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Interview with Varg Vikernes
"Holocaust" magazine (#7, 1994)
Tomasz Krajewski
There is a lot of controversy when it comes to Burzum... I like their music, but I do not totally agree with Grev' s attitude. The band were about to sign to Earache, and I not see this kind of music on label as Earache at all... most of you probably know by now, Grev was arrested for the murder of Euronymous. My opinion is: if he really killed him, then he should pay for that! We talked to him about Burzum...
***
I understand that you have been doing some work in Old Funeral. Why did you left that band? Did you start to think about doing music on your own before or after leaving Old Funeral?
I left Old Funeral because I felt I could create more darker music by myself. I'm afraid that some of the guys in Old Funeral are not real worshippers of death and that's exactly what Death Metal is about. All the other stuff is Life or Fun Metal to me. The thoughts about playing on my own came to me in the begining of 1991. It has come to me out of selfishness and total hatred. The first Burzum was before even Gods creations. Before the sun was lit, and the stars started to shine. There was nothing but Darkness and that is what Burzum is. The second born Burzum was created ages ago to crush the light and its worshippers. I am the second Burzum and the curse of mankind!
What about the demo rehearsal that you did in 1991? You told me that it was a protest against a standard 3-song studio demo with colour cover... What exactly did you have in mind?
A long time ago when groups were coming out with their demos they were not doing them professionally. So I said to myself: why should I do stuff like that? Demo is a demo and LP or mini LP means decent, good quality. Right now half of the groups that record LPs seem to have better demos. My LP is a lot better than the demo. Death Metal is now a big trend that is being followed by loosers.
I heard that you don't like doing live shows, so I guess you must be satisfied now because you are a solo artist... Tell me, why do you hate gigs so much?
I hate everything that's human... In concerts you see tons of unnecessary human meat called - people. As I see more trend people coming to concerts, it makes me more furious and my hatred grows.
A lot of people in the Death or Black Metal love brutal, evil, gore flicks, but are they really like that? Most of those films allow goodness to win over evil. I noticed for instance that old horror movies are more attractive in this sense. Most of the new films are made of shit. What do you think?
I personally hate movies but I agree with you. Count Dracula will never be destroyed.
Right now I am listening to Hellhammer and I found similarities between Burzum and Hellhammer. What does this group mean to you? Are you inspired by them a lot?
Hellhammer is a great and sacred word. As far as my inspirations go, I get them from darkness in the forest and black magic. Of course I like Hellhammer, Bathory, old Venom, old Celtic Frost, When, VON, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Sleep Chamber, Burzum, "Infernal Overkill" by Destruction, Famlende Forsøk, Rotting Christ, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Dissection... Also my lyrics varies a bit, but in general they deal with worshipping of war, hate, cold winter, the night, moon, the devil, and our dreams. We (Grev Grishnackh) is doing all lyrics and get inspired by various things, like loneliness, the night, Burzum, the freezing moon, dark woods, the winter, church burning, war. It's great to see the misery in the world. Saddam, dreaming, books, high mountains, winter storms, and freezing... Of course this list could be longer but it's a clue of my inspirations.
Tell us something about your releases so far and what about the future?
As you know, recently my latest work has been released. It's a three song mini LP called "Aske". The first album is one man album. Euronymous did a lead on "War" and some Moog on "Dungeons of Darkness", but the rest is one man. The mini LP is a two man band Samoth of Emperor on bass and Us on the rest. The next LP will feature BURZUM as a Band. With full line-up. We started the recording on a full moon and we were freezing like hell because of the cold winter and the "summer" clothes. Euronymous and Demonaz (Immortal) was present during most of the recording. I have an offer from Earache Recotds from U.K and I am thinking about it now and may be in the future I will release the 3rd album with their help...
What do you think of Satanism when organizations such as the Church of Satan would like to have Satanism accepted? How do you see occult in our times?
First of all the Church of Satan is not the thing to me. It's more of an individual organization which worship happiness and life. For them there is only this life on earth. Occult is wisdom which I worship if you can it that way. I use my entire wisdom to worship evil, sadness, darkness and death. I use the goodness here on earth to do my evil.
What do you think about the present underground?
I don't care about the present underground. Once it was a sensible thing, but now what you call underground is dead.
What do you think about the scene in Norway?
We see dark souls among the servants of the Dark Lord of Norway, but blackest in the horde of the northern warriors stand the people in Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor and our own Burzum. Other people of note is Enslaved of the west and Immortal from the Hordaland.. our own "country". We don't give the underground to much respect as it's full of stupid self ruining Hard Core attitudes. Death to Hard Core!!!! We have no Death Metal bands in Norway... Cadaver is Life Metal, and only three, Black Metal bands - Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum! Emperor, Enslaved, Immortal.... is something like Holocaust/viking/battle/winter-metal. Not Black!!! As you can see there are a few good groups, but there are also a lot of trends. However i we will be able put them on a self-destruction course, then the evil will be a lot stronger…
You prefer to call yourself Grev, what in Norwegian language means Count... Is there a reason for naming yourself that way?
I am the Count of Grymyric.
Any bands from Poland you might know?
Only White Metal band Pandemonium and the shitty Vader. We call Pandemonium as White Metal, because they don't have Evil lyrics and all that is not Evil is Good!
What do you think of 'zines?
I fucking like your 'zine! It is not one of those "Only Black Metal bands" 'zines around I really hate! They are talking about how trendy Death Metal is and stupid as they are. They do not realize they are making Black Metal as trendy as fucking Death Metal... maybe even worse!!! Fuck all the Black Metal kids!!!
