Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher has changed his tune about the Lords of Chaos film, after actually seeing it. When the announcement of the film was made a few years ago, reaction in the black metal community has been less than positive. Darkthrone's Fenriz was vehemently against the film being made.
Necrobutcher said in 2015 that he would do anything to stop the film being made. Last year, Necrobutcher noted "They contacted everybody behind our backs, our crew members, all kinds of people associated with us in a very sneaky way," and said he wouldn't sign off on any of their music being used in the film. But, if you've seen the movie, he did in fact sign off on music in the film.
In a new interview with Consequence of Sound, Necrobutcher went into detail for the first time with his opinion of the film, and his reaction is not what you would expect.
"It seemed to be a big deal for everybody else but us" says Necrobutcher, who was one of the musicians portrayed in the film. "The phone was just ringing off the hook. LA Times, Daily News, CNN, BBC, ABC and all those. Very fucking interested to hear what we had to say about it. And you know what, I told them I haven't seen it so I don't want to comment anything.
"And then, when I saw it, I made a game plan that, you know what, I can talk about this after it has been released so that people can get a chance to see it before I give the, you know, what's right and wrong about it. So, let's talk about. Right and wrong.
"I was very surprised to see a Hollywood production that actually cared, somewhat, about the product. Not so many moviegoers listen to Mayhem. I mean, I know how many fans we have and I know how many people live in the world. So compared to that, it's a very small number. So I was very surprised to see that they actually took the time to reproduce the wardrobe to the time, like a throwback time to 1991.
"The rest of the set and stuff, you know, they took a lot of effort to reproduce stuff which I thought was very surprising, because I thought, you know, only geeks would know this anyway, so why put so much energy into these small details that only a handful of people know about. But then again, I got to know the director, Jonas Akerlund, and I had some meetings with him. Coming from his perspective, I just think that in the beginning everything came out very wrong. I was approached by Rolling Stone magazine as the first one on this run, and they asked me what I was thinking about it and that was the first thing I heard about it. I told them 'yeah, go fuck yourselves.' So they quoted me on that. But that was before I knew anything that was going on at all.
"Because, I am just protecting my story and integrity. It came out all the wrong way. They should have called us first and maybe we could have done something. But then again, the movie is out. I saw it. It just made me sad. It was not a good movie. As a production wise, I don't know, I am not a movie geek.
"But for me, it just felt like a sad movie. I was thinking 'fuck, this is…,' it just came back during the movie. So that wasn't good. But it's overhyped, that's why you're asking these questions. Nothing happened. There was a movie, it came, it went and now it's over, now it's coming on DVD.
Did it make an impact for us? If so, very little actually. We didn't gain any more fans, as fas as I know."
Other members of the band thought the Metallica music video featuring footage from the movie would have a bigger impact, but nothing happened.
Necrobutcher adds "I didn't even think about that. Completely forgot about that already. The world's biggest metal band make a video pretending to be us, so that was weird."
"I knew somebody was going to make a movie of it, for years and years and years. They tried, the Norwegian people wrote us several times, different companies. Over 10 years ago, Hollywood started the process. I told them 'yeah, we can sell you some rights.' I don't even remember which production company it was. But, it ended up that they couldn't simplify it. I told them to write it down on one page and I'll sign it. It came back 50 pages, and I said 'I think you sent me the wrong contract, this is 50 pages of lawyer bullshit.' And they said no, that's right so I said 'okay, I'm going to have to send it to my lawyer.' Which I didn't have a lawyer, but I had to get a lawyer and then I didn't hear anything more from that side. So it's been in the making for 15 years, so we knew it would come out eventually.
He later added that the Lords of Chaos book is "the worst book on the subject of them all. That's why I got pissed off. They used a photo of a suicide of a friend of mine. And I told them they're not going to get away with this. And long time revenge is the best, matures like good cheese, very smelly and bad but it's beautiful on the inside."
When Metal Injection interviewed the director of the Lords of Chaos movie, Jonas Akerlund, he vehemently denied that Necrobutcher was against it saying "It's not true. They were never against it. So that's been a rumor from day one. But it was a process for me to not convince them but to describe to them what I was going to do. And especially with Euronymous's parents that have the rights to the music. I had to … I couldn't make this movie without the music. That was never an option for me. So early on I was involved with talking to Euronymous's parents, Pelle's brother, Anders, Necrobutcher, and Hellhammer and all those people that was involved. There's a lot of credits on all of these songs, there was a lot of people involved writing the music. So, all of them has been on board from day one.
"I never asked for any Burzum music or any other music. Mayhem was the music I really needed. But there was never a no, there was never they didn't want to do it, but there was a balance for me to keep them involved and at the same time, kind of making my movie, and kind of making them understand that this is my perspective and this is … And it was awkward at times because it's like I'm making a movie about you, but you can't be involved, but I want you involved, but not really. It was like a balance, and I think it took a little while to build respect between us. And right now I feel really good about it because the movie is coming out and everybody is very proud of the movie. So that means a lot to me."
Lords of Chaos is out now on various streaming platforms.
Here is our interview from last week with a few other members of Mayhem.
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