The members of the secretive inner circle that banded together at the record store, Helvete, had placed upon themselves the mantle of most extreme in metal. Their music was deadly serious and devoid of the cartoonish elements that other theatrical metal groups would immerse themselves in. Their music was primative, loud, and very lo-fi—essentially Pavement and Guided By Voices’ evil step brothers. Taking a similar disregard for audio fidelity, these select few chose to bath their music with hiss, feedback, and all sorts of textural mishaps. When the singer of Mayhem (aptly nicknamed Dead) committed suicide by putting a gun to his head, his guitar player thought nothing of photographing his body and then using his deathbed picture as a future album cover. That same guitar player (Euronymous) would eventually find himself murdered by a rival inner circle member, Varg Vikernes, the lone musician of Burzum. Yet another black metaler, Faust, the drummer of Emperor, would also be charged with homicide, for stabbing a man in Lillehammer multiple times. This is the world where Aites and Ewell’s documentary places us. The film shines a light on a movement of music where the fascination for many goes beyond what is contained within a vinyl groove or CD jewel case. (more…)
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