All right, if you'll just
put this under your belt.
- What?
- Actually, just--
Sorry.
lt's okay, it's still dark outside.
lt's fine.
lt's fine. It's dark outside.
You motherfucker.
Check out the frame.
It looks good l think.
Yeah. It's cool.
All right. Here we go.
Darkthrone was the first
to release an album
in this black metal genre
and Gylve was the leader
of the group, so to speak.
He's more like a philosopher
than somebody who...
more than an ideologist.
The band was very successful
and in many ways was the band.
Gylve as l said is a special person
with special goals,
and it's impossible to know
what his goals are.
He...
He's successful at what he's doing.
l guess he's happy with that.
Have you been standing
there the whole time?
They busted me
on the fucking tear gas.
They didn't find any drugs,
of course.
So...
l had to say,
''Yes, l had the tear gas.''
And...
l gotta pay a fine. Big Deal.
l had to drop my pants.
They really were hoping
for the big bust, man.
l don't know.
Funny thing, you know,
they always wear
these intimidating gloves
so that you're supposed to ''fess up''
before they start looking up your ass.
But they don't look up your ass.
lt's a trick.
Norway. It's beautiful.
lt's like New Zealand
only just grimmer.
The Norwegian personality is
when you stand in line for the bus,
you don't stand too close.
You keep a couple of meters
away from the next guy.
l think that says it all.
They're going to give medicine to people.
They're announcing it.
People are like, ''Oh! Where is it!''
lt's amazing that people
are eating this trash.
Chemical. All the time, you know.
Sleeping pills and all this.
lt's like a chemical lobotomy, you know.
l just started going really musically.
And direct my interest
into more and more music.
Music, music, music.
And he was more into politics.
So we just sort of--
...took different paths.
The contact just faded into obscurity.
The thing that made
this music different
was that we rebelled
against the traditional song structure.
But still, you know, he made
an incredible impact with his early albums.
And l'm eternally grateful for that.
l wanted the music to be
more epic or storytelling.
He just recorded,
like, basically everything
he did himself.
He was right on the money
when it came to
the black metal sound.
That was the shit, man.
And that is what made this new--
so-called new music style different.
Because that is what
the Darkthrone did
that is what Burzum did.
And we were like the first
who did this in this period.
lt's been years
since we had contact.
l tried to send him some music
but it wasn't what he was searching for.
He was searching for some music
and he couldn't really
explain what it had been.
So l just gave up on it.
l'm kind of like
you know, what's it
called, ambivalence?
l have an ambivalent feeling
in this context
because in one sense
of course, it's hard
to have to be without freedom to move
wherever l want and stuff like that.
But in another sense
it's kind of positive
because l have the opportunity
to, like, read books
and focus on more important things.
lt's like a--
l consider it like
a stay in a monastery.
ln our contemporary society,
youth are pretty much lost.
They have no direction.
Nobody is telling them what to do.
That is, people are teIling
them what to do
but the youth have an instinct
telling them this is wrong, you know?
People are telling them
that Christianity is good.
People are telling them
that the USA is good.
NATO is good.
Our democracy is good.
But we know, if not intellectually,
we know instinctly that this is wrong.
This is fucking revenge.
We recorded the first
black metal album
A Blaze In the Northern Sky,
sent it to Peaceville, and they were like,
''We're remixing this.
What the hell are you guys doing?''
You know?
''This is black metal.
This is what black metal is supposed
to sound like.'' It was, like, all cold.
lt's cold right now as well.
l said, ''l'm not remixing the album.
''This is what black metal sounds like
and if you don't want it,
''then we'll just make
Euronymous release it
"on his Deathlike Silence label.''
And then Peaceville said
''No. We can't have that.
''Because we will lose face if a new band
in our stall is leaving us.
''So we better just fucking release it,
you know?''
And now they're really happy about that,
money-wise, l guess.
We just went with our hearts and we thought
we were going to sell, like,
maybe 1500 copies of that
Blaze In the Northern Sky album.
We thought people would react
the same way Peaceville did.
