Video: "Until The Light Takes Us"

“Until The Light Takes Us tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans world-wide. Until The Light Takes Us goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of "Satanists running amok in Europe" to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture”

“To capture this on film, directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway and lived with the musicians for several years, building relationships that allowed them to create a surprisingly intimate portrait of this violent, but ultimately misunderstood, movement. The result is a poignant, moving story that’s as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of what’s actually true, as it is about a music scene that blazed a path of murder and arson across the northern sky.”

The film is not just something for people who listen to black metal as it goes far beyond the musical aspects of what was happening in Norway at the time and examines the social political and artistic aspects as well and how they have come to influence today's art, music and culture in Norway and beyond. One of my favorite parts of the film is when the viewer is treated to an art exhibit of work influenced by the black metal scene and how something quite serious and extreme has been turned into another piece of consumable pop culture.

Featuring appearances from Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell, Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes, Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg, Kjetil “Frost” Haraldstad, Olve “Abbath” Eikemo, Harald “Demonaz” Nævdal, Bjarne Melgaard, Harmony Korine.

Featuring music from Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Ulver, Thorns, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Boards of Canada, Black Dice, Sunn 0))), Múm, Lesser

Running time: 93 min.

For special features click HERE.

Go Buy This: Kirkebrann Stave Church-Shaped Candle

The Christmas season is in full swing right now and with it many folks are busy picking up gifts for friends and family but what if you don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, what happens if you actually despise it? Well fear not because you can now make your black metal fantasies come true and burn a stave church in the comfort of your own home! Made famous in the early 90’s when Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnack) of the one-man band BURZUM burned Fantoft church to the ground, Kirkebrann is a stave church–shaped candle in the same likeness, handmade in the city of Bergen with an edition of 666. Varg Vikernes is serving a sentence for murder and the church burnings but you don’t have to! Act now as this is the second edition of the candle, the first was limited to 100 pieces and sold out immediately, and while you are at it pick up this book if you want to know more about the craziness that was going down in Norway's black metal scene at the time.

Thanks to my buddy Simon Tagestam for the tip.