If you think you are a part of a subgenre music community with a lot of posers, think again. Because the black metal scene is absolutely drowning in them.
I don’t nessesarily always agree with this youtube creator, well – we don’t agree on what is good Black Metal, that is a fact I know. But still he does have a point in these videos, like I don’t know what is worse, the ‘name me 5 bands’ people, or the ‘look I have a burzum tshirt’ people. (I’ll return to Burzum)
Black Metal isn’t for everyone, and I mean I’d never snob anyone for real for listening to a different type metal (unless it was Nü Metal, because that is just shit, end of) But there are many subgenres of metal, and I don’t personally think one is better than the other. The thing is that we each just find the genre we like best in music, don’t we? It doesn’t really matter if you’re into disco, Eurodance, or country. You’ll find subgenres…
So why does every metal chick online have to pretend to like black metal? I’d really like for them to fuck off so we can get back to the music. Seriously when I go to a Black Metal gig, there’s women. But they don’t look like that, they look like normal damn people.
Sure you can find perhaps a couple of either gender who looks like they are a part of the band, but mostly we’re a pretty boring crowd.
I just don’t understand why you’d pretend to like something you don’t. I mean it’s pretty obvious innit? Take Copenhell for instance, there’s like one black metal name. Mostly it’s shit like mainstream metallica like stuff, perhaps a trash metal band or two.
So if all those fools who pretend to like black metal, did actually like metal – that festival would be a black metal festival for fucks sake.
But let’s talk, Mayhem, because they are the OG of black metal, at least if you’re Scandinavian like me. Sadly Mayhem is probably best known for Varg Vilkernes, and let me tell you why I am saying that, and why I think you can spot the posers on the Burzum merch.
Thing is, Varg, he is not right in the head.
It’s not metal, it’s not cool, he is a very sick individual. I mean sure Black metal is about all those dark themes, but you know, it’s like fanfiction you know? Those people are the most gentle individuals in reality, people who listen to black metal isn’t violent, or angry. We just like the music, that’s it.
You’re not supposed to do what the music is about, it’s just for fun.
Varg is like that creepy fucking eternally online person, who want to roleplay some fandom character, and pretends to be them. Unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
And while I enjoy his music, then him as a person is everything I hate about the black metal scene. Think about it, he didn’t make Mayhem great, he joined a band that was already great. Also his only claim to fame is a murder on someone he once called friend. That’s it, had he not killed Øystein (Euronymous), nobody would have known who the fuck he is; because he is pretty forgettable.
He wanted to be special like Per Ohlin, he wanted to go down in history as a Black Metal ‘saint’. But you see Per Ohlin (Dead) he was tormented in a different way, there is no doubt he suffered crippling depression, among other things. But what he did was not for ‘greatness’, it was because he was Per.
If you don’t know anything about it, I can tell you that Per (dead) he would self harm, and have this very bizarre relationship with death. Perhaps that is also why his lyrics were so dark and weirdly philosophical. And if Øystein was guilty of anything, it was spurring on Per’s deteriorating mental state, because it looked ‘good’. You know in the dark and negative, contra culture way.
He wanted Per to bury his clothes so they would smell like a grave, and shit like that. That is not what friends do, and they should have gotten him some help, instead they let him run his course so to say, for the band image. And that is just disgusting. Per however, he would have offed himself no matter what, he really meant to do it, and tried several times the same day because nothing worked until he found the shotgun. He had wanted to die in the woods, but apparently it took too long, and he began to freeze instead of dying this poetic way, or whatever the snot he was thinking.
No one will understand the reason for this anyway. To give some semblance of an explanation I’m not a human, this is just a dream and soon I will wake.
That is a quote from Per’s suicide letter, and as far as I know the story, this was something he had said many times over. That he was in reality dead, and that this ‘life’ was just a dream. I think it was something with an accident he had once where he died for a couple of minutes, or survived miraculously. Yeah well, excuse me, it’s not what I spend most time researching, if you want to do that… it’s easy information to find I’m sure.
So my point is Per was mentally ill, but in a different way. And he was there for the art of writing lyrics, and death metal just fit his mental state. Allowing him to write all the dark and terrible things that tumbled out his head.
But Varg, he was something different. Just as unstable as Per, but he wasn’t self destructive, or had delusions about being a walking corpse. No Varg was in it for the notoriety, he wanted people to fear him.
And as I said earlier, then black metal fans are perhaps more akin to Per in reality, because we are there for the art. Not for the ‘r/iamverybadass’ bullshit, that crap belongs elsewhere, somewhere with bikers and a moshpit.
I have no doubt that Øystein was difficult to get along with, because he wanted fame more than anything. He wanted to be recognized, and was probably quite happy with his status in the metal community, and his cult following. He was if nothing else, a very driven person, very opportunistic, and very ambitious.
Take someone who want to be known as ‘dangerous and cool’, and someone who want to be ‘famous and recognized’, they technically both want the fame, but for different reasons, and I think that is one of the reasons why they couldn’t get along. They wanted two different things for Mayhem, one thing they could agree on was burning the old wood churches, because it furthered both their agenda.
But while Øystein would say shit like this
Imagine a beautiful old stave church…what happens when it burns? The Christians feel despair, God’s house is destroyed and ordinary people will suffer from grief because something beautiful was destroyed. So you end up spreading grief and despair, which is a good thing.
And claimed to be ‘theist satanic’ whatever the shit that is. He would in reality just do this crap to keep up the relevance and image of Mayhem, which was his baby. As the most ‘and we mean it maaaan‘ type band in the game, he wanted to. And just mentioning that Mayhem’s band members was known for throwing people out of their concerts, if they decided they looked, or acted like a poser.
