Film review – Lords Of Chaos

There is no question that the Lords of Chaos movie has amassed a huge amount of controversy from musicians and black metal fans alike. Most of the musicians that were to be played on screen didn’t want to be associated with the project, with the likes of Varg Vikernes of Burzum and Fenriz from Darkthrone calling the movie “made up and plain wrong” and “the worst idea since un-sliced bread”. This stance was also the same for Mayhem, the band being portrayed, with no one willing to give the director their consent to use their music and input into the movie.

That was until original Bathory drummer Jonas Åkerlund took over directing. Jonas started to research the scene in great depth and consult with original members of Mayhem which in turn has led to Mayhem endorsing the movie publicly on Facebook and with ‘Necrobutcher’ himself attending a screening in London in Autumn 2018.

I was a little apprehensive myself to watch the movie with all the bad press that it has received and the trailers that have been released have seemed to portray the movie in an almost comedic teen-movie-esque light.

It starts with the band in the mid-late eighties with the original lineup and their “Deathcrush” EP, before Hellhammer (Anthony De La Torre) and Dead (Jack Kilmer) replaced the original members. The film quickly shows just how disturbed Dead is, with scenes involving a crucified mouse, dead animal carcasses, inhaling the stench of a dead crow from a paper bag and self-mutilation, that shocks and awes the crowd and band members alike. Whether he was suffering from ‘Cotard delusion’ or simply depression is what leaves the audience feeling most uncomfortable. His suicide scene is very graphic and shocking, and has left me reflecting on it for days afterwards… Hey, I thought this movie was a coming of age comedy?!

The movie then switches to Euronymous (Rory Culkin) becoming the main protagonist and shows how he plans to take his grip on the black metal scene. This was helped by him taking photos of Dead’s (dead) body and sending them to Columbia where they were used on a bootleg record called “Dawn of the Black Hearts”. And anyone who holds a slither of knowledge about this genre will be familiar with the pieces of Dead’s skull which were made into necklaces for only the most ‘worthy’. During this time Euronymous meets Varg (Emory Cohen) and the type of music he makes is what Euronymous is looking for, but they need something to make them become recognised, which was done by the church burnings and the very brutal murder of a homosexual man by Emperor’s drummer, Faust (Valter Skarsgard).

Euronymous can now be seen losing his power with Varg becoming the main protagonist, which causes them to break friendship and leads to the very graphic murder scene of Euronymous, which Varg claimed was in self-defence, but in reality was probably his paranoia and a power shift that had gone to his head.

There are parts which are cringeworthy, coupled with some poor acting and a few fabricated parts. However, the very violent scenes, the historical research and impact it had on music is plain for everyone to see and as a whole, the movie is well portrayed with great music by Mayhem, Hellhammer, Bathory and even Accept. A must-see for all metal fans.

7/10

Review by Nate Gough