Lords of Chaos (5 Stars)

True Stories #27

Name: Oystein Aarseth

Lived: 22 March 1968 – 10 August 1993

Film dates: 1987 to 1993 (death)

Film made in 2018

"Those loved by the gods die young" (Herodotus, 445 BC).

That's definitely true of 25-year-old Oystein Aarseth, even though I doubt he would have applied the quote to himself. He was a brilliant young musician from Oslo, Norway. He's credited with inventing the music genre True Norwegian Black Metal. My knowledge of music isn't enough to distinguish his music from the black metal of other countries. All I can say is that I enjoy the first album of Mayhem, which I'm listening to while I write this post.

Maybe he would have lived longer if he'd stuck to music, but that's exactly what he didn't want to do. He mocked other metal bands who claimed to be Satanists but didn't live as Satanists. Together with his fellow musician Varg Vikernes he burnt down at least nine churches from 1992 to 1993. Varg burnt down the first church by himself, and Oystein, who also called himself Euronymous, participated in most of the following acts of arson.

The reason for the church burnings was confused. If the arsonists had merely been Satanists, it would have been easy to understand, but they also believed in Odin and wanted Norway to return to its true religion. The beliefs in Satan and Odin are contradictory, because the Norse religion has no devil. Apart from that, Varg also admired Hitler, but that's probably only because he hated Jews. Oystein had a picture of Stalin on the wall. It seems that Oystein and Varg automatically supported everything that was against Christianity.

Mayhem's band members came and went. Only Oystein was a constant member. After all, it was his band. On the left in the above photo is Per Ohlin, a Swedish singer who called himself Dead. He was infamous for slashing his wrists on stage and spraying his blood over the audience. He finally killed himself with a shotgun at the age of 22.

Varg was a member of Mayhem for about a year and played bass guitar on their first album. He also recorded his own albums, calling himself Burzum and playing every instrument.

Oystein and Varg repeatedly argued over money that Varg claimed Oystein owed him for the sales of his first album. Oytein wanted to make peace and offered to pay Varg the full sum that he wanted. That wasn't enough for Varg. He attacked Oystein in his apartment, killing him by stabbing him 35 times. Varg was sentenced to 21 years in prison, but was released on parole after 15 years. Amazing! After his release Varg had a YouTube channel that promoted Nazi ideology, but it was deleted after a few years.

This is the film's director, Jonas Akerlund. If you think he looks like a heavy metal musician, it's true. He played drums for the black metal band Bathory from 1983 to 1984. After that he moved into directing music videos. Over the next 30 years he made more than a hundred music videos for musicians as diverse as Madonna, Rammstein and Robbie Williams.

By the way, I'm jealous of him that he still has such good hair in his mid fifties. I already had a small bald patch when I was 30, and when I was 46 I gave up the fight and started shaving my head. It's difficult to be taken seriously as a rocker when you have no hair.

This is an excellent film, whether or not you enjoy the music. Please don't burn down any churches after watching it.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de