANTI-VIKERNES FLYER

  ANTI-VIKERNES FLYER

  A number of prominent Black Metalers have sworn to avenge Aarseth’s death on the day Vikernes is finally released from his twenty-one year sentence. Aware of such sentiments, Varg’s reply is a mocking one:

  We shall all die and I fear it not. In a way we are all dying, for indeed life is a slow death. We grow old, fade away, grow weak. I say let the weak die. My time shall come when I am weak, as with all the others. If I am shot in the back, I’m a fool not to foresee that a sniper may lurk in the shadows behind me. If I am stabbed to death with a knife or dagger, I am a weaker warrior than my foe. If I am poisoned, I am a fool to let my enemy near my food. If a car hits me, I am too unobservant to deserve survival. If I die of disease it is my destiny. Alas, if anybody wants me dead let them try; I enjoy a good fight and if they win (which they won’t! HAH!), they win—so what? I’ll die fighting. Reincarnation in Valhalla awaits. Eternal strife!17

  With the killings committed by Bård Eithun and Varg Vikernes, members of the Black Metal scene had proven their willingness to match the violent rhetoric with bloody deeds. In the eerie phenomenon which haunts the movement, Øystein Aarseth had now followed tradition and managed to live up to his name—he was indeed Euronymous, “the prince of death.” He had achieved his ideal of “deathlike silence.”

  With the exception of Darkthrone, the major Norwegian Black Metal bands were now in hiatus, their key members facing prison sentences for arson, grave desecration, and murder. The legal proceedings that would follow disrupted the entire scene and pitted different factions against one another. People felt forced to choose sides: pro-Vikernes or pro-Euronymous. At this point a cult developed around the memory of Euronymous, hailed as “the King” or “Godfather of Black Metal.” As many have commented in the preceding interviews, much of this was hyperbole, emanating from a second generation of musicians trying to gain credibility by riding on the back of the legend of Aarseth’s Black Metal legacy.

  At this point Vikernes began to vehemently disassociate himself from his former friends. He stated he had nothing to do with the Black Metal scene—his interests lay elsewhere in the realms of nationalism and the worship of Odin. It was true Vikernes had upheld a far more uncompromised attitude in his interactions with
the police than many of his former colleagues (although his Bergens Tidende interview had triggered the police interest in Black Metal to begin with). He simply refused to cooperate with the authorities, and maintained he was innocent until proven guilty. He followed the advice of his lawyer and never testified in court.

  KERRANG! HEADLINE

  The same cannot be said of the other offenders, most of whom confessed in detail once they were pressured by the police. On the one hand, this is understandable given their young age, relative naivety, and fear of worse punishments if they refused to admit their wrongdoing. Samoth explains his own experiences with the police, and reasons for confessing, which are probably similar to some of the others:

  I was arrested in September ’93 and put into custody. I had on several occasions been in for questioning. The first time was right after Vikernes for some reason openly stated in a major Bergen newspaper that it was the “Black Circle” who were behind all the church burnings, and also that he knew something about the “Olympic Park Murder.” I didn’t tell the police shit then. Next time was during August ’93, right after the murder of Euronymous, in connection with Bård Eithun’s murder, as well as the many church burnings. I said nothing relevant to the police at this point. By the time I was arrested, everyone else had been arrested and Eithun had already confessed to his actions. I was arrested on the basis of some statements made by three other guys in the scene. I realize now that these statements weren’t that strong. However, at that time I was not very familiar with the law and how it all worked. I listened way too much to my lawyer, which was my first mistake. During my time in custody, another stronger statement against me came up. My main mistake was of course trying to explain myself out of it. The best thing is obviously to keep your mouth shut. Anyway, in the end, the statements that I had given to the police were so full of shit, so I decided to confess. I guess in a way I gave up. Also my instincts told me it was the best possible way, because as I had understood it, I would go down for this no matter what. I also figured Vikernes was so deep in it already, so it would make no bigger difference. Egoistic maybe, but I had to put myself on top of the ladder.18

  BÅRD EITHUN

  WHAT WAS THE CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT LED TO YOU FINALLY GETTING CAUGHT?

  It was when Øystein was killed, because he was killed almost like this homosexual, with many stabbings. Then the cops started to question people in the scene about this homosexual murder. They were talking to people and people told the police that I had done this murder.

  DO YOU KNOW WHO TOLD THEM?

  I have my suspicions. I guess I know. It was different people, it was not really the people involved in the scene but the hangers-on who wanted to be inside the scene. Unfortunately they had gotten some very secret information. These people knew stuff that hadn’t been written about in the newspapers, so it was easy for the cops to understand that it was true.

  WHAT WAS FIRST VISIT FROM THE POLICE?

  I was arrested when I was drinking, so I don’t remember much. It was up in Kvikne, I was outside a local motel drinking with some people. The cops came and wanted to talk to me and they had an arrest order and wanted to go to my apartment and look through my stuff. I woke up at at the police station in Oslo, and understood of course that I had been arrested for this murder.

  WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR QUESTIONING?

