Few, if any genre of metal has the same ability to conjure powerful images of darkness and despair at the mere mention of its name as black metal. Often misunderstood as a violent anti-everything form of noise that celebrates the burning of cultural institutions and disruption of society, black metal has seemingly always been on the wrong side of public opinion. Even within the community there are those that would dismiss the genre as a joke form of metal based upon the popular image of The Black Satan’s crab walking through a snow drenched forest as part of their video for ‘The Satan Of Hell’. Although only a minority subscribe to this view, those that do wholly miss the intense rewards that black metal can offer.
Diving deep into the controversy that surrounds the early days of what we now understand the be the origins of the genre, the soon to be released film entitled ‘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’. Based on the cult classic book of the same name, ‘Lords of Chaos’ is directed by one-time Bathory drummer Jonas Åkerlund, also known for his work with Metallica and Rammstein, who directed the project alongside distribution company Gunpowder and Sky with input from Vice Studios, 20th Century Fox, Scott free productions and Insurgent Media.
Described as the ‘terrifying story based on real events about a dream-turned-nightmare for a group of teenagers who spiral out of control’, the film follows the life and eventual death of Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth and his quest to establish a Norwegian black metal scene with the band Mayhem. Combining suicide, arson and murder ‘Lords of Chaos’ charts 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’. But, ‘as the lines between publicity and reality start to blur, acts of arson, violence and a vicious murder shock the nation’.
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.
Speaking about the film In March of last year, Jonas Åkerlund stated that ‘Lords of Chaos’ is his first real movie explaining, ‘I went deeper with this film than any of my other movies. I approached my other films like I did my music videos or commercials, like jobs. But Lords of Chaos I wrote myself, and it’s a close, personal story. I know these people. All my best friends are still in the metal scene. Per was a friend. We were all shocked when he committed suicide. When the news of the church burnings came out, in 1993, I was already living in Los Angeles, but we all knew who was behind them. It took the police a lot longer to find out. I’ve been trying to get this movie made for a very long time — I’ve been pitching it around Hollywood for years.’
Åkerlund also commented on what he thinks send Euronymous and Varg down the dark path that they followed and in his opinion everything changed with Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin’s suicide. Continuing his explanation,
Åkerlund said, ‘When Euronymous found his body, instead of calling the police, he ran out and bought a disposable camera and took pictures. It was quite a while before the picture became accessible — I hate that picture, by the way; it’s online, but I think it should be taken down — but there were rumors: Did Euronymous really take a bite of his brain? Did he really make amulets from his skull fragments? I think that picture made him immune. Afterward, he could do anything, and burning down a church didn’t seem so crazy. I mean, they burned down like 50 churches in Norway, ancient, centuries-old churches.’
Set for release in theatres on the 8th of February 2019, the film actually premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in and currently holds a 92% on the Tomatometer. So, set the date to your Google calendar and make sure to let us know what you thought.