Michael Moynihan’s book, Lords of Chaos, is supposed to be a chronicle of satanic music but the bulk of the text is all about the late 80′s and early 90′s in Norway as black metal graduated from a local Oslo phenomenon to a worldwide player in the arena of heavy metal. It may have gone completely unnoticed and faded into obscurity had it not been for Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes murdering Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth and Bård G. “Faust” Eithun’s murder of a gay man in Lillehammer. Oh! And there’s also that matter of serial arson by a Manson family-like group of satanic metalheads who practically worshipped Euronymous and his band Mayhem at their headquarters, the metal record store Helvete. If anything, these pasty metalheads proved to the world that they keeps it real.
It’s a twisted story that in its context doesn’t make much sense. By all accounts, Norway is pretty quiet and there’s nothing about its population or culture that suggests that its youth would be prone to this sort of malicious behavior. It’s like most of Scandinavia, as a matter of fact. Sleepy. Content. Everyone seems to get on just fine.
Leave it to the lovely Tenebrous Kate and her Tenebrous Empire to bring the goods that I’ve been waiting to see for a long time. Roadrunner Records’ news arm, Blabbermouth is reporting that Japanese director, Sion Sono (Suicide Club), is ready to direct his first English language feature with Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone to play Count Grishnackh. Producer Stuart Pollok has assured the Norwegian press that they will be casting Norwegian actors and actresses for the cast. Production begins in September. I can’t wait to see what the soundtrack looks like.