  I was arrested at night, brought into Oslo in the morning, and that afternoon they questioned me. They asked me if I knew anything about the rumors about me that I killed this man. Of course I said I didn’t know anything. Then my lawyer advised me to admit to the murder, which now I understand was not a very good thing to do, because that made me get some more years I think.

  HE ASSUMED YOU HAD DONE IT?

  He believed I did it. It was easier for him if I admitted it because then he didn’t have to make up a history of what might happened and tell that to the court. It was easier for him to have me admit it. Also when I didn’t want to confess to the burning, he immediately came to the police station to talk to me, saying “You have to confess to it.” I was not very impressed with the lawyer. He had a very good reputation, but many people have also had very bad experiences with him drinking in court, drunk, and sleeping in court, which he was doing during my case.

  Varg Vikernes is disgusted by the fact that while he held fast to a code of silence, others confessed. In his mind, all who testified about the criminal activities are snitches. The trial brought out a who’s who of the Black Metal scene, and testimonies flew in all directions, often implicating the witnesses themselves. Numerous documents were introduced before the court: the record contract carried by Vikernes to Oslo, letters written by Vikernes and others, maps and forensic reports, and the now infamous Bergens Tidende article.

  The resulting statements and police interviews were enough to convict Vikernes of murder and arson and possession of illegal weapons. In his own summation:

  I was sentenced to twenty-one years in prison for three church fires, where they had one witness as the only “evidence” in each of the fires; an attempted torching of a bell tower where two of the same witnesses were the only “evidence”; theft and storage of 100 kilograms of dynamite and 50 kilograms of glynite (slow ignition explosives)—something that I confessed to—and a couple of breaking and enterings into some some cabins in which two books were stolen.19

  He was 21 years old, ordered to spend that many years again in maximum security prison—the Norwegian equivalent of a life sentence. On the day of Varg’s sentencing, two more churches were torched in Norway, presumably as a statement of symbolic support. Bård Eithun received a lesser fourteen-year murder sentence for his crime. Snorre, Vikernes’s accomplice to the killing of Øystein Aarseth, received eight years. The rest, people like Samoth and Jørn Inge Tunsberg who had participated in church burnings but confessed to police, received two-to three-year sentences to be served in minimum security institutions. Many of those involved in the church arsons have also had huge fines levied upon them to repay the damages and reconstruction costs caused by their actions.

  During the course of the court proceedings, which took place in the spring of 1994, Vikernes quickly became a pariah in the nation’s consciousness. He had all the qualities which offered a field day for tabloid journalists. The newspapers and television would train their guns in Varg’s direction, and in turn he provided them with all the ammunition they could ever require.

  THE OFFICIAL STORY

  In 1998, the Norwegian police issued a report entitled Kirkebranner og satanistisk motiverte skadeverk (Church Fires and Satanically Motivated Criminal Damage). As a cooperative effort between four different police and judicial officers, one of them a state attorney, and as many investigative agencies, it brings forth a variety of material and reflects a range of experience.

  The report details the way in which the Norwegian Black Metal scene was structured around the time the police investigations began, how the police cracked open the subculture, and it offers recommendations of methods for other police departments to deal with similar situations in the future. Even if the report was produced with the benefit of hindsight (which, as the cliché goes, tends to be 20/20), the reader can sense that it is largely written by people whose experience dealing with the dark underbelly of society has given them bullshit detectors in full working order. At the same time, the sheer outlandishness and frequent self-contradictions of the Black Metal scene are bound to bewilder any outside observer—and some of the confusion expressed by the teenage Black Metal rebels is bound to rub off on anyone trying to make sense of them.

  The main problems arise when the authors try to place the Norwegian church-burning, Black Metal brand of Satanism into a larger context. It is in these sections of the report, when down-to-earth cops leave their areas of expertise and begin to speculate about fringe religious practices, that the otherwise sober tone gives way to wild exaggerations.

  Sadly, some of the material seems to be derived from American
Fundamentalist Christian sources. As a result, the police report (which more often reads like a how-to-manual for dealing with criminal elements in the Satanic movement) occasionally regurgitates a hodgepodge of Christian Satanic scare propaganda of the sort that fueled the “Satanic panics” which swept across America in the 1980s and Britain and parts of Europe in the 1990s—hysteria-driven panics that almost invariably turned out to be unfounded.

  The report also contains factual errors of a nature that anyone familiar with the history of twentieth-century occultism would not make, such as attributing the authorship of Aleister Crowley’s famous Liber al vel Legis (The Book of the Law) to Michael Aquino, head of the far less influential Temple of Set, a small Church of Satan splinter group.

  Especially difficult to take seriously is the alleged calendar of “Satanic holy days” reprinted in the report, with many of the dates involving the sexual molestation of minors—something that is strongly condemned by all established Satanic organizations. And while it might be argued that fringe religious phenomena like Satanism are often so bewildering that it’s hard to accurately assess their practices, even complete novices in the study of New Religious Movements should begin to suspect something is wrong when they see references to dates that don’t exist, such as April 31. Unless, of course, Satanists are so evil that they follow their own calendar.