Herzeleid wrote:

blacktears wrote:Oh shit, he looks like a candidate for the new Capt. Birdseye, ha ha

My favourite Burzum albums are the debut and "Det Som Engang Var". I very much doubt that he will go back to recording Black Metal in that vein again.

I would disagree about "Lords of Chaos" being a great piece. It's a workmanlike book,that gives a broad outline to the goings on through that period. However, it was pieced together years afterwards and didn't have the immediacy of actual correspondence and conversations that were being had at the time these events happened. I was fortunate to be in contact with most of the Norwegian scene from the early 90s, as well as being good friends with Tiziana @ Misanthropy + Lee Barrett @ Candlelight + Nihil @ Cacophonous, so I got a good varied flavour of what was going on.

I still have Varg's pre-Burzum letters in my archives, when he was playing in Old Funeral. Of course, they are signed Christian Vikernes.

You have the ACTUAL letters?!

Yes, indeed I have.

The later ones are signed Count Grishnackh, and his attitude changed to slagging off members of Old Funeral as "poseurs".

Little know fact, he phoned Lee Barrett @ Candlelight (whom he was then signing to) in the early hours of the morning after Euronymous's death joking to him, in an elated manner, that Eunonymous was dead and how he had been killed.

Lee considered it a joke until he heard about the stabbing the next day. This is according to Lee himself.

He instantly dropped him from the label, which is probably the biggest mistake Candlelight ever made

Bloomin heck. Imagine the cash you could get if you actually sold those.

Creeping Dan wrote:Bloomin heck. Imagine the cash you could get if you actually sold those.

Hmm, that's something I have never thought about. I wonder if I have any of his handmade flyers left advertising the sale of the Old Funeral 7"? (he used to sell it direct to customers).

I might give it a go on ebay

It would mean rifling through 15+ years of extensive correspondence to find them though. Back in the early 90s I was writing & receiving between 50 & 100 letters per week.

You can't sell them! Too rare and lovely. Were you actually like penpals with Varg then?

Herzeleid wrote:You can't sell them! Too rare and lovely. Were you actually like penpals with Varg then?

Not really a penpal. As with most of my letters of the time, they were about news of future band activities, further recommendations, purchasing/trading stuff. He just came across as a normal run-of-the-mill music fanatic at the time.

In fact, Jon of Dissection (R.I.P.) told me a story about this kid who ran up to him at gig in Norway, awestruck to meet him, and then introduced himself as Christian Vikernes.

Jon was another case in point. He was one of the nicest guys I've met when I went out drinking with him a few times. He was funny & polite, full of amusing stories - I wouldn't have guessed then how it finally turned out for him. In fact, he became the person that he used to ridicule and laugh about back in those days.

A lot of those Norwegian characters don't turn out how you would expect them be when you meet them. E.G. Metalion (Slayer Mag) was a gibbering drunk, knocking my drink over and begging for cash to buy more. He also has few teeth left.

Cultocultus (Perdition Hearse, Mayhem, Thy Abhorrent & Sepulchral Noise zine) was walking around in a Kaftan & headband, like he had been time-warped from 1968.

OK, I am rambling off topic now, so I shall stop.

moar stories plz

Yes theres a few nice ones there.

Dian Wei wrote:

Lev wrote:

TORSO wrote:Its an interesting debate. Do you listen to music purely for the music or does the person who made it, with their beliefs and opinions, an important aspect....for example Varg is a arsonist, overly right wing and a murderer yet has done some great music.

Same thing with Micheal Jackson, if he was convicted of child rape could you listen to his music the same way and respect him as much?

Discuss

I would happily have children just to donate them to Michael Jackson under a promise he would release something as good as Thriller again.

You've bloody stole my bit you shister!

what what what?!

I say something akin to that almost daily.

GET OUT OF MY MINNNDDDDDDDDDDDddd

i recall lev saying it at bloodstock, so...

I recall saying it in secondary school, so....

Yeah, I've had that phrase for quite some time. It must be an obvious plan...

The Fourth Norseman wrote:moar stories plz

Here's another one - Varg related. Ever heard of the "Doom Metal Council"? It was a tongue-in-cheek group of people with a similar interest in Doom Metal. That included Solstice, Mourn, pre-Electric Wizard band Eternal, as well as Dawn of Winter & Mirror of Deception. Oh, and myself.

Alan French, who was the drummer of Mourn, decided to have a laugh one night. He phoned up Norwegian directory enquiries and asked for a Vikernes from Bergen. Strangely enough, they gave him a number and he phoned it, leaving a message on the answerphone along the lines of "The Doom Metal Council of England are going to fuck you over, blah, blah, blah". A lot of drunken nonsense. It didn't have the backing or knowledge of the members and Alan wasn't a member either. He just thought he was being clever.

Well, the Vikernes concerned just happened to be Varg's father and the message caused all sorts of shit when it got out. The Norwegians reported it to Cradle of Filth, who started a vendetta against Solstice, in particular, complaining to Cacophonous that they weren't going to put out an album on the same label as a Christian band (?) As Cradle was Cacophonous's big seller and Solstice was only having a 7" released, Solstice got dropped from the label.

I remember all sorts of fun happening at the Emperor/Cradle of Filth/Mourn gig at the Tufnell Park Dome in 1993. Will of Mourn brought a large wooden cross to put on stage, which promptly got smashed up behind his back by Emperor & Cradle. Emperor decided to show their arses from the backstage door at Mourn on stage, until Will's mum went over and told them off and they all went red in the face Afterwards Emperor was going around in their van looking for Will. He claims they had knives and he had to hide in the bushes till they had gone past.

For the record, I thought Emperor's set was appalling that night. They sound checked for hours and the sound was still terrible. That was Ferenc of Nightlord who handled the sound on that. He was notorious for bad sound. In fact, some bands refused to play the Marquee anymore if he handled the mixing for them. He still plays guitar for Conflict, I believe.

Ever seen the video of Emperor from Liverpool, on the same tour? There is guy at the front holding up a picture of Jesus in their faces all night

These storys are much more like it.

It might be just me but there seems much less in the way of that genuine "scene" climate around these days, compared to what blacktears is describing - maybe the immediacy of the internet has killed off some of the mystery surrounding the bands, or maybe it's just that all the significant developments in metal genres are so established now?