Bassist Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud of Norwegian black metallers MAYHEM has defended the “Lords Of Chaos” movie, saying that all the actors did a “good” job and that the director “put a lot of effort into making” scenes in the film look “as authentic as possible.”
The film, which chronicles the outrageous crimes committed by a few Norwegian black metal bands and their hangers-on in the early 1990s, was helmed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund, who made his mark directing music videos for artists from Madonna and THE ROLLING STONES to MAROON 5 and Beyoncé.
The black metal community, which has always been based in elitism and exclusivity, has not been very accepting of the film, with some of the black metal purists taking issue with the accuracy of the movie. But, as Modern Horrors points out, it appears that much of the criticism is rooted in the fact that this exclusive subculture is getting some outside attention rather than the quality of the film.
Asked in a new interview with Andrew McKaysmith of the Scars And Guitars podcast if Jonas reached out to him about the movie before it was released, Stubberud said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yes. And it was on the later side. It was almost too late, because I was just told, ‘Oh, they’re making a movie out of you.’ So that’s it. And I’m, like, ‘What? You can’t make a movie out of me without talking to me first.’ But they were, like, very arrogant, and so I said, ‘Fuck off. Okay, then go fuck yourself.’ But then he also contacted me and said, ‘Yeah, I’m the director of the thing and wanted to have a sitdown and stuff.’ I met him in L.A. And I didn’t know who it was. I didn’t know it was the old drummer of BATHORY and that he was there at the time and he followed the case and he was living in Sweden when it happened. He was playing in BATHORY, so, of course, he was hooked up into the metal [scene], the extreme metal [scene] as well. And so I didn’t know that. I just thought it was some kind of a Hollywood director that was gonna do it who wouldn’t pay attention to anything except the bad things. So I talked to him. And I thought to myself, like, ‘It’s gonna be made anyway.’ And then he said, “Well, if I can use a couple of [MAYHEM] songs.’ So I got to see the movie first before it came out, because I said, ‘Well, if you’re making a mockery out of us, I’m not giving you the rights for any songs, obviously.’ So he said, ‘Okay, fuck it. You can see the movie and then make up your mind if you want to grant [us the rights].’ When I saw the movie, I was thinking to myself, like, ‘Wow, okay.’ It was touching all the bad stuff, but it happened. So, okay. But what he did extra was that he had done a lot of research and had put a lot of effort into making as much authentic as possible. And I’m saying what stuck out was that the wardrobe was spot-on. It was the same t-shirts we were going around in, they were talking about the music in correct ways, referring to a CELTIC FROST and BATHORY, and making fun of SCORPIONS — you know, all of those things. I thought to myself, like, wow, normal people going to the movies who don’t know anything about metal, they wouldn’t know, and they wouldn’t care if the wardrobe, if the back patches were right or not, if you know what I mean? So I thought to myself, ‘Okay. They did the fucking effort here.’ They didn’t have to. But that told me how [much of a] nerd that guy was. And I thought to myself, like, ‘I love nerds.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, fuck it. You can do it.’ I gave him the rights. [And then] the movie came out.”
Stubberud continued: “The funny thing [was] everybody was very wound up about it. The biggest news [out]lets in the world — BBC, CNN — all of those people actually contacted us because it was like a cool story. And I told them all that, ‘Well, I’m not gonna comment anything before you see it yourself. When the movie’s out, then you can call me and I’ll give comments. But for now, before the movie’s out, I’m not gonna comment on anything.’ And they were, like, ‘Okay, we’ll call you.’ But after the movie came out, nobody called. And I know why, because then it was, like, the story was so bad and wrong for so many reasons that it wasn’t that funny anymore, really. It wasn’t that entertaining after all, if you know what I mean, to see a couple of guys being killed in slow motion on movie. So I make fun of that afterwards. Like everybody was so interested before it came out and then it came out, nobody was interested in it anymore. And then I don’t know what happened. I mean, it didn’t go to Billboard‘s number one for the movies. It was [played] on TV here in Norway a bunch of times, but that’s because we are from Norway and a big deal here.”
“Lords Of Chaos” is described as “the terrifying story based on real events about a dream-turned-nightmare for a group of teenagers who spiral out of control.” The movie follows the life of Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, the founding member of MAYHEM who was murdered in 1993 by Kristian “Varg” Vikernes (BURZUM). In the movie, Euronymous “becomes fixated on creating true ‘Norwegian black metal’ music with his band MAYHEM, and creates a phenomenon by using shocking stunts to put the band’s name on the map. But as the lines between publicity and reality start to blur, acts of arson, violence and a vicious murder shock the nation.”
The movie stars Rory Culkin (“Scream 4”) as Euronymous, Emory Cohen (“The Place Beyond The Pines”) as Varg, Anthony De La Torre (“Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”) as Hellhammer, Sky Ferreira (“The Green Inferno”) as Ann-Marit, Jack Kilmer (Val Kilmer‘s son) as Per Yngve “Dead” Ohlin, and Valter Skarsgard (Stellan Skarsgard‘s son) as Faust. That cast is joined by Sam Coleman as Metalion, Jonathan Barnwell as Necrobutcher, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht as Blackthorn, Lucian Charles Collier as Occultus, Andrew Lavelle as Fenriz, and James Edwin as Manheim. Culkin and Ferreira were visible in METALLICA‘s “ManUNkind” video, which was helmed by Åkerlund and which contains scenes from the movie.
Speaking about how accurate the actors’ portrayal was of the people they were playing in the movie, Stubberud said: “Yeah, I think they all did good. I think the guy who played me did good. He read my book before doing the movie. I like that.”
Asked if he spoke to Jonathan Barnwell about the actor’s portrayal of him in the film, Necrobutcher said: “No, I didn’t, but he sent his mother and his aunt to get his copy of the book signed. They had a screening of the movie in London, and I was invited over there with… Thurston Moore from SONIC YOUTH was there too — he was doing the presenting of the movie — and I was there just to sign my book, actually. So his mother and his auntie came down and they said that the Jonathan was too nervous to come in personally, because he was afraid that I was going to beat him up. [Laughs] So I told his aunt and his mother that the truth couldn’t be farther from it. And I signed his book, obviously. And if he comes down to any shows or anything, I’m definitely gonna have a nice chat with him, if [he wants] to. I think he did a good job. I think also the characters were pretty good, spot-on, good. They did their job. Even Metalion, the guy who played [Jon] ‘Metalion’ [Kristiansen, editor of the legendary Norwegian magazine Slayer], the resemblance was spot-on. Actually, that was the character who looked the most like the character he was playing.”
The “Lords Of Chaos” movie is based on the “Lords Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of The Satanic Metal Underground” book, which was originally published in 1998 by Feral House U.S. A second edition followed in 2003, documenting black metal activities since 1997.
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and currently holds a 73% fresh rating over on Rotten Tomatoes.