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A review by cindytheskull
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Didrik Søderlind, Michael Moynihan
2.0
I bought this book for two main reasons: I am interested in True Crime and I've always wanted to understand how a musical genre could become famous for his (questionable) ideology.
Thanks to this book (which is so randomly structured it's quite a mess) I sadly realized that my prejudice for figures like Varg Vikernes (who has gone through so many names that I will spare you the "a.k.a." listing), for bands like Cradle of Filth and for the "Heathen Revival" in Black Metal has pretty much been confirmed. Even if the author seems to have done quite a good job in just printing what was said in the interviews, famous "representatives" of the genre come off as immature and inconsistent agents provocateurs in search of some reasons to blame their shortcomings on somebody or something else.
I will use Varg Vikernes as an example because he's the most prominent one.
He blamed everything on Christianity first and did or didn't burn churches and inspired angsty youths to do the same.
He then became a Neo-Nazi and blamed everything on Christianity AND the Jews, this time focusing on (alleged) cultural implications more then on the religion itself.
He then got into the whole "Ancient astronauts/aliens" theories, which he doesn't seem to be too vocal about (which is surprising since he isn't easily embarassed by the absurdities that come out of his mouth in any of his interviews).
As far as I know, Varg Vikernes, who today goes by the name Louis Cachét and lives in France with a whole litter of blond "aryan" children and his wife, is now more on the alt-right primitivist reactionary side (and is making videos about how men of 30 should marry girls at 16, because that's when they are both in their primes according to old tradition and biology...DUDE!)
What amazes me the most is that "Black Metal" as a lifestyle/ideology doesn't present itself with a coherent set of values or beliefs. Most of its "charismatic" (and I struggle using this word because I really don't understand the charm) leaders have world views that are neither founded on historical facts nor are presented to the audience in a coherent manner. Many of them ended up in prison for either murder (in most cases due to personal, not ideological reasons) or damage of property (arson/robbery/vandalism).
They somewhat managed to market themselves as MARTYRS for a cause that is nothing more than pure reactionism based on a romantic world view in which "Norsemen" were individualists who lived in perfect harmony with nature, and who were subsequently destroyed by Christianity. You don't need to be a history or archeology major to know this is utter bullshit and quite a reductive explanation of how culture works. The most extreme representatives or associates of the right-wing subculture of Black Metal like to rename themselves after famous Nazi-personalities and claim that they are acting for "the glory of the SS". Whatever that means.
I understand that their edgy-ness may seem fascinating to teenagers in search of an identity that goes beyond watching influencers flex on YouTube, following the 10th edition of a casting show on TV or listening to the latest Trap Music release. They offer you a counter-culture that goes against ANYTHING that is considered acceptable in any circumstance. Which can be fun when you are 15.
What amazes me is that these people grow up to be adults that feed the ranks of white supremacy, neo-nazi or alt-right groups, who then go on preying on the same kind of people they used to be: lost youths in search of a counter-cultural authority that tells them that they aren't the problem. It's society that's fucked up, because somebody is secretly planning on destroying individualism and "the truth". And they tell you that you being born in a specific nation and being white (and male, mostly), gives you more rights than others. You are perfectly fine and valuable as you are. In fact, you are even SUPERIOR to others because of it. Isn't it great? You were just born better than others. A pity this superiority looses credibility the moment you realize it results out of randomly assigned attributes you received by pure luck or chance. But I digress.
This book didn't really do much in terms of analyzing the socio-economic or historical reasons behind the rise of the radical right-wing Black Metal bands and subculture. It's neither an academical read nor pretends to be. It's a collection of articles and interviews from people who are "in the scene" or of supposed experts on "Satanism"(even if Satanism seems to play a very marginal role in today's Black Metal. It's also funny how some of them seem to hate Christianity, but still use a Christian simbology and element to base their worldview on. There's only one musician, Ihsahn, who states that he's a Satanist in LaVay's sense of the term, the others seem to think being Satanist means being OH SO EVIL LOOK AT MY CORPSEPAINT I BURN CHURCHES AT NIGHT AND HAVE AN SS BELT BUCKLE!)
It's one of those books you could have on a shelf in the toilet to casually read while taking a dump. There's no cohesive narrative to follow, and most of the source material for the author's "assumptions", which are quite sparse, are the interviews itself. I find the cases involving Black Metal associates and musicians quite interesting, especially those I could not hear of because they (luckily) didn't reach international notoriety. Besides that, there's not much I got out of this book.
EDIT: After I finished the book I found out that the author IS actually active in some esoteric Heathen right wing fringes and has made many questionable statements in the past. This doesn’t change my review in the slightest, but I’m warning you in case you wouldn’t like to spend a cent on somebody like this for a mediocre book.