Basically we knew that there were
just a few people listening to
and being ''black metal,''
but people picked up on it.
And that's one of the albums
now that is a classic within the style,
so it still sells a lot
ten years down the line.
When l recorded my album,
you know, l told the producer,
''Give me the worst
microphone you have.''
We set up the drums, you know,
we didn't do anything
to make the song sound
any particular-- special.
You know, ten minutes
everything was ready.
And he was, you know,
''Don't you want to do anything?''
You know, you always
have to adjust
the sound of the drums
and everything.
No! Because it was like a rebellion
against this...
good production.
So...
We called it ''necro-sound,''
you know, ''corpse sound''
because it's supposed to
sound the worst possible.
So actually l ended up
with a headset as a microphone.
That was the worst
we could find.
And used that as a microphone.
So-- And we used
this tiny Marshall amplifier,
it was this big, because that was
the worst amplifier we could find.
lt was terrible sound, it was--
We had, like, an album cover
with our guitarist,
an eerie shot with corpse-paint on it,
and at that time
every death metal album,
every thrash metal album
basically had painted covers,
you know, ''cover art.''
And people hadn't seen,
like, photos.
Well, the underground knew that Mayhem
used corpse-paint and shit,
but people in general looking
through the vinyls and CD racks,
they were just like,
''What the hell is this?
A blast from the past?
This is cold!''
The way l perceived Mayhem
was fucking magic for me.
l'm still listening
to the Deathcrush album.
That's probably
my favorite Mayhem album.
They released Deathcrush
and they just lived
on reputation only in the late '80s.
Mayhem started out
in '84 l guess, around there.
And it was the only Norwegian band,
so it's sort of special for us.
l went to rehearsals and came
like, awestruck back.
They did a show in 1989
which is legendary.
Euronymous invented
the typical Norwegian black metal riff.
lt's sort of derived from Bathory,
but it was a new way of playing a riff
that had really not been done
and not been stylized by anyone before.
That's what Euronymous did.
You have a chord.
You don't play one and one,
you play one and one
up and down
and you have the notes
cling together
so that you have
the fucking eerie notes
and they all string together
creating this incredible, eerie sound.
lt sends fucking chills down your spine.
l started in Mayhem in March 1988.
When l first met Euronymous,
l gave him, like,
a demo tape of me playing the drums.
He listened to it maybe five minutes
and he heard it was like double bass
and blast beats in t,here
and it was like
''Yeah, okay. You're in the band.''
The next day l actually
moved to their location
which was, like
30 minutes outside of! Oslo.
l met the other guys.
l met Necrobutcher.
And of course, l met Dead
which was a Swedish guy.
l never had the chance
to see Mayhem with Dead,
but Demonaz did so he can
say something about it.
Yeah. l saw Mayhem in Oslo
with Dead.
And he had make-up.
That was the first show
l saw ever with make-up.
And didn't they
carry Dead in in a coffin?
No, they didn't.
They were supposed to do that.
They were supposed to do that, yeah.
So we were really waiting
for that but it didn't happen.
But he had this sacrifice knife
which he was cutting himself with.
lt was a good show.
When it's cold
and when it's dark
the freezing moon can obsess you.
He was extremely depressed, really.
Just dreaming of Transylvania
and vampires
and all this gothic imagery,
and it's an escape
just like computer games
and role-playing games,
and that was his escape.
Come on, Liepzig!
Come on! Join us!
Pure fucking Armageddon.
We agreed that l should send him
some ammo for his shotgun.
He didn't have any ammo.
And l did when l came back home
and a month later he shot himself.
Many people speculate
that Aarseth himself killed Dead.
Per Ohlin. It's one of the many rumors
in this movement.
There are a lot of rumors,.
l don't think that's true
simply because he was
out of town when it happened.
And when he came back home
he didn't have a key,
they only had a couple of keys t,o the house
and he didn't have it
so he had to crawl
in the open window.
And when he crawled in
he found Dead--
Dead dead in the bed
with his, you know, his brains
blown out, literally.
