‘Lords of Chaos’, the upcoming English language film based on the cult classic book of the same name, makes its big screen debut ahead of its On-Demand release date. Diving deep into the controversy that surrounds the early days of what we now understand the be the origins of the genre, ‘‘Lords of Chaos’, will take us deep into the culture of the time and the twisted attempts of a few teenagers to create true ‘Norwegian Black Metal’.
Directed by one-time Bathory drummer Jonas Åkerlund, also known for his work with Metallica and Rammstein, ‘Lords of Chaos’ is described as a ‘terrifying story based on real events about a dream-turned-nightmare for a group of teenagers who spiral out of control’. Following the life and eventual death of Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth and his quest to establish a Norwegian black metal scene with the band Mayhem, ‘Lords Of Chaos’ combines suicide, arson and murder in its quest to chart the bands rise and fall, with an intense focus on the attempts of Euronymous to create a phenomenon by using shocking stunts to ‘put the band’s name on the map’.
Filling out the cast, we have Rory Culkin of ‘Scream 4’ playing Euronymous, Emory Cohen of ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’ as Varg, Anthony De La Torre of ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ playing Hellhammer, Sky Ferreira of ‘The Green Inferno’ as Ann-Marit, Jack Kilmer playing Per Yngve ‘Dead’ Ohlin and Valter Skarsgard playing Faust. As well as, Sam Coleman as Metalion, Lucian Charles Collier playing Occultus, Jonathan Barnwell as Necrobutcher, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht playing Blackthorn, James Edwin as Manheim and Andrew Lavelle playing Fenriz.
Following a special screening of the film at Brooklyn’s Alamo Draft House, Jonas Åkerlund alongside co-stars Rory Culkin and Emory Cohen sat down for a Q and A with Build Series. When Culkin was asked how he prepared for the role, he stated that ‘with Euronymous, I spoke to people that hung out with him at the time. And there's so many photos of these guys. They were really good at documenting themselves. So there was a lot of photographs. And Jonas even made a picture script — it was like a 600-page script — and every scene was assigned a photo from that time. So there was a lot to work with’.
Continuing, ‘At first it was hard to keep track of all these characters, with names like Hellhammer and Necrobutcher and things like that … But it was the photos that was the most important to me. Because when Euronymous was posing in the photos, he was trying to look scary and he was trying to look evil. But when you see him in the background in the photos, he was like a little sweetie — he was giggling and stuff like that. So it was interesting to try to piece that together — what he wanted to show the world and then what he really was, which I think was a bit of a sweetheart… He was the self-proclaimed leader of Norwegian black metal, and there's something fun to that — moving heavy things without lifting a finger, and things like that. It's pretty fun to have a crew of giant long-haired dudes to do your bidding’.
For the full interview see the video below. Currently holding a 75% down from 91%, ‘Lords Of Chaos’ will be making it’s On-Demand debut on the 22nd of February so be sure to check it out.