Until the Light Takes Us (2008) User Reviews

Complete apologist piece for Vikernes.

[JoshuaDysart · 6/10 · 29 January 2012]

Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell turn out to be complete apologists for Vikernes. There is no mention of his role in the Heathen Front. No confrontation about his earlier writings in neo- nazi zines. It's as if his Odinism somehow exists outside his racist, pure-blood nationalism and eugenicism. It's cool to bag on Christians, god knows they've bagged on us for about 1500 years now, but Vikernes' real extremism goes completely unexplored, though the filmmakers are quick to labor the point that he's not a satanist, which any black metal fan knows.

Look, the burning of Christian churches, the suicide, the murder, and the subsequent media feeding frenzy that launched Norwegian black metal onto the world stage, it's all interesting stuff, and there are some places where the record must be corrected. But this is over- correction. This is essentially a propaganda piece for Vikernes that in no way addresses the full and real picture of him or the movement.

I'm not looking for demonization, I'm looking for basic, fully realized non-fiction. It's not here. If you're not familiar with the early 90's Norwegian black metal movement and the mayhem that went down in it, then you should check this out. But just know that when you're being charmed by Vikernes, as the filmmakers seem to have been, you're being charmed by a very dark guy indeed. This is too loose to be journalism, too soft to be sensationalism, and too clumsy to be of much use to anyone.

For the purist...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 30 December 2015]

"Until the Light Takes Us" gives an insight into the rise of the pure black metal from back in the early 1990's, and not in the abominable mutation - read money-fueled mainstream measured by commercial success - that black metal has grown into by today.

The documentary sheds light on the early years of black metal, of how it started, what fueled it (no pun intended), who the persons of significant influence were, and such. And the filmmakers did have a neutral approach and let the musicians themselves bring forth what they had to tell and share.

This particular documentary is aimed at the purist mostly, and I don't mean purists in a negative way. What I do mean is those whom have an interest in black metal at its core of all its desolation, raw sound, brutality and deeper meaning, and not the orchestral and keyboard mutation it has grown into today.

"Until the Light Takes Us" brings interviews with and opinions from Fenriz, Varg Vikernes, Hellhammer, Abbath, Demonaz, Garm and Frost. If you listen to black metal then you should already be more than familiar with these musicians.

The documentary doesn't glorify or slander the black metal scene, but brings out into light some views and opinions that sheds light upon a great many aspects of this darker side of metal.

I can strongly recommend that you take the time to watch "Until the Light Takes Us".

You guys, black metal is actually pretty scary

[wandereramor · 8/10 · 16 March 2014]

Until the Light Takes Us unfolds in an elliptical, almost mournful manner, full of empty and sometimes surreal shots and strange associative leaps in its argument. Beneath all of the directorial flourishes (which unfortunately still don't make talking heads interesting) is a chronological narrative about the rise of black metal in Norway, a musical movement which quickly spiralled outward into a cultural sensation and an increasingly violent subculture. All of this history, however, is constantly connected to the movement's intellectual and philosophical ideas. You may have heard of the most shocking events related here, but what really surprises is the mindset of the artists involved.

The film's best decision is to take black metal seriously. Rather than playing this material as grand guignol, or indulging in the tabloid fixation on Satanic imagery, Until the Light Takes Us treats the early days of black metal as a kind of bohemian cultural movement full of creativity. This portrayal gives the documentary a tangible sense of loss. What is lost is not just people, but also the sense of potential that black metal represented. There's a really clever scene where a musician travels to an art show based off black metal imagery, and is totally alienated by a culture that has rendered even the most profane image harmless.

Until the Light Takes Us makes a turn that's both clever and disturbing halfway through, when we realize that most if not all of the artists we've been getting to know for the past half hour are violent fascists. It complicates our earlier sympathies and makes us question the validity of the outsider-artist narrative. Of course, by the end we've descended into full-on murder, best captured in an absolutely unforgettable scene where convicted murderer Varg Vikernes tells a highly questionable story of killing his bandmate in the same manner you would describe going to the grocery store.

This film doesn't have much in the way of new material for those who are familiar with the events and musicians involved. But it deserves points for managing to both sympathize with the devil and realize what the implications of that sympathy are.

