Satan Rides the Media

If you were into Heavy Metal, particularly the more extreme forms like Thrash- or Death Metal music during the 1990s, there was virtually no way around an even extremer form of music, which rose in Scandinavia (and especially Norway): Black Metal.

Black Metal took everything one step further: musicians posing in KISS-like make-up (so called "corpse-paint", emulating plague-victims) and sporting names like Fenriz, Hellhammer or Nocturno Culto, bands dabbling in Satanism, misanthropy and the black arts, and of course the music, which was even more extreme than Death Metal, yet often had an almost atmospheric, symphonic ring to it. Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor and Burzum were the talk of the scene and of course there was the cryptic talk in the sparse magazine- and fanzine-interviews those bands gave about secret rituals, covens and satanic circles.

Then the first churches began to burn in Norway and many Metalheads, especially those who had grown up in rigid, restrictive Christian societies, were even sympathetic with those "rebels" from the high north. Then came the first murders, perhaps the most infamous being the killing of the scenes "godfather", Euronymous, the self-proclaimed leader of the Norwegian BM-circle and guitarist of BM-band Mayhem. Not long before Euronymous had taken pictures of the bands vocalist, fittingly named Dead, who had blown his head off with a shotgun and used those grim images for a bootleg-album (there was even rumours that Euronymous cooked part of Deads brain in a stew after discovering the body).

Many fans were convinced that those people were the "real deal" and eagerly for what would come next. Actually, not much happened. The culprits went to jail, the remaining bands and musicians returned to their basis of playing music and Black Metal soon became a mainstream music, their video-clips appearing on MTV. Today, few parents would think much about allowing their kids to attend a show by modern BM-bands, whose "evil act" is as authentic as a hanging in an Alice Cooper show.

One who was authentic was Varg "Count Grishnak" Vikernes, leader of the one-man-band Burzum. Young Vikernes would spend the next 20+ years in jail for the brutal stabbing of Euronymous. Vikernes may well have been the most ambitious of the early Black Metal bands, having boasted about the arsons in the media and, during the murder-trial, Vikernes would indeed "ride the media".

"Satan rides the media" is one of the more interesting, even authentic documentaries about this shrouded music-scenes, featuring interviews with numerous figures from this scene (many of whom would later go on to confirm that arsons and Satanism was indeed a mere gimmick to promote album-sales) and at the same time, it demystifies this scene. The members are shown as people like you or I (albeit some more eccentric), the "Norwegian Black Metal Circle" as the invention of a handful of kids and the fabled headquarters of the Satanists, "Helvete" (or "Hell") as the cellar of an half-empty record-store, bought by Euronymous' parents.

Furthermore, the documentary draws an interesting portrait of Vikernes himself, a charismatic and talented young musician, who could have become somewhat of a Pop-star, had it not been for murder. Despite the notoriety of his name (which didn't exactly hurt the record-sales), Vikernes became a "star" only until after his trial. After that he disappeared in jail for decades, where he would mutate first into a neo-Nazi, then a supporter of Nordic mysticism (or Asatru). Despite the charisma and bravado that Vikernes displays in the interviews – if you want to call it that; others would call it stubbornness, bordering on stupidity – one cannot help to think that Vikernes ruined two lives and careers the night he murdered Euronymous.

For those interested in the early days of the scene, "Satan rides the media", despite the simplistic form, is one of the most interesting documentaries. I'd give it 6/10.

This is a classic documentary on the Norwegian BM scene centered on Varg Vikerness. Many other documentaries followed. Lords of Chaos book appeared a year before this documentary. Now we know that many of the things which appeared here and in the book and other documentaries were exaggerated and false, many people in the BM community coming out and telling the true story or their part of the story. But, truth be told, no matter how you put it, it was an intense period and no other music genre was so committed to expressing itself outside the lyrics and the music like BM has. A dark music with a dark history.

This documentary is one of the earliest that tried to cover what happened back then, and I think it did a decent job, considering it came out in 1999. They could've interviewed more musicians and people in the underground scene, yet they wanted to bring this documentary as a crime documentary more than a music documentary, thus they brought all the police and journalists at the time to speak about how they seen the events.

Unfortunately, Varg was depicted as a satanist, which he was not, but I guess it's better for the media picture.

All in all, this remains a cult documentary.