He shot himself in the forehead.
The brain had fallen
out from his skull.
lt was, you know, grotesque.
And the first thing he did
was not to call the cops.
lt was
''Where's my photo equipment?''
l'm born in Bergen in 1973.
l grew up in an idyllic society, really.
Homogeneous, no crime.
Everything was basically perfect.
We had stables with girls
riding horses.
We were playing on the outside.
There were no problems.
But at a certain point,
when we grow older,
of course there were problems,
but we didn't see them.
That's basically the truth, eh
But when you grow older
you start to see that things
isn't the way you want it to be.
McDonald's didn't appear
until '91 or '92, and when it did
we actually took a rifle
and a bicycle and we bicycled--
Rode our bikes up to McDonald's
and we set down and started to fire
on their windows.
You know, we were sneaking up
and ''Boom!''
We were shooting at McDonald's.
We stockpiled weapons,
munitions to prepare for war.
Because we not only suspected that
there might be a third world war,
we hoped that there would
be a third world war.
Not because we enjoyed
destruction so much
but because we knew that if you want
to build something new,
you have to destroy the old first.
The ballad album of Nazareth.
Oh! Testament, The Ritual.
What a cool album.
This place has a cool story to it
when it comes to Darkthrone.
Because, well
Iet's get out of the fire.
lt was a question of getting, like,
a Dictaphone or something to record riffs.
Because me and Ted, we had
like, of course, you know,
we recorded rehearsals
on this fucking tape deck.
And that broke down.
So l'm sitting here in Oslo
and l'm thinking, well,
l probably should get a Dictaphone.
And so l get in touch
with Sigurd and he says,
''Well, l can get you
this fucker for 2000.
lt's got, like, four tracks,
it's digital and everything.''
And l'm saying, ''Hold it.
''You know, l was thinking
more along the lines
''of a little-- to get the riffs in.''
And then l come here, you know,
and l find this old tape deck.
lt can't even play out, it just goes--
but it can record
and l bought it for 50 kroner.
Fucking sweet.
l refuse to...
stand court-martialed
for making this whole
underground movement
into a trend thing.
lf it's anyone,
it's not us.
But l guess most people
would say that.
That's what people
usually ask, you know?
Like, how the hell did it happen?
l guess l got to buy that fucking helmet.
The mission statement was not escaping
the death metal trend.
But definitely we were
thinking of not stepping
in the garish footsteps
of what became commercial death metal.
Well, what do you know?
What are we looking at here?
l was thinking what is really
the culturally relevant
phenomenon of Norway?
And l just couldn't find any.
l think Norway is kind of exploding
with all this kind of mediocre
cultural activity
and then if there are
other relevant phenomena,
then they are usually
just completely ignored,
which is happening with this Norwegian
black metal here in Norway.
What interested me the most,was both
the visual aesthetics
this kind of stereotype
with this corpse-paint
that you can make it into
kind of a visual stereotype
that both is something you
feel you've seen before
but is not quite like what
you have seen before.
This Transylvanian Hunger photo,
if you compare that to ''The Scream'',
there is so much visual similarities.
And l don't think it's such a far-fetched
reference as many people think.
With Munch in Norway there has been
this kind of fear of Munch
the fear of his emotional excessiveness
and, kind of
the fear of this easy genius,
and this very, very extreme, Norwegian person.
And l think the only thing
that really had a relevance
to the kind of emotional content
of what Edvard Munch was
is Norwegian black metal.
l have this tour now which will be
four one-man shows
in different European museums
which will have a black metal theme.
lt was a huge shop.
At one point
Count Grishnackh was
living in the cellar.
Bard ''Faust'' was living
behind the counter, sort of.
And Euronymous himself lived there
in a small hideaway up in--
Like, he had a little, small--
Say this piece right there
was removable.
He was living, sleeping
up in the fucking roof.
We used to sit in a sofa
behind the desk
in a part of the shop
that was not used.
So it was like in a dark corner
so to speak.