More complex than cartoon Satanstists

[lord-quas · 7 November 2008]

Although I'm not what you'd call a big fan of the music scene at the core of this film - I don't own a single one of the records - I've been aware of bits & pieces of the story over the years and had enough of a casual interest to catch a screening of the documentary at an AFI screening.

I was happily surprised by a few general aspects of the film - the general good film quality, the unlabored presentation of the characters, and also the unexpected soundtrack. As another reviewer says: "the music for this movie was very appropriate ... a mix of black metal and ambient music, making the movie very easy to watch while still putting you within the dark atmosphere." I'll add that this ambient music helped make the metal segments seem all the more heavy-hitting and abrasive. A wise choice.

It's refreshing, as in case of Until the Light Takes Us, when a documentary doesn't judge it's subjects, especially when the urge to justify their approach (aka cover their ass) must have been present. The viewer benefits most from this in the interesting present-day clips of Fenriz and Varg Vikernes (Burzum) and the unforced comparison of the two and the time they are given the time to reveal themselves, both good and bad (and very bad) through their own words and ideas.

Although this doc is unmistakably about a metal scene, it's also got a wealth of insight to the power of the entertainment news media to re-define the reality in ways they're irresponsibly probably not even aware of.

Bills Reviews For Short Attention Spans

[bipbop13 · 6/10 · 24 February 2019]

The birth of black metal was a horrific one. This documentary does a fair job of telling the story of suicide, murder, church burning, and lies that was the beginnings of this genre of music. It gets the story of the band 'Mayhem" right by talking to some people who were there, and band members as well. The story is legendary and has been told wrongly many times before. The press labeled the church burning as being of satanic in nature, and black metal being satanic as a whole. Misinformed lies. Members of these bands try to set right the meaning of the start of black metal and that burning churches was a way to try to take back their heritage from early Christianity, who forced themselves upon Norway and Sweden many centuries before. This documentary really holds nothing back. There are some shocking images, and some really chilling dialog from some people being interviewed who are still in the black metal scene to this day. Particularly disturbing is how two of them still feeling a camaraderie for an ex black metal band member who murdered a gay man in cold blood for no reason in the 1990's. 20 years on, and they still feel the same way. Some of this stuff is not easy to digest. Still, it is important viewing for people interested in music, and people interested in hearing the truth about the myths and mystique that surrounded the birth of black metal. If you're not a fan of the music, you don't need to worry. There's really not too much of it played in the films soundtrack. Essential viewing, but it's a rough ride.

Only one piece of the puzzle but an interesting one

[dsntxst · 7/10 · 4 April 2015]

'Until the Light Takes Us' is an exploration of the 1980s and 90s Norwegian black metal movement largely seen through the eyes of two of its important figures - Gylve 'Fenriz' Nagell, one half of the key duo behind the seminal Darkthrone; and Varg 'Count Grishnackh' Vikernes, the man behind one-man project Burzum.

The documentary is mostly comprised of interviews with Nagell and Vikernes as well as several members of other prominent black metal bands. The film also portrays some fly-on-the-wall moments with Nagell as he recounts the events of the early days of the black metal scene, and includes some archival footage, most notably of the infamous church burnings and the ensuing media frenzy. With no narrator and very few inter-titles, the talking head pieces are largely left to drive the film forward. Whilst the insights from Nagell and Vikernes are interesting, it does tend to make 'Until the Light Takes Us' feel a bit like an incomplete picture of the true goings-on of the time. For those already familiar with the events of the Norwegian black metal scene in the 1980s and 90s, there probably isn't too much more you would learn from this film. However, if you are new to the story, there are some interesting tidbits to be gained - albeit from a limited perspective. Other reviewers have noted the lack of insight into some of the more extreme views of Vikernes - likewise, I feel this would have been an interesting area to explore and was a bit of a missed opportunity from the filmmakers.

From a technical perspective, the film is well pieced together. Much like black metal itself, there is no unnecessary ornamentation (such as crazy edits or 'arty' camera angles/effects) and the story is left pretty much to unfold on its own. A quick note also on the soundtrack - not exactly what I was expecting for a documentary on black metal but an interesting choice and effective for the most part.

