Mar 2019
What a glorious mess of a film.
Directed by the guy who briefly drummed in Bathory on their first album, "Lords of Chaos" tells the story of Euronymous, guitarist of Mayhem and founder of Norweigan black metal and the "true events" that transpired in the early days of that scene - suicide, church burnings, murder and lots and lots of heavy metal posturing.
We've all heard about these ghastly, now legendary stories over the years so when I found out they were making a movie version of the events, I was stoked. Even after I saw the trailer which left no doubt in my mind this is a comedy.
It's a disaster in more ways than one. The acting. The delivery of dialogue. The shifts in tone which go from lighthearted, teen angst type fare to scenes of disturbingly brutal violence. The whole movie is just "off" but I'm guessing the director felt it was necessary to balance out the grim subject matter and make it more palatable for the masses. Especially people who are completely ignorant to black metal in the first place.
I doubt it was ever intended to be the ultimate statement on these crimes, much less an accurate one. But what it is is a pretty entertaining broad overview of what happened with more than likely some major embellishments and moments of disturbing, graphic violence of the old school practical fx variety.
Moderately recommended.
Directed by the guy who briefly drummed in Bathory on their first album, "Lords of Chaos" tells the story of Euronymous, guitarist of Mayhem and founder of Norweigan black metal and the "true events" that transpired in the early days of that scene - suicide, church burnings, murder and lots and lots of heavy metal posturing.
We've all heard about these ghastly, now legendary stories over the years so when I found out they were making a movie version of the events, I was stoked. Even after I saw the trailer which left no doubt in my mind this is a comedy.
It's a disaster in more ways than one. The acting. The delivery of dialogue. The shifts in tone which go from lighthearted, teen angst type fare to scenes of disturbingly brutal violence. The whole movie is just "off" but I'm guessing the director felt it was necessary to balance out the grim subject matter and make it more palatable for the masses. Especially people who are completely ignorant to black metal in the first place.
I doubt it was ever intended to be the ultimate statement on these crimes, much less an accurate one. But what it is is a pretty entertaining broad overview of what happened with more than likely some major embellishments and moments of disturbing, graphic violence of the old school practical fx variety.
Moderately recommended.
Most of the people who were into black metal at the time I was in high school, both the fans and the bands, were not really Satanists but were just trying to piss off all the moral majority people and the Michael Jackson and Prince fans, just like I was. Several years down the road, though, some of these people over in Europe were deadly serious. I was never serious about it. I used to come home from school and laugh about how panicked all the other kids would get when I showed them all the satanic album covers and stuff I drew all over my notebooks.