You know, and he was drinking,
we were talking
and these heavy metal guys came in,
you know, with nails
all over their jackets
because they had the impression that you
have to have nails, you know?
That's a part of the game.
And...
So, we could sit there, like
talk about everything really'.
Like cornflakes. We were discussing--
Gylve asked me, like,
''So, how do you like
your cornflakes?
''Do you like them crispy?
''Or do you like them soft?''
And l said, ''Well, l like them crispy.''
And he said, ''No, no, no, no, no.
It's better when they're really soft.
''You have to put the milk
and let it just rest for a while,
''and then you eat it.''
And then these heavy metal guys would enter
and we stopped talking
because, you know, we didn't really want
to talk to them, you know?
We did not want to get to know them.
And of course he was, you know,
the drummer of Darkthrone
the boss in Darkthrone.
And l was playing in Burzum.
And we were like their--
some sort of idols of some sort.
So, they were watching us and...
if we ever talked to one of them
they boasted to their friends that, you know,
''Gylve of Darkthrone talked to me.''
Of course, he rarely did
because he had--
You know, it was like pretty much
we shared the opinion
that these guys weren't
particularly interesting, you know?
lt's sort of stigmatizing
to talk about heritage.
You know, it's--
l mean for most
of the European countries,
l mean, Christianity
more or less erased
our original cultures anyway.
There's more chaos, war, pollution now
than ever before in our recorded history.
Of course, we might have
known a period
with even worse conditions
but the Christians burned all the records
that could tell us about it anyway,
like in the Library ofAlexandria.
Wherever the Catholics or Protestants
or other Christians came
they destroyed the culture.
They ruined the culture.
They burned the culture.
And they burned the records
of these cultures.
That includes the European cultures.
That includes African cultures.
Asian cultures.
American cultures.
Wherever they were,
they destroyed everything.
They want to replace our culture
with Americanization
with, you know,
the Judeo-Christian cultures.
Christianity is the root to all problems
in the modern world.
lt's hard to know what to do
to oppose something.
Because dissident voices
are not tolerated
in contemporary society.
l think it's
to a big extent
nauseating,
you know, to see,
you know, the beauty
of specific cultures,
you know, being contaminated
by the not-so-beautiful
facets of other cultures.
But at the same time, l think it's
a process of--
lt's a step on the way to returning
to some sort of primeval source.
Everybody can relate to Odin
and Thor and Freya in Norway
because it's our religion.
We are not Christian.
Christianity is a Jewish religion.
Christianity was originally a Jewish sect.
Baptism is all about a symbolic, ritual murder
of the non-Jewish
of the Gentile.
They murder the Gentile child,
and then they call the Jewish name
that's supposed to replace the pagan soul.
Originally, the place was
an old pagan holy site.
lt was on top of a hill where
our forefathers used to celebrate the sun.
What the Christians did
was to move this church
from another place, and put it
not close to this holy site
but on top of it.
ln the midst of the circle.
Actually breaking up the circle.
And on the pagan horgh,
they put a big stone cross.
So, if they have no respect
for the Norwegian culture,
why on earth should Norwegians
respect their culture?
The intended result was to give people
a shock to make them open their eyes.
lt's like if you detonate a bomb,
they will open their eyes
for a moment, you know?
''What happened?''
lt was Varg who first set fire to a church.
But there were a lot
of church burnings.
ln, l guess... Was it '92, '93?
My least favorite artist
is from Central America.
lt is the woman who paints
all the women
with very strong eyebrows.
She's way political
and l know for a fact that in Nicaragua,
for instance, l mean
the artists were persecuted,
and they always painted,
like, these really...
close to nature things with strong colors.
l mean, it's the perfect...
disease of being repressed.
l mean, you want everything to be shiny.
No, l like--
l more like the wealthy and troubled art
that comes from...
the exhaustion of easy life.
lt surprised me a little bit
when l felt the, uh...
not friction, but the panic
that people had against modern arrt.
And ''that's just something
that they threw on the canvas'' mind-frame.
And again l'm not a shrink,
l don't know why l reacted to that,
but l was like
''what the hell's wrong with it?''