In summary, an interesting piece of the story behind one of the more infamous movements in modern music but one that should be taken as only part of the complete picture. Worth a view as a companion piece.

that which once was

[blauth_maldoror · 10/10 · 9 November 2008]

"until the light takes us" does for the Norse black metal scene what temple's "the filth and the fury" did for early u.k. punk, in that it attempts to retrospectively and yet accurately paint a picture of a so-called extreme music scene ruined by its own strict ideology, media over-exposure, and the inexperience of youth. indeed, many parallels exist between British punk and Norse black metal, not the least of which revolve around corrupt in-scene bosses, misguided fan-boy attempts at emulating the supposed actions of the originators of the particular movement, and a stated ideology lashing out against a generalised societal goal at odds with the very well-being of mankind.

however, whereas our British protagonists used the very rails of pop culture to drive the roller coaster car of punk into the parlour rooms of staid English families from brixton to Liverpool, black metal kept its sounds and image underground during its prime years, leaving only the charred remains of norway's Christian past to give the confused public any hint of its existence. eventually, of course, the media seized hold of the scene, the music, and its participants, and all but re-wrote the events into a cartoonish mythology over the past fifteen years. the core creators of Norwegian black metal have been loathe to give much insight into the impetus behind their actions or ideology in the mainstream media in anything but print, and most of that has been twisted.

Aaron aites and Audrey ewell have gone to great lengths to treat a history long the subject of hysteria and misrepresentation with the venerability and respect due a subject so weighty. for while in the world at large, black metal, if known at all, is a comical footnote to heavy metal - a genre known largely for its "heavy metal parking lot" beer-swilling fans; in norway varg vikerenes is known as the Norwegian Charles manson, and the scene associate with rape, murder, arson and the knife. the film is well balanced, with shots in austere art galleries, forests, pubs, and open air markets. the story line is neither rushed nor over-indulged, and over all the film makers try to maintain a certain neutrality, leaving the audience to judge for itself what to make of these decidedly revolutionary and publicly misanthropic individuals.

there are surprises for all audiences. those unfamiliar with the history of the scene will get a clear picture of what probably transpired in a violent youth scene notorious for satanism and murder in norway between 1989-1994. for black metal devotees, prepare for a treat - rarely seen footage of early, core bands, interviews with many of the musicians who mattered, and untainted interviews with varg himself. prepare for a film with none of the cringe-worthy material you might have previously associated with the sensationalism, ignorance or low-brow blundering of the vbs "true Norwegian black metal" fiasco. interviews with other characters in the scene make for a much different impression than one might otherwise hold.

"until the light takes us" is that rare creature of the underground documentary world; a true portrait of the subject in glistening oils a la van Gogh, rather than some coney island boardwalk pencil caricature.

...But Where's The Music?

[druid333-2 · 7/10 · 24 April 2010]

'Until The Light Gets Us',tries it's darndest to do for Black Metal (a kind of Heavy Metal hybrid from Norway,with contempt for standard form in that genre of music:i.e harmony & melody) what 'The Decline Of Western Civilization' did for Punk Rock back in the early 1980's,but falls somewhat short. Most of the documentary focuses on Varg Vikernes,a former member of a Black Metal band,that is currently serving a 21 year prison sentence for (alleged)murder & arson. Other persons that figure in this is Fenriz (yeah,you guessed it---another member of a Black Metal band),Hellhammer (they seem to have a penchant for some colourful names,don't they?),and even Harmony Korine (screen writer of 'Kids',and director of such fare as 'Gummo' & 'Julian Donkey Boy'),who tries to pass himself off as some kind of a Black Metal performance artist (we get to see an excerpt of one of his performance pieces at a performing arts space that has to be seen to be believed). The film (actually video,as it's shot in HD format)does benefit from some intelligent interview footage with Varg,as well as some others. We also get to find out about all of the negative press that Black Metal gets (oh gee,perhaps incidents,including the burning of churches,murder,suicide,the number of Satanic references that turn up,just may have to do with the general public prospering a fear and/or outright hatred of the whole Black Metal sub genre) The only question is...why isn't there much actual performance footage,or for that matter,much actual Black Metal music (most of the soundtrack consists of Dark Ambient,with just a few brief washes of Black Metal here & there)? First time directors,Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell co direct a "rock doc" that,although well meaning,falls short. Cinematography by Audrey Ewell & Odd Reinhart-Nicolaysen,with editing by Andrew Ford. Certainly not the worst film dealing with the subject of Heavy Metal,but not the best by a long shot. It's your money & time. Spoken in English,and Norwegian with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA, this video movie contains pervasive strong language & some gruesome/disturbing images that you may want to take a pass on that large popcorn,on

Excellent documentary.

