Film Review: Until The Light Takes Us
March 24 2009 at 04:38:53 PM
In the face of endless sensationalism begun by
Kerrang! magazine and cemented by Michael Moynihan's book
Lords of Chaos, it is hard to know where the “real” story of Norwegian Black Metal exists. Most everyone knows the facts surrounding the murders and arson, but the voices of the perpetrators have been long drowned out by those of latecomers and novelty-seekers who don't care about the hows and whys.
I somewhat expected to see a variant of this attitude with the new documentary,
Until the Light Takes Us. Two American filmmakers going to Norway to recount the now-fetishized story of Mayhem, Burzum, and company seemed dubious, but once again I came away pleasantly surprised. Co-directors Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites instead present us with a very intimate portrait of key figures in the genesis of the movement, namely Fenriz of Darkthrone and Varg Vikernes of Burzum. In what seemed like a very exclusive and careful set of interviews, the duo capture Vikernes looking back on his substantial role in the chaos he and his cohorts inflicted upon Norway in the early 90s, while they alternately follow Fenriz around Oslo and allow him to do the same. As the movie progresses, the filmmakers' thrust becomes clear; these two individuals shared a common starting point and a friendship that abruptly diverted when churches caught fire and people started turning up dead. While Darkthrone was a key band in the establishment of the subgenre, they were not involved in any of the criminal acts that made it so notorious. In terms of Black Metal, Fenriz is semi-retired and more interested in enjoying metal for its own sake rather than continuing to flog what in his mind is a dead movement. Vikernes is still the chief figurehead of that period, but while he has moved forward in his mind those acts were what defined him to the world and he is still admirably without remorse. This does not prevent him from recounting events in ways that vary radically from the established story, particularly in his evasive and excruciatingly vague description of murdering Euronymous, but he seems no less genuine in his stance on the reasons for church arson.
Ewell and Aites masterfully tie these interviews together by ultimately getting Vikernes and Fenriz to discuss their perceptions of one another, and in a somewhat sentimental scene we see Fenriz watching his old collaborator's taped observations and then discover that the two of them have not seen each other since Vikernes was incarcerated. They speak in polite but guarded terms about each other, as it is clear that both men have some regret over the other's trajectory. This is the point in the movie where a sense of loss is established; a friendship has dissolved, and Fenriz follows with a statement about how Black Metal was never meant to be for public consumption. It could also be inferred that on this account he wishes the burnings and murder never occurred. Aside from this well-explored dynamic, the directors also cull supplementary interviews from Hellhammer, Immortal (who, by Norwegian standards, are as blunt as they come), Garm, and Bard “Faust” Eithun, who very oddly has his face blurred and voice distorted as if he is somehow anonymous. An additional sour note is supplied by the psuedo-retarded indie film director Harmony Korine, who is featured aping Black Metal to the extreme at the opening of his own BM-themed art show in Los Angeles. His appearance, while irritating, is brief and functions as yet another example of why Fenriz talks about the old days in such a solemn tone. The film's third act veers into profiling Frost of Satyricon, which is also intriguing when it becomes clear that he is being presented as emblematic of the Norwegian scene as it is today, one that has little to offer either Fenriz or Varg. Frost is a bridge – he came in right after the initial uproar, and now in many ways he is seen as one of the last flag-bearers from the corpse paint n' spikes era that launched innumerable imitations.
There are not a lot of surprises in this film for anyone who already knows the long-recited details of the Norwegian Black Metal story.
Until the Light Takes Us is about nuances, and it captures as much about what it means to be Norwegian as it does about what it means to be a controversial music icon. There are several places in the film where Fenriz ruminates about things in a removed fashion that many Americans would find awkward, but this is ultimately where the untouchable piece of the puzzle is revealed. Norwegian Black Metal was just as much about contemplation as it was about the fires of anger, and this is the first movie on the subject that properly addresses the totality of its nature. At the end, I found myself anxious to revisit the works of Burzum and Darkthrone in order to try and further connect these albums to the people presented on the screen. In all, this documentary is an excellent piece of minimalist but effective storytelling, much like the music that inspired it. If you seek the simple truths hidden behind the headlines, this film will lead you to them.
[Wrath]
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