Because l grew up--
It's my parents too.
They were always like that.
They were going, like,
''Call a spade a spade,''
and all that ordeal.
So maybe,
through the way they raised me--
And everyone wants to be
against their parents.
l never felt l needed that
but l guess l didn't realize it.
But that's the way l came to like modern art.
My parents being very conservative
and they wanted the,
as we call it in Norway,
the moose in the sunset sort of painting.
''Well, at least that's a moose in a sunset.
''l know what the hell that means.''
lt's not like l don't see these images
every fucking day.
l know the location of that
because l've been there, you know?
lt's like from where l'm from.
ls there more?
Not black metal Mickey?
Can you just use Mickey Rourke like that?
That is truly insane.
lt's just going to be decaf
on this guy from now on.
Thought maybe it would
just be a piece of paper with his name.
Nothing on the back.
Just-- Just ''here's my name.''
How do you like that?
Can l have a glass of water?
l fucking need it.
No more questions, guys?
Even l'm starting to feel
like having a smoke now.
We weren't involved in any
of those activities
with church burning and stuff.
We knew about it.
l mean, we thought it was...
quite entertaining.
To Aarseth everything was about image.
And he wanted to appear extreme.
He wanted people to think
of him as being extreme.
And the most extreme of them all.
But he didn't want to be extreme.
And he wasn't really extreme.
He gave people the impression
that he was organizing all of it.
That was what he wanted it to look like.
He started to talk
about this ''black metal mafia,'' this mob.
And he wanted it to look
as if he was some ''godfather''
of some organization.
l pointed at the fact that,
''Hey, he sure has a big mouth.
''But is he doing anything?''
And the others would think
''Well, actually, he doesn't.'''
So, you know...
l was frustrated when l realized
that this movement was, you know,
still the same bunch
of brain-dead metal-heads.
And l wanted to do
something about it.
So l tried to force them
into taking another stand
by giving an interview to a newspaper.
l told him that we were behind
the church burnings and all this.
And l told him l could
tell him that because, of course
l have not done anything.
And, of course
he changed everything,
and instead of printing what l told him,
he went to the police and got me arrested.
And then he printed his interpretation
of what l said in the newspaper.
l could not do anything about it.
l was in prison.
And of course all of the other
journalists interviewed him
while l was in prison and l couldn't
say anything about it.
So his version was like the truth.
Everybody copied it, you know?
The police claim that l made
others burn churches.
That is, l accompanied them and, like,
''Come on.''
You know, ''The church.''
Were you worried about your friends
getting into trouble?
No. We were zoning at the time.
l didn't worry
about anything basically.
l guess l wanted to set fire myself.
l never went that far, you know.
But, no.
l mean, the only thing that was
worrying is when
it was all over the news.
And then we had something to worry about.
lt didn't turn out the way l wanted it to be,
but it sure changed a lot.
They started to pretend that there was
some Satanic movement
and conspiracy in society,
that the people who were burning churches
were really Satanists
who planned to spread evil, all this crap.
And when l got out of prison,
there was nothing l could do about it.
l told them this is nothing
to do with Satanism.
And they never paid any attention
to what l said.
Even Aarseth was never a Satanist.
Nobody were Satanists,
but this was all about demonizing
a movement.
They wanted us to be Satanists.
You know, the moment the newspapers
started writing about it, it was imitated.
The problem was really that this
misinterpretation made up the foundation
of a completely different
movement of, you know,
15-year-old copycats burning churches,
and spraying these Satanic symbols
on the churches
because they thought that that's
what it was all about.
And, you know, that was the result.
And that was a result of the media coverage.
The movement, the small
but pinpointed things we had in mind,
got blown into this big trend,
big following thing.
l guess the sales of black lipstick
went through the roof.
l like this shot, eh?
This is also not bad when he stands like this
you see the nails.
This is also kind of good
when he goes in and out of the frame.
This is good.
This l want to use.
This is Gylve in the forest.
Can you slow it down?
l think visually the best one would be
Gylve from Darkthrone.
