In 1993 (the year I was born, ironically), a string of crimes ravaged Norway's capital city of Oslo, and sister city Bergen. Church burnings, murder, and rumors of satanic sacrifice and worship spread through the country like wildfire. Indeed, it was a small group of 'satanists' who were at the forefront of a new, extreme wave of metal - the Second Wave of Black Metal. Influenced by 80s giants such as Bathory, Celtic Frost, Sarcofago, and Iron Maiden, a handful of Norwegian youths had taken it upon themselves to further the raw, terrifying sound of these progenitors.
Among them was one Kristian "Varg" Vikernes - a man who came to be known as black metal's most notorious musician. Founder and sole instrumentalist of the one-man BM act Burzum, Varg infamously directed several church burnings, and whipped the subsequent media storm into a frenzy in an anonymous interview with a Bergen newspaper. Vikernes was infamously anti-Christian, viewing it as a 'Jewish import' and vowing to return Scandinavia to pagan worship by - you guessed it - church burnings.
As the satanic panic grew in intensity, Vikernes found himself embroiled in the power struggles of the Norwegian BM scene (which was referred to by members as the "Inner Circle"), and drew the ire of his former compatriot, Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, who was loathe to see someone else viewed as 'head' of the scene. The animosity between the two culminated in Aarseth's death at Vikernes' hands, and despite Vikernes' plea of self-defense, he was found guilty of both the murder and several church burnings. Vikernes found himself sentenced to 21 years in jail - the maximum sentence under Norwegian law.
During his imprisonment, Vikernes continued his tirade on anti-Christianity, viewing it as a "Hebrew import" as a result of a "Jewish conspiracy". Vikernes also renounced his attention-hungry stance from the early 90s, rejecting black metal acts that came after as 'sheep', and claiming the genre was never supposed to become a trend. After his release in 2009, Varg became a sort of joke among metalheads, and his profoundly racist blog burzum.org continues to showcase his far-right rants and raves.
A few weeks ago, Vikernes and his wife Sophie Cachet were arrested on their farm in France, after French police discovered he had received a copy of Anders Breivik's (the perpetrator of the Utoya Massacre in 2011) manifesto. Despite Vikernes' pointed shaming of Breivik and insistence that the latter "kill himself", the fact that he had received the manifesto set off alarms in France. Soon after, Burzum.org pinned Vikernes down as a racist (duh), and when his wife (legally) purchased several firearms, the police stepped in to detain him on terrorism plot charges. Despite being released 36 hours later, the subsequent media storm reached national news in France as Le Monde claimed a 'Neo-Nazi' had been arrested.
With this recent development, metal forums around the internet began weighing in on the arrest - sure, it definitely seemed like a bit of a stretch to arrest the man, but who could really be sure? Opinions on Varg tend to fall into one of two positions - either he should be exonerated for Aarseth's murder and strongly anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric because he's an artist, and artistic license and whatnot; or he's a nutjob that should be left alone to spout his opinions to white supremacists, and/or actively silenced. What makes the issue complicated is that Burzum, along with bands like Darkthrone and Satyricon, singlehandedly defined the Norwegian black metal sound that would permeate extreme metal for the past two decades.
So what do you do when one of the pillars of a genre is an extremist who's created his own religion ("Odalism")? What do you do when 1996' Filosofem is widely regarded as one of the best black metal albums ever made? Obviously Vikernes has left his mark on metal - despite bands like Venom and Judas Priest incorporating a 'satanic' vibe into their music, Vikernes took the anti-Christian message away from pure music and put it into action. Obviously, that wasn't a wise choice. No matter how ass-backwards and 'trve' you are, murder and arson are wrong.
The problem lies in just that: it is anyone's prerogative to have their opinion. It's not anyone's place to claim their opinion is more valid than anyone else's - Vikernes is perfectly at liberty to claim Scandinavia should return to Odin worship. He is perfectly at liberty to rant and rave against the "Jewish New World Order" that is "dominating the western world". But what he cannot do is go out and put that agenda into action by hurting people and burning churches. Should Vikernes' crimes be forgotten? No, not at all. The fact that this is a person who understood exactly what he was doing - and continues to justify it - prevents his vindication.
However, with regards to the music, I believe a line needs to be drawn. While Burzum's themes of Scandinavian mythology and fantasy worlds are never incredibly overt with prejudiced rhetoric, the fact is that he does have the artistic license to say whatever he pleases through Burzum. And while many people may not enjoy what he has to say (myself included), the fact that it's not very obvious lessens the blow for me. If someone were to listen to Burzum, their first thought would be that Vikernes was a Tolkien-obsessed metalhead who had listened to too much Bathory and desperately wanted to be a viking.
Additionally, it is impossible to separate music from its composer - when Sleep wrote Dopesmoker, it was blisteringly clear exactly what the band's vice was (hint: it may be marijuana). The same goes for Burzum - Vikernes unintentionally or intentionally puts a little bit of himself into each and every album. And while it may not be obvious, it is most definitely present. This is a fact that needs to be remembered.
Bottom line, my views on Burzum can be summarized as "remember who wrote this music". It's perfectly okay to like the music. No one can stop you from enjoying Burzum - hell, 'Key to the Gate' features one of the coolest solos I've heard in black metal - but it's important to remember who Varg is, remember what he did, and remember that in supporting Burzum - in any way - you are supporting him.
What you do with that knowledge is your choice.
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