Helvete: historien om norsk black metal

An extremely important ingredient in black metal has always been mystery.

Exploring darkness, death and evil, really.

A rather deep abyss to descend into.

There is a lot down there that most people are hardly prepared to face.

It's about damn powerful things. Big, disturbing things.

It can end in tragedy, total chaos or total triumph.

Norwegian black metal is world famous.

We have Ibsen, Kittelsen, Edvard Munch and Norwegian black metal.

Black metal is part of the Norwegian DNA, whether you like it or not.

What is this? -It has become a religion.

It was special young men who found each other.

It made a very strong impression. This was my music.

I probably had a feeling of being part of something new.

It was absolutely king!

It became more and more extreme. It was quite extreme from the first moment.

The start of the extreme metal scene in Norway is Mayhem.

Mayhem is in a way patient number one.

Replacement, chaos, people took their lives, people died.

No other Norwegian band has inspired more kids around the world

to start with music than Mayhem has.

They are probably the most important band in Norwegian rock.

I've not been here ...

Damn it! Over 30 years.

It was raw. It smelled just like ... I recognized the smell.

When you have not been here for 35 years and look out the window ...

Suddenly you get such a déjà vu.

That view there ... A place where you've been standing a lot, right?

For several years, and then not in 30 years, and then suddenly you do.

It's a little special.

Moved to Vevelstad in 75.

It was a completely new residential area.

We had moved into one of the first blocks that was finished.

A deposit was paid in a kind of condominium.

It was an entrance for people who did not have much of a span.

Mutter'n bought a house there. She was then 25 years old.

I was seven. I was such a key child.

I locked myself in when I got home from school.

People in the blocks where I grew up, who were older than me ...

We were interested in music and started bands.

The coolest was the vocalist, then the soloist, rhythm guitarist,

and the lowest on the ladder was the bassist. It was me.

Let's see if there's any other shit left of us.

Here! Yes!

I'll take a picture of it.

First we were called "Shoe Iron".

Then came the idea of ​​"Black City".

I thought it sounded like glam rock, so I wanted to get them involved in something else.

I asked a Finnish lady. "What does 'Black City' mean in Finnish?"

She said: "musta kaupunki". Kaupunki was a bit long,

so we ended up with "Musta".

Then we got Kjetil Manheim, the son of the principal at the school, on the team.

That was when we got this rehearsal room.

Before that, we drank Coke and talked about how big we were going to be ...

... in a boys' room in a block of flats. Down here, things started to happen.

I remember that we were already a little quarrelsome in primary school.

Discussive, right? We had an edge, we had some friction

with what was going on around us. People were interested in sports.

People were interested in pop music, a lot ... The same NRK programs.

Interest in rabbits has grown strongly in recent times.

I was not interested in it, and neither was Jørn.

We were not involved in that thing. Maybe we were the ones who were a little different.

Now I see something else there too. There.

This is our first guitarist. Jan Erik Pedersen.

Jørn and I did not share the ambitions of the others.

We had some other ideas, so we let them know that this is not working.

We wanted to explore places that were more aggressive and shocking.

We continued in the rehearsal room, but only Jørn and I.

We tried to find people we could play with.

That summer I was going to audition for a band in Ski.

They had sent a friend to show me where this was.

It was Øystein.

We talked together and we enjoyed the same kind of music. He played guitar,

and he knew some of the songs we rehearsed here, me and Manheim.

I asked him to come try out.

The next day he arrived at the premises. Plugged in his Peavey Bandit.

It is known for insane feedback. He had pedals with poor contact.

So it howled and howled like hell.

We played half a song.

Looked at each other, and me and Øystein just ... "This is it!"

It was a huge feeling of happiness. Like taking three miles in slow motion.

I still remember that very clearly.

Such important days in life that are like that ...

Moments that define the rest of life.

Then we started hanging out all the time.

Øystein was my twin soul. Blood brother.

Completely different from me. Like night and day.

I liked everything that was fermented, he liked everything that was ...

He was healthy, he trained and was super good at school.

I was so good at school, Jørn was not so busy with school.

Eystein had top marks in everything. -He had a different upbringing than me.

His parents were different from mine. He spoke very nicely.

Defendant parents with first name.

It was so damn formal all the time. Even at home.

Sunday dinner every Sunday. He called it advice. Council meetings.

There were two different worlds. It was yin and yang.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why it turned out the way it did.

That we were not equal, so we added something to each other.

Øystein spoke the same language as us about where we wanted to be with music.

This with hunting for something that went in an extreme direction, we agreed.

Later we got on board vocalists who were completely in line with that.

Billy was the first vocalist to join Mayhem properly.

I needed something angry.

I was looking for something that could give me that ...

That joy, I would say, by just ...

Me and Øystein were at a Dio concert in Drammenshallen.

Then we see a guy who has a Venom spine.

Such a sewing mark on the denim jacket.

By the band Venom from Newcastle. They had hardly heard of anyone.

Øystein and I were the only ones I knew who liked the band.

Outside Drammenshallen we hear behind us:

"Venom!"

Then we turn around, and there are two black-clad guys

with long hair, and they also had big Venom back marks.

Then it was like ... "The tribe!"

There was no one else. It was just us!

When Venom came, it was also groundbreaking.

They continued the first thing I felt when I heard Motörhead.

They perpetuated the angry "fuck off" attitude.

But at the same time it was metal.

Black metal!

Venom "coined the phrase" first -

by calling his music "black metal".

Yet there was a bit of rock'n'roll at 45 with satanic spotting and ...

Fandom violence all around.

Where Black Sabbath had previously sung about Satan -

and the stuff there, then he was always such a "bad guy".

One should be afraid of him.

Suddenly Venom comes and sings that Satan is cool.

He's really a fucking cool guy.

To evoke an aura around the band that is special and can seem occult, -

was the common denominator for black metal in the 80's.

We knew deep down that this was image.

But we wanted it to be true.

So we took it a step further.

That was what they were focusing on, already in 1984.

That things should be ugly. "It must then be possible to make the music for Venom" -

"much uglier."

"And much faster!"

If this is the worst thing you have ever heard, then you are absolutely right!

It was the cinema hall in Ski. It was such a competition.

It was a dolphin final in the NM in rock.

Then all bands that signed up could get a chance.

Then we grabbed it and signed up.

We were supposed to be extreme. When I look at it today, it is very innocent.

We had choreographed a show beforehand.

I was going to smash my bass on the stage floor.

It was supposed to be a grand finale.

When the time comes for it, song number three or whatever it is, -

then I grab the bass and look down at the floor ...

It looks like such an expensive ship floor.

It suddenly looked damn expensive just before I had to crush the bass.

At that moment ...

... I break the bass on the knee instead.

I discovered that this does not work. This is getting too expensive.

Øystein mooned the assembly.

It was like the statement we had.

It was a bit like that ... "fuck you!" We came in last place of all the bands.

We had reached the goal that we should be so sluggish, ugly and ugly -

and ugly.

Fuck you!

We wanted to shock. Maybe a little more than any youth.

The starting point was the aggression against society and the authorities.

I grew up in a free church environment. Did not have much left for the church.

It is difficult for people to understand how monotonous, gray -

and oppressive Norwegian society was.

Rauland in Telemark, a mountain village with about 1500 inhabitants.

In Rauland, they only cover our one Norwegian television channel.

What do you like to watch on television? -Cartoons.

And then I watch the Monday movie.

Do you see the detection class too? -Yes, sometimes.

I grew up in a small village called Rauland.