[whenbeautydies · 9/10 · 2 November 2010]

Very well done. I've read just about anything I could get my hands on regarding the subject of Norwegian black metal and its media-enhanced notoriety. Until the Light Takes Us covers just that. The film focuses on 1) sensationalism (Varg being labeled a Satanist by both Norwegian and American media), 2) cultural dissonance (particularly Christianity versus traditional Norwegian culture), 3) the frustrations of artists like Fenriz and the trends stemming from their body of work (regardless of whether or not the new generations of artists even understand what it is they're doing and where these ideas came from), and 4) the extreme nature of certain black metal ethics (Dead's suicide being documented on the cover of "Dawn of the Black Hearts") and the feud between Varg & Euronymous (or even Frost's openly masochistic behavior, for that matter). These are all very central and relevant themes in black metal. I don't see how this documentary could fail in bringing up these issues when each one was so plainly articulated. Furthermore, the soundtrack was quite focused on black metal. To my knowledge, the very dense and lengthy soundtrack contains only 4 non-black metal acts (mum, Black Dice, Boards of Canada and SUNN O))), who composed "Black One" as a tribute, more or less, to the black metal genre as it influenced them). The rest is all Mayhem, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Thorns, Darkthrone and so on. Don't see what's not black metal about that. Until The Light Takes Us, like American Hardcore, is primarily for people not only interested in the genre and its related stories but also anyone who doesn't know a whole lot about these subjects. No harm in that. If anything, I'd rather newcomers hear about black metal through this documentary than picking up a recent Dimmu Borgir album.

Good film.

[brackettc22 · 10/10 · 7 June 2010]

If you appreciate early black metal and its pioneers such as Fenriz(DarkThrone) and Varg(Burzum,Mayhem) then this documentary is fantastic. I don't think this was fully meant to be a documentary on The Black Metal Scene as a whole, but more of a story of the dark circle and the inner conflicts and differences with in it. Mainly about Deads suicide, the death of Euronymous, and the Church Arsons across Norway. This tied up a lot of loose ends that I left untied for so many years until I saw this film. It answered a lot of questions I had about the story behind the events. Both Fenriz and Varg are well spoken in their own ways and they had my undivided attention while they were speaking. The sound track is good too, lots of good black metal as well as some ambient non black metal tracks. I think MUM in the soundtrack really was a nice touch. 10 out of 10 from me. Just sit back and enjoy the show, Blu Ray has lots of extras. Don't approach this movie with "oh i know everything about metal, I'm so effing awesome" attitude just sit back, relax, and enjoy. Don't waste your time being analytical.

Soft Selling Arson, Suicide, Self Mutilation and Murder.

[jburtonprod-802-759029 · 5/10 · 3 May 2019]

The people who made this film chose to not make it about the music. They also chose not to make about the crime. What we see instead is a noncommittal observation of the very violent results during the creation of 'true Norwegian Black Metal'. This is an interesting documentary but the producers are way too reverential toward their subjects. They seem to assume all watching know who these people are. An, I think, unintended result of watching this documentary is you wonder what the government of Norway is all about if someone can commit cold blooded murder, vacation in a place that looks like a budget hotel for some years and then be released back into society. The subjects of this doc present that Norway is some sort of fascist, totalitarian government they are obligated to stand up against. The actions of Noway tell a different story.

The convicted murderer, Varg Vikernes, shows no remorse, whatsoever. He sticks to his flimsy story that an unarmed Øystein Aarseth, guitarist for the band Mayhem, kept attacking him while Vikernes stabbed him 25 times, 16 of which were in Aarseth's back ending with a Coup de Gras to the head. Somehow the producers of the documentary didn't think it was important to describe those details and that Vikernes was totally unscathed by his attack on Aarseth and that almost all Aarseth's wounds were defensive or in the back. The producers put this story way at the end of the doc and treat it as if it's just another crazy thing that happened because of BM. Nothing to see here, folks, move along. Regarding BM itself, you have to doubt the validity of any supposed art form that destroys other art like all the beautiful antique churches that were burned to the ground in Norway.