'Cause l think he has visually the best look.
But he would never do it, huh?
Legacy Magazine, Diana.
Hey, hey! It's Fenriz.
- Hi.
- Hi. What's up?
Are you having a great Friday?
Yes, a little crazy because it was
a long night yesterday.
Okay. Let's start off with the interview.
l heard that in your private life, what is truly
quite a shock for a lot of Darkthrone fans,
you're into house and techno music.
Is this true?
Oh sure. l was just listening to a mix CD
for Monika Kruse last night.
You should know Monika Kruse.
She's been in the German
techno scene for a long time.
We in Oslo, we are not secluding.
We usually know about a whole lot
of different sorts of styles of music.
We're not fucking living in a trailer camp
just listening to Anthrax,
if you know what l'm saying.
We like a lot of different music
but l guess l'm the first one
who started to say that l like
a lot of different music.
But the first one who really went out
and said all that shit was Euronymous himself.
He was always into electronic music.
And he said it.
He even had Conrad Scnitzler
do the fucking intro
for the Deathcrush album, you know?
Well, what l wanted to say is that l hope
that you do not have the intention
to bring out a house album.
No. That's the whole prob--
That's the whole thing, you know.
ln Darkthrone we are listening to
so many other styles of music
but we will not let that enter
into the Darkthrone concept.
lt is not Darkthrone.
Then, we shall not be influenced by it,
but we can listen to it.
Other people, they hear two electronic albums
they like, and they suddenly go like,
''Oooh! Maybe we can put this in the metal!
Maybe that will be cool!''
Hey, that's not Darkthrone.
But l know a whole lot of people
that have been doing that.
Wow! Wow! You think so?
That is so interesting
because l think, like, eight years ago
l didn't really do provoking shit
because Christian people were not going
to read my lyrics, right?
So they were not going to be provocative.
What l wrote then, l see now in hindsight,
l see that this is what people
that were into occult or obscure
and anti-Christian things,
that was the sort of lyrics they wanted to read.
lt maybe given them strength.
But it was also sort of fiction and maybe
a creative outlet for my fucking head.
What l've been doing on the last two albums
is what should drive people to suicide.
And it's really taking out the strength, right?
Because you can't really get strength
from the lyrics on the last two albums,
while you probably could from an album
like ''A Blaze In The Northern Sky.''
So l'm thinking l'm really just pleasing
and, you know, l'm caressing
the dog with its hairs, you know,
as we speak,
the dogs being the fans or whatever,
everyone listening to the album.
l'm just-- It turns out l was writing
just what they wanted, okay?
And now l'm writing what no one wants
because that is to be really fucking depressed,
if you really understand it, and then wanting
to take your fucking life.
At least l do. Because l'm looking
at my lyrics for the last two albums
and l'm seeing my fucking world in hell.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Thanks for taking the time.
Thanks for your time.
And l wish you a nice evening.
Oh, have a beautiful evening. All right.
See you later. Hey, hey.
Bye.
One down, one to go.
l chose the name Frost when l entered
Satyricon and became a member of the band.
l wanted a name that l could identify with
as a black metal artist.
And l wanted it to be like a purification
of that side of me
that was into the darkness and the grimness
and the coldness of black metal.
lt's an alter-ego, you know?
lt helps me getting more focused
and also it adds to the totality
of darkness and grimness
that we do create with our music.
The obscurity in black metal is part
of the darkness that we are trying to create.
lt goes very much hand in hand
with that darkness.
And then l'm talking about darkness
with a capital ''D'' then.
lf you understand what l mean.
Well, if someone running...
a big art magazine
and wanted to use my picture,
that is kind of flattering,
so l wouldn't feel it should be necessary
for them to ask me first
if they are allowed to do it
because it's somehow
presented in a neutral way.
lt couldn't be connected to something
that l do not like
or do not want to be connected to.
l've been obsessed with, like
these Norwegian black metal bands.
