Lords of Chaos (5 Stars)

I don't understand the Norwegian justice system. Varg Vikernes was found guilty of a vicious pre-meditated murder, shown in the film in lurid detail, for which he was sentenced to 21 years in prison. That's the longest prison sentence allowed in Norway. That doesn't seem like much to me, but I accept that a maximum length is necessary. What bothers me more is that the sentence also said he had the chance of parole after 12 years. That's laughable. As it turned out, he was released after 15 years, also too short. But what's parole anyway? I thought parole is meant to be early release for good behaviour. That didn't apply to Varg. After nine years he ran away from a low security prison. He was found and re-imprisoned within 24 hours, but in any other country his chances of parole would have been immediately cancelled. Added to this, while in prison he published a blog inciting hatred against Jews. That should also have ended his chances of parole. In other countries, if you break the law while you've been freed on probation you have to go back to prison to finish the rest of your sentence. Not Varg. In 2014, within the original 21 year period, he was found guilty of promoting racial hatred in France. Maybe Norway's justice system ignores crimes committed abroad.

Varg doesn't approve of the film "Lords of Chaos". He objects to being played by a Jewish actor, Emory Cohen. I can see that it's a problem for him, but I think it's funny.

He was doubtlessly a musical genius. He played all the instruments in the "group" Burzum, guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, as well as singing vocals. How can such a brilliant young man have such a twisted mind? He burnt down churches to protest about Norway turning its back on Odin, its true God. I shan't comment on that. Churches are just buildings, not people, and maybe Norwegians were to blame for building their churches out of wood. But ending another person's life is a terrible crime. Even hate speech is awful in itself. Couldn't he just have made music?

Varg didn't kill just anybody. He murdered his former friend Oystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous, an equally brilliant musician. Today, 25 years after his death, he's regarded as the founder of the Norwegian black metal scene.

The film shows Euronymous as being responsible for Varg's excesses. Euronymous spoke big words against Norwegian Christians and criticised the insincere Swedish death metal bands, calling them life metal bands, but that's as far as it went. Euronymous spoke out against them, but it was just words. He was more interested in making music than burning churches. When he criticised Varg's complacency, Varg went out and set a church on fire. Euronymous praised this action, but still didn't want to do anything himself. It was only when Varg mocked him that he took part in church burnings.

Eventually Varg turned against him. It could be argued that Euronymous was responsible for his own death. If he'd toned down his rhetoric, Varg might not have become such an extremist.

The film itself is amazing. It shows everything that happened with brutal documentary authenticity. It's a chilling peek into the world of death metal. I have great respect for the musicians. They believed in something, and they lived for what they believed. Maybe they were mistaken. I'm referring to the ones who didn't kill anyone. Those who killed people were definitely mistaken. Did they really believe in Satan? I don't know. They wanted to lead a Satanic lifestyle. That's more honest than the hypocrites who say they want to lead a Christian lifestyle, but have never read the Bible.

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