While Varg, he would keep searching for that notoriety as a person. He was not Mayhem and he knew it, he didn’t bring that special something which Per had done. And around 1991 he started his one man project Burzum, with the stage name Count Grishnackh… I shit you not.
In Norwegian (and Danish), it would be Grev Grishnackh, or just Greven (which just means ‘the count’). And he was actually a living meme by then, even if he had not committed his magnum opus yet.
You see Øystein was busy with his record shop ‘Helvete’ (hell), and solidifying his cult status on the metal scene. Already then people would actually travel to Bergen to visit his shop, I have been in Bergen and seen his shop too, even if I didn’t go there for it, I went there to visit some friends.
Anyway, he was busy setting himself up as promoter and talent scout. And if nothing, he had very high thoughts of himself.
While Varg was busy being a meme, telling stories about how his dad was working for Saddam Hussein and other shit like it. And then he decided to be vocal about his political and spiritual beliefs, so he discovered Odinism, and while that is out there, it’s ‘just’ contemporary heathenism Scandi style.
A fringe branch of this, is Odalism, and when Varg discovered that, he was all in. And Odalism is basically just a lame excuse for neo-nazis to pretend they are of old blood or something. So I won’t get super into it now, that has to be a different entry, but the Odal rune is the same as the elder futhark Othala rune, it stands for Odin, wisdom, homeland and heritage.
This is a Othala rune as it should look (okay so maybe not pink, but you get the idea) I have an Othala rune tattooed actually… but the difference is the nazis they gave the Odal rune wings (or two feet) so it resembles a ‘omega’ symbol almost, I won’t upload a image for you, if you want to see it, you go google that shit. It makes me angry they stole my cultural heritage and made it a part of their hateful symbolism. This is also why I do have an othala tattooed, because I want to reclaim it, it is not a nazi symbol, it’s a ‘letter’ and old norse cultural heritage. And it’s mine, not theirs!
So Odalism is the thing that sorta mix the religious belief of ‘heritage and homeland’ in the norse cultural way, with the nazi ideology of the master race.
And the media went wild for it, I mean ‘black metal is for nazis’… that bullshit stuck for a very long time in the ‘common belief’ of people who didn’t know a thing about black metal, besides Varg’s sensationalism, and the church burnings. And why would he do this? because it’s ‘badass’ and it’s ‘anti human life’ or some crap, I don’t think he actually believes it for a moment, but he found his damn fanboys and notoriety there… which he holds to this day.
For context I will say the SS officers wore the winged Odal rune on their uniforms, like the Gestapo had the totenkopf.
Varg got a moment’s attention for that, and then he killed Øystein. I know he said that Øystein plotted to kill him, and record it or something. Which I don’t think a singular soul believes. And then he changed story to Øystein owing him royalties for the first Burzum record release, and for what he did with Mayhem. But I don’t think a lot of people believe that either.
We are talking about Varg Vilkernes here, he is the same asshole who threatened to bomb Blitz. And honestly, had the murder of Øystein not panned out like he wanted it to, there is no doubt in my mind he would have bombed Blitz, because when they raided his home, as a direct result of his arrest of the murder. They did find copious amounts of explosives.
This photo is just from Wiki, but I visited Blitz several times in my life, it was a cool place. I can see it’s still in operation, so you can go there too… not sure if it’s lost its soul like Tusindfryd, or Tacheles.
But apart from that, I am sure that Varg is like the king of main character syndrome, all eyes on Varg – good or bad.
While he was in prison for this murder, he did make the two best albums Burzum did, and the reason why I actually like the music this asshole made, it’s because it’s instrumental. And I can only say I wrote more pages listening to ‘hvis lyset tar os‘ (If the Light Takes Us), and ‘filosofem’ (Philosopheme) than any other music ever.
It’s worth mentioning that while he was in prison for 21 years for the murder of Øystein, he credited for creating the Norsk Hedensk Front, (norwegian heathen front) which was just a twist of the Odalism. It’s still around, just as ‘heathen front’, if you feel like looking in to those psychos.
So is Varg a cool person… nope, not even close.
And this very long winded story, is why, even if you actually like Burzum for the ambient music it is. You’d never wear a fucking Burzum tshirt, patch or anything. At least not here in Scandinavia, because people do associate Burzum with Varg (even if his name is Louis or something like that, now), and neo-nazism. It’s that simple.
And that is why you know people at black metal shows in a Burzum tshirt, they are try hard posers. People who subscribe to Vargs belief system, karate videos or whatever the shit he makes, they don’t listen to fucking black metal. And look, I am not saying there aren’t bands with those beliefs, because there are… of course there are, just like there’s punk bands who are neo-nazis.
But as a whole, Varg did get what he wanted in a way, he did get notoriety, because he is the one you do not mention, if your conversation lands on favorite albums. Unless you’re me, because I have no problem saying that Filosofem is a masterpiece.
In English this track is called “Circumambulation of the Transcendental Columns of Singularity” and I included this to show you what kind of music Burzum actually makes. And Varg himself said:
“Burzum is not a political or religious band, or even an anti-religious band. Burzum is music; art if you like, and the interpretation of art lies in the eye of the beholder. I might be Nordic, heterosexual and have a Pagan ideology myself, but why would I expect the fans of my music to be just like me?”
And for this once, I do agree with him. Burzum is ambient dark music, it’s not political, and I have argued that point many times over with people… I mean that point one it’s ambient instrumental music, and point two the man is not the music.
But incase you feel like laughing at Varg, I can only recommend this video.
Speak about books, if you want to know more about this hole topic, I can only recommend this book.
So translated it would mean ‘blood, fire, death’. I don’t know if it’s translated to English, but if it’s not, the next best thing is perhaps ‘Lords of Chaos’ – the book I mean.
I actually liked the move, so I won’t snob that either.
DREAMS OF A LOST MOONCHILD 
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