So my new show is, like, just dedicated
to black metal.
lt's just, like, pure, like,
the most uncommercial music.
lt's like pure death. It's, like, pure, like--
lt's like-- It's like the pits of death.
lt's the most uncommercial music.
l went to Norway where all the guys burned
the churches down and murdered each other
and, like, are in prison making music.
l, like, visited, like, Euronymous' grave
and death and all this
because l love black metal.
The most extreme music in the world.
Most of them are in prison now.
They killed their Messiah, Euronymous.
They were confirming the media's version
and making all of it even worse.
The media was misinterpreting.
l said, ''Hey, you're wrong.''
And then these guys sort of confirmed that,
''No, we're right. Look at these guys.''
How can you stand for this crap, you know?
It's impossible.
And at this point
l was starting to become
a problem in this scene.
He was planning to kidnap me.
He was planning to knock me out
with an electro-shock pistol
like the type that security guards carry
and tie me up, take me to the forest,
and make a snuff film
of torrturing me to death.
And of course l took it serious.
Apart from that he just--
lf he were talking about it, like,
in the shop to everybody and anybody,
l wouldn't have taken it serious.
But he didn't.
He just told a select group of friends.
And one of them, you know, told me.
And later on he wrote a letter to me
you know, as if we were friends.
Which of course confirmed my suspicion
that he had some plans.
Why did he suddenly want
to be friends, you know?
Of course, to have an excuse to
you know, get close to me
without awaking any suspicion.
The only reason he had to contact me was
a contract between Burzum and his label.
So he sent me the contracts
and wanted me to sign them.
And he wanted to meet
when we were signing them.
Okay. There's no reason to wait.
Let's just go to Oslo and get done with it.
So l drove to Oslo.
But of course it takes
some time to get to Oslo.
You know, it's 500 kilometers
of bad roads and mountains.
So, it took some time to reach.
l think we were there at 3:00
or maybe 4:00.
So he was sleeping.
l told him, ''Well, l don't care
if you're sleeping, just open the door.''
And he opened the door...
which is rather strange really.
You know, he just opened the door,
even though he had plans to kill me.
And he had his beeper, you know?
And when l got up in the apartment,
he panicked.
Because, you know, he probably--
He had plans to kill me.
l was aggressive.
You know, so he panicked.
He attacked me. He kicked me in the chest.
l just threw him to the ground,
a bit stunned really.
Because, you know, he attacked me
and l didn't expect it at the time.
And l was stunned for a while.
He was just sitting on the floor.
And suddenly he got up trying to get
to his knife in the kitchen.
And l thought, ''Well, if he's going to have
a knife, l'm going to have a knife.''
l had a pocket knife--
this small pocket knife.
l got it up and prevented him
from getting to the kitchen, you know,
so he didn't manage to get his knife.
And then he started off against--
started to run off towards his bedroom
where he kept the shotgun
that Dead shot himself with
as well as the electro-shock pistol.
lt turned out, later on, that he didn't have
any of these things in the bedroom,
but l believed it at the time.
And that is the reason l followed him.
And instead of going into the bedroom,
he just left the building, really.
He just started to run down the stairs.
And l followed him
and managed to stop him.
And, of course
l had a friend with me.
Actually, the guitarist of Mayhem.
And, of course, he was rather shocked.
And l waited because l didn't know
how he was going to react, you know?
He was the guitarist in Mayhem.
So for all l knew, he could attack me as well.
Maybe they planned it, you know?
You get a bit paranoid in situations like that.
So l just waited for-- for-- for--
What's going to happen?
l just waited.
Aarseth was on the floor.
He broke a lamp on the wall
so he was swimming in glass fragments
with only his underwear,
so he was rather bloody.
And this other guy just ran past me.
And of course l understood that, okay,
he's not a part of it.
So l asked him, ''Are you okay?''
And he just ran off.
And then l remembered
that he had my car keys.
And l had blood all over myself.
And Aarseth got up and attacked me again.
So l finished Aarseth off. l just--
What do you say?
Stabbed? Chopped?
Stabbed him in the skull
so he died immediately.
And l followed the other guy.