Something to end this interview...?
The whisper is called Reuben... the master is Oro. Archangel is Gabriel, and the ruler is the angel of evil, Zinngen, this is the mark of Grev Grishnackh.
I left Old Funeral because I felt I could create more darker music by myself. I'm afraid that some of the guys in Old Funeral are not real worshippers of death and that's exactly what Death Metal is about. All the other stuff is Life or Fun Metal to me. The thoughts about playing on my own came to me in the begining of 1991. It has come to me out of selfishness and total hatred. The first Burzum was before even Gods creations. Before the sun was lit, and the stars started to shine. There was nothing but Darkness and that is what Burzum is. The second born Burzum was created ages ago to crush the light and its worshippers. I am the second Burzum and the curse of mankind!
What about the demo rehearsal that you did in 1991? You told me that it was a protest against a standard 3-song studio demo with colour cover... What exactly did you have in mind?
A long time ago when groups were coming out with their demos they were not doing them professionally. So I said to myself: why should I do stuff like that? Demo is a demo and LP or mini LP means decent, good quality. Right now half of the groups that record LPs seem to have better demos. My LP is a lot better than the demo. Death Metal is now a big trend that is being followed by loosers.
I heard that you don't like doing live shows, so I guess you must be satisfied now because you are a solo artist... Tell me, why do you hate gigs so much?
I hate everything that's human... In concerts you see tons of unnecessary human meat called - people. As I see more trend people coming to concerts, it makes me more furious and my hatred grows.
A lot of people in the Death or Black Metal love brutal, evil, gore flicks, but are they really like that? Most of those films allow goodness to win over evil. I noticed for instance that old horror movies are more attractive in this sense. Most of the new films are made of shit. What do you think?
I personally hate movies but I agree with you. Count Dracula will never be destroyed.
Right now I am listening to Hellhammer and I found similarities between Burzum and Hellhammer. What does this group mean to you? Are you inspired by them a lot?
Hellhammer is a great and sacred word. As far as my inspirations go, I get them from darkness in the forest and black magic. Of course I like Hellhammer, Bathory, old Venom, old Celtic Frost, When, VON, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Sleep Chamber, Burzum, "Infernal Overkill" by Destruction, Famlende Forsøk, Rotting Christ, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Dissection... Also my lyrics varies a bit, but in general they deal with worshipping of war, hate, cold winter, the night, moon, the devil, and our dreams. We (Grev Grishnackh) is doing all lyrics and get inspired by various things, like loneliness, the night, Burzum, the freezing moon, dark woods, the winter, church burning, war. It's great to see the misery in the world. Saddam, dreaming, books, high mountains, winter storms, and freezing... Of course this list could be longer but it's a clue of my inspirations.
Tell us something about your releases so far and what about the future?
As you know, recently my latest work has been released. It's a three song mini LP called "Aske". The first album is one man album. Euronymous did a lead on "War" and some Moog on "Dungeons of Darkness", but the rest is one man. The mini LP is a two man band Samoth of Emperor on bass and Us on the rest. The next LP will feature BURZUM as a Band. With full line-up. We started the recording on a full moon and we were freezing like hell because of the cold winter and the "summer" clothes. Euronymous and Demonaz (Immortal) was present during most of the recording. I have an offer from Earache Recotds from U.K and I am thinking about it now and may be in the future I will release the 3rd album with their help...
What do you think of Satanism when organizations such as the Church of Satan would like to have Satanism accepted? How do you see occult in our times?
First of all the Church of Satan is not the thing to me. It's more of an individual organization which worship happiness and life. For them there is only this life on earth. Occult is wisdom which I worship if you can it that way. I use my entire wisdom to worship evil, sadness, darkness and death. I use the goodness here on earth to do my evil.
What do you think about the present underground?
I don't care about the present underground. Once it was a sensible thing, but now what you call underground is dead.
What do you think about the scene in Norway?
We see dark souls among the servants of the Dark Lord of Norway, but blackest in the horde of the northern warriors stand the people in Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor and our own Burzum. Other people of note is Enslaved of the west and Immortal from the Hordaland.. our own "country". We don't give the underground to much respect as it's full of stupid self ruining Hard Core attitudes. Death to Hard Core!!!! We have no Death Metal bands in Norway... Cadaver is Life Metal, and only three, Black Metal bands - Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum! Emperor, Enslaved, Immortal.... is something like Holocaust/viking/battle/winter-metal. Not Black!!! As you can see there are a few good groups, but there are also a lot of trends. However i we will be able put them on a self-destruction course, then the evil will be a lot stronger…
You prefer to call yourself Grev, what in Norwegian language means Count... Is there a reason for naming yourself that way?
I am the Count of Grymyric.
Any bands from Poland you might know?
Only White Metal band Pandemonium and the shitty Vader. We call Pandemonium as White Metal, because they don't have Evil lyrics and all that is not Evil is Good!
What do you think of 'zines?
I fucking like your 'zine! It is not one of those "Only Black Metal bands" 'zines around I really hate! They are talking about how trendy Death Metal is and stupid as they are. They do not realize they are making Black Metal as trendy as fucking Death Metal... maybe even worse!!! Fuck all the Black Metal kids!!!
Something to end this interview...?
The whisper is called Reuben... the master is Oro. Archangel is Gabriel, and the ruler is the angel of evil, Zinngen, this is the mark of Grev Grishnackh.
Author: Tomasz Krajewski (© 1994 "Holocaust" magazine, Poland)
