#tldr: ​black metal and black metal history is an actually shitshow

[crmsndragonwngss]

Regarding my last few posts, it occurs to me that some folks may not know who Varg Vikernes is. Before you look him up, I’ll tell you the basic rundown, because it’s… a lot.

Just as a warning, the paragraphs below this one contain mentions of arson, murder, racism, and neo nazis, because Varg is a piece of shit. There’s also a readmore at the end that contains mention of suicide, suicidal ideation, and abuse of a corpse, because, well… black metal, y’know?

To paint it in broad strokes, Varg Vikernes is the racist piece of shit who burned a bunch of churches in Norway in the early days of the Norwegian black metal scene in the mid to late 80s and early 90s, and then murdered his bandmate (Euronymous of Mayhem) by stabbing him 23 times in the head, neck, and back. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison for first degree murder, arson, and possession of explosives, and was later essentially exiled from Norway for all of that plus inciting racial hatred (he’s a fucking neo-nazi like actually). Now he lives in France, and he used to have a YouTube channel wherein he would go on racist tirades. I’ve heard it’s defunct now (thankfully).

Now, if you wanna look him up to read more about him (and inevitably Burzum and Mayhem), use caution. His story is of course tied inextricably with Euronymous’s story, which is, in turn, inextricably entwined with Dead’s story, and therein lies madness. If you’re squeamish of or sensitive to suicide or suicidal ideation, self harm, and extreme morbidity, I’d suggest stopping here. It goes far beyond the macabre, and these people were (and are) actually real. Dead was a strange and tortured man, to put it mildly, and his story is hard to stomach even for folks who aren’t squeamish in the slightest.

I’d also like to point out that I am not a part of the black metal scene. I don’t particularly care for how it sounds as a general rule, and the entire subgenre is basically a minefield, so I mostly steer clear. I recognize and acknowledge its place in the scene and its importance in the history of metal music, but any attention I’ve ever actually paid to black metal is shallow and cursory at best. I’m into more melodic styles, as far as extreme music goes.

I’d also like to point out that any humor I personally find in the whole Kanye thing is purely nihilistic. It’s fundamentally Not Funny. It’s ironic and bizarre and completely fucking insane, but it’s not funny. In saying that, I’d be lying if I said I’m not very interested in how the whole thing plays out.

Anyway, here’s a very short “well basically” under the cut about Dead and Euronymous. It’s not particularly graphic, but I’ll put some trigger warnings regardless.

tw suicide, tw abuse of a corpse

Basically, Dead ended up killing himself, and Euronymous found him. He rearranged some of the stuff in the room and then took some pictures of Dead’s body, allegedly collected pieces of his skull to keep and allegedly stewed and ate bits of his brain, then called the police. Euronymous sent one of the pictures to a penpal (seriously), who then used it as the album cover for a bootleg Mayhem live album. Euronymous also allegedly made the skull fragments into necklaces that he would give out to musicians he “deemed worthy.”

The more you know