He ran to the car.
So, l managed to calm him down.
He gave me the car keys.
l opened the car, you know,
and we drove back.
l wouldn't speak negatively about him
in the sense l speak negatively
about the others.
He never said that he was going
to do anything.
And he never did anything.
But that's an honorable thing, isn't it?
lt's worse when you say
you're going to do it and you don't do it.
Gylve, as l said, is a special person
with special goals,
and it's impossible
to know what his goals are.
He--
He's successful at what he's doing
and l guess he's happy with that.
We did not think it was Count Grishnackh.
So we were looking out, we were looking.
We were watching our backs.
l thought what the hell can l do
for Euronymous? He's dead, man.
l dedicated the A Blaze
In the Northern Sky album to him.
Who can l support now?
Well, it's the guy that's still alive.
And he's, like, muffled in jail.
When l got the sentence l already knew
that l was going to get 21 years.
That's the maximum penalty in Norway.
lt's not much by American standards,
but that's maximum in Norway.
So, the judge was really eager to,
you know,
as if she was happy, you know?
''Twenty-one years. Great.''
Because she wanted to underline that
''we do not tolerate this type
of rebellion in Norway.''
And of course they were expecting me
to be, like, wetting my pants or something.
And it just made me smile, really.
l turned my head to the audience
you could call it, and just smiled.
And from what l gathered,
they smiled back.
Varg always will be a great guy.
Even though his views on everything
are deemed, like
an abomination by Norway.
He fucked up.
He's a very intelligent guy.
He's a very talented guy.
But he wanted to live differently from us
so he decided to burn these churches.
lt must have been
one hell of a rush for him.
But now he's in jail,
and that must suck for him.
But, you know,
he has himself to thank for it.
lt's very hard to recognize the truth
when you are bombarded
by lies all the time.
Every minute of the day,
you have to go to sleep.
But even in sleep, because you dream
of the impressions you have during the day.
You're bombarded by commercials
and completely senseless information
every single day.
lf you turn on the TV,
you're bombarded.
lf you turn your head
in some direction
you see some sign,
some commercial.
Read magazines, newspapers,
senseless information.
The news are themselves
products being sold.
Everything is meaningless.
Sure the truth is out there--
l know l sound like some X-files
but the truth is of course to be found.
But in a sea of lies
it's just impossible to fin' d it.
Unless you know how to look,
where to look, and when to look.
And of course it's not possible to just,
you know, get up in the morning and just say,
''Okay, l'm going to find the truth this day,''
you know, and go find it.
You have to try and fail
and eventually you will weed out all the lies
and you'll end up with something
at least similar to the truth.
The truth is hidden, you know?
Under grass, under some rocks,
in a hidden trail, a forgotten trail
in the forest, you know?
And when you're trying to find
these trails, you will stumble.
You'll get some branches in your face.
You'll make mistakes
before you finally find it.
So, how do you like the prison?
But the thing is, it's out there now.
It's everyone's property.
Like, for people who want to do humor
or whatever, it's out of our fucking hands.
Black metal for me is still
those secluded things
that people are not the fuck interested in,
you know?
So black metal is like a brand now, you know?
Everyone can deal with it.
lf someone does it in a completely,
you know, disgusting way
l might go, like, ''Damn it!''
But what can l do? What's the point?
l kind of got interested for this project
when Bjarne told me
the destructivity that l
was supposed to vibrate
throughout the performance.
So of course l wouldn't have been
interested in the first place
if that didn't seem fascinating to me.
l wonder what Munch's paintings would be
if he didn't feel the agony of living
or the easiness
of being alive compared
to the inevitable death.
l have no problems being self-destructive
if the whole thing
is something that l like.
l'll give them a sign
if something goes wrong.
Well, a big part of me wishes that
this whole thing
didn't turn into a trend.
l mean, that's what fucking sucked.
And sucks still.
Then again, you know,
people like to dress up.
How do you like the transformation?
Oh, boy.
Subtitled By J.R. Media Services, Inc. Burbank, CA Satan!