Breivik Linked Neo-Nazi Metal Musician

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/16/19503433-breivik-linked-neo-nazi-metal-musician-arrested-in-france-over-terrorist-act-fears?lite

Even the link annoys me. -.-

If you haven't seen this yet, check it out. I'm sure you all know about the guy who bombed Oslo, Norway a while back.

If you know me well, you know I like metal, and no, I'm not just talking about the more mainstream stuff like A7X and BFMV. I'm talking about the more extreme stuff.

I'm HIGHLY annoyed by this for a couple of different reasons. This article was the first thing I laid eyes on when I got on the internet, and I've been annoyed since. I already posted this on facebook, and I felt the need to post and explain this here as well.

Kristian Vikernes -- Better known as Varg is an old school black metal musician. Black metal is an extreme subgenre of metal that formed from bands like Venom and Bathory back in the 80's. Some of the most known bands were Burzum, which was really just Varg, Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Bathory. (Actually Bathory was pretty much what got the scene started.) Back then, it was very underground, but at the same time, the music and musicians got a lot of media attention in Norway, reason being was because most because of the church burnings, and of course, the murder that this article mentions.

I just want to add that Varg was convicted on arson charges as well, but overall he was convicted for the murder of another musician in the genre, Øystein 'Euronymous' Aarseth.

The genre is pretty crazy, obviously, and I won't lie, I like the genre, anyone who knows me well knows that, HOWEVER, I want to point out that the main things that the genre is known for DOES NOT IN ANYWAY REFLECT THE WHOLE GENRE.

OR METAL IN GENERAL, FOR THAT MATTER.

Black metal was formed from a couple different bands, Bathory and Venom, and it is a genre that is about a lot of different things. No two musicians and no two bands are the same. A lot of times, the musicians of the genre are focused on individually, and that is one of the things the genre stresses; individuality and nonconformance. Some musicians are of course, more extreme than others.

The whole anti-religious thing, which is shown very forwardly in the article, comes from the band Venom (which I do not listen to, by the way). Norway has a lot of different religions, that's obvious, but if you know you're history, you know that it was originally a PAGAN country. All the Norse Gods that have been made popular by movies like the Avengers and Thor, they are what the vikings that lived their believed in until Christianity came later on. Some musicians in the genre believe in that still and believe in the old Norse Gods, but at the same time there are ones like Varg Vikernes who believe the country should have remained and should go back to being pagan. The church burnings were an example of that ideal.

Not all bands in the genre follow those ideals though. The most notable ones that did were Burzum, which was again, just Varg, and a band called Gorgoroth. There were some others, of course, but I won't list them.

The other band that the genre mainly comes from is Bathory, which was really just one guy named Tomas Forsberg, who went by the pseudonym Quorthon (he is one of my all time FAVORITE musicians). This was the band that defined the gritty style that the old school bands played. Bathory's lyrics ultimately focused on the viking origins of the country and the landscapes. Some bands, like the band Immortal that formed in 1990 and Darkthrone (in earlier albums) which formed in 1986 focused on those things, using the music and lyrics to express the cold, secluded feeling that some places in Norway have. And, like I said, they focused on the viking theme too. Bands that focus more on these things do not get involved in all the religious conflicts.

My point of writing all this is to show the two main sides of the genre that has already gained enough negative attention in the past for the actions of a few. The media has a tendency to give the idea that the actions of one person, in this case, Varg, reflect over the whole of something. As I said before, black metal is a genre I like and it's a genre that is not intended for mass listening. The genre itself is probably the most extreme as far as ideals and appearance goes. Even more so, a lot of people who do not like heavy metal tend to have the idea that there's only ONE genre when there are TONS of subgenres. I could name them off but I won't.

The media definitely has that idea as well, and they amplify it, so I know that the metal genre in general may get some backlash from this, which is not fair. The media has a close minded view of the overall genre of metal, saying that it makes people suicidal and so on when it does not. I've listened to the less mainstream stuff (I'm NOT talking about bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for my Valentine, Slipknot, and others, they are fairly mainstream in the U.S. and other countries) since I was like 10, and I'm perfectly fine.

Back to what I was saying, I know that the overall genre of metal will probably get some backlash on this, giving metal musicians from all the different genre's more negative attention and I refuse to stand for it. Metal in general, meaning all the different subgenres INCLUDING black metal is something I love and it's my music of choice. It's a part of who I am.

Metal is about being yourself and staying true to yourself in a world where everyone expects you to follow the trends and be like somebody else, and if you're not, there's something wrong with you.

It's about fighting for what you believe in, not letting anyone getting you down and following your dreams.

The actions of a few musicians do not reflect the overall genre of music.

And at that, I'm done.

/Rant over

~Breanna
July 17th, 2013 at 12:55am