Thanks to this book (which is so randomly structured it's quite a mess) I sadly realized that my prejudice for figures like Varg Vikernes (who has gone through so many names that I will spare you the "a.k.a." listing), for bands like Cradle of Filth and for the "Heathen Revival" in Black Metal has pretty much been confirmed. Even if the author seems to have done quite a good job in just printing what was said in the interviews, famous "representatives" of the genre come off as immature and inconsistent agents provocateurs in search of some reasons to blame their shortcomings on somebody or something else.
I will use Varg Vikernes as an example because he's the most prominent one.
He blamed everything on Christianity first and did or didn't burn churches and inspired angsty youths to do the same.
He then became a Neo-Nazi and blamed everything on Christianity AND the Jews, this time focusing on (alleged) cultural implications more then on the religion itself.
He then got into the whole "Ancient astronauts/aliens" theories, which he doesn't seem to be too vocal about (which is surprising since he isn't easily embarassed by the absurdities that come out of his mouth in any of his interviews).
As far as I know, Varg Vikernes, who today goes by the name Louis Cachét and lives in France with a whole litter of blond "aryan" children and his wife, is now more on the alt-right primitivist reactionary side (and is making videos about how men of 30 should marry girls at 16, because that's when they are both in their primes according to old tradition and biology...DUDE!)
What amazes me the most is that "Black Metal" as a lifestyle/ideology doesn't present itself with a coherent set of values or beliefs. Most of its "charismatic" (and I struggle using this word because I really don't understand the charm) leaders have world views that are neither founded on historical facts nor are presented to the audience in a coherent manner. Many of them ended up in prison for either murder (in most cases due to personal, not ideological reasons) or damage of property (arson/robbery/vandalism).
They somewhat managed to market themselves as MARTYRS for a cause that is nothing more than pure reactionism based on a romantic world view in which "Norsemen" were individualists who lived in perfect harmony with nature, and who were subsequently destroyed by Christianity. You don't need to be a history or archeology major to know this is utter bullshit and quite a reductive explanation of how culture works. The most extreme representatives or associates of the right-wing subculture of Black Metal like to rename themselves after famous Nazi-personalities and claim that they are acting for "the glory of the SS". Whatever that means.
I understand that their edgy-ness may seem fascinating to teenagers in search of an identity that goes beyond watching influencers flex on YouTube, following the 10th edition of a casting show on TV or listening to the latest Trap Music release. They offer you a counter-culture that goes against ANYTHING that is considered acceptable in any circumstance. Which can be fun when you are 15.
What amazes me is that these people grow up to be adults that feed the ranks of white supremacy, neo-nazi or alt-right groups, who then go on preying on the same kind of people they used to be: lost youths in search of a counter-cultural authority that tells them that they aren't the problem. It's society that's fucked up, because somebody is secretly planning on destroying individualism and "the truth". And they tell you that you being born in a specific nation and being white (and male, mostly), gives you more rights than others. You are perfectly fine and valuable as you are. In fact, you are even SUPERIOR to others because of it. Isn't it great? You were just born better than others. A pity this superiority looses credibility the moment you realize it results out of randomly assigned attributes you received by pure luck or chance. But I digress.
This book didn't really do much in terms of analyzing the socio-economic or historical reasons behind the rise of the radical right-wing Black Metal bands and subculture. It's neither an academical read nor pretends to be. It's a collection of articles and interviews from people who are "in the scene" or of supposed experts on "Satanism"(even if Satanism seems to play a very marginal role in today's Black Metal. It's also funny how some of them seem to hate Christianity, but still use a Christian simbology and element to base their worldview on. There's only one musician, Ihsahn, who states that he's a Satanist in LaVay's sense of the term, the others seem to think being Satanist means being OH SO EVIL LOOK AT MY CORPSEPAINT I BURN CHURCHES AT NIGHT AND HAVE AN SS BELT BUCKLE!)
It's one of those books you could have on a shelf in the toilet to casually read while taking a dump. There's no cohesive narrative to follow, and most of the source material for the author's "assumptions", which are quite sparse, are the interviews itself. I find the cases involving Black Metal associates and musicians quite interesting, especially those I could not hear of because they (luckily) didn't reach international notoriety. Besides that, there's not much I got out of this book.
EDIT: After I finished the book I found out that the author IS actually active in some esoteric Heathen right wing fringes and has made many questionable statements in the past. This doesn’t change my review in the slightest, but I’m warning you in case you wouldn’t like to spend a cent on somebody like this for a mediocre book.