Norway comes across as an absentee father where premeditated murder can only get you the maximum of 21 years in a jail/resort (where Vikernes produced two albums) and the various other felony crimes committed by BM followers are treated with a slap on the wrist. Vikernes was released after 15 years, btw. The Black Metal Heads interviewed all come off as spoiled children who display no remorse for any of the damage caused by the fanatical devotion to their 'evil' image. If Norway had better laws they wouldn't be so smug about the incredible amount of damage done by Black Metal followers.

An interesting documentary made weak by it's having no point of view.

Lost misfits in an endless war against McDonald's and pillows.

[fedor8 · 20 February 2012]

Who ever said black metal is a useless musical genre? Without it, there wouldn't be any of these wonderfully goofy documentaries on the subject, with morose-looking pasty-faced never-seen-the-Sun buffoons spouting some half-baked religious/political gobbledygook while trying to appear "dangerous" to society.

Dangerous? A lot of these guys were just sniveling little nerds in their teens, the kind that got bullied left right and center, picking their noses in their lonely metal-poster-plastered rooms, while dreaming of being blood-drenched Vikings in an imaginary land that's a cross between Narnia and Middle Earth. Black metal fans and band-members alike are the Emos of the metal world; lonely, self-loathing misfits, dreaming of singing like castrated demons in their imaginary little bubbles. Just when we had thought that the imagery in the world of metal couldn't get any sillier, they came along, sometime in the early 90s (talking about the so-called "second BM wave"), with their clownish make-up, waving around their plastic second-hand-shop swords while long lines of drool dripped from their mouths. The metal scene pretty much died at some point in the mid or late 90s, with black metal and nu metal acting as the happy pallbearers who carried its coffin into the ground.

A guy with heavy demonic make-up (Satyricon's "Frost") stabbing a sofa with a large knife is something you'd expect in a Python sketch, and yet here it is, in a BM documentary. That kind of sums up the idiocy of this movement: a guy angrily lashing out at pillows.

Varg Vikernes, warming his cold Norwegian butt in a prison cell for 15 years (at the time of the filming), now has the appearance of a dweeby banker stuck in a 3-star hotel holiday (which is what Norwegian jail-cells are all about apparently; don't these left-wing dreamers believe in the element of punishment at all?); he rambles like a typical confused malcontent about "the Norwegian youth being instinctively against" the status quo. I bet all of Norway's youth are absolutely thrilled that a convicted black-metal murderer speaks on their behalf. If there is anyone to speak in the name of all of Norway's young people, then it must be a 36 year-old Odin-obsessed lunatic sitting in a prison cell (or in Norway's case, a 3-star hotel-room).

"Count Grishnakh is an arrogant name", says Varg. "It puts me above all others". No, Varg, it is a stupid name. Far from looking like one of Tolkin's better-known Orcs, he was more like a scrawny little teenager anno 1994. "Dissident voices are not tolerated in our society", says this silver-spoon-born crybaby. What would he say about Zambia or Syria then? Norway is one of the most beautiful, rich, free countries in the world, yet here goes this little nerd winging like a 3 month-old infant about the "cruelty" of his surroundings. What an ass. So what does he do as a reaction to this wicked, wicked environment? He proudly recounts shooting at a McDonalds window with his shotgun. If you don't like fast-food joints, don't eat in them. "I hate hamburgers, and I hate America, and because I hate them NOBODY will have them!" That's the essence of this tiny mind's entire "philosophy". (He probably goes to eat there occasionally wearing a fake nose so no-one recognizes him.)

His account of the night of the murder is somewhat muddled. He contradicts himself; for example, he stated that he had expected Europenis to kill him that night, and yet when Europenis did attack him Varg said that he "wasn't expecting an attack". Clearly, Varg is a big fat psychopathic liar and not a word he says can be believed. He had 15 years to get his story straight, to sort out all the lies in an orderly fashion, and still he gets it wrong. Even a dull-witted cop who failed all his detective exams could easily find inconsistencies in his testimony.

Norway is of course presented as a very prosperous, open, progressive country, which it is, i.e. not at all some Third World cesspit that one could use as a cheap justification for the "discontent" of the morons who joined the ranks of the Black metallers. What this basically means is that these Emperor/Mayhem/Burzum lot are/were just a bunch of whiny, spoilt, semi-sociopathic misfits whose main beef with society was that "things weren't as we wanted them to be" (as Count Urukh-Hai put it so well). In other words, these spoilt little Mommas Boys tried to sell their empty-headed, pointless rebellion as some kind of reaction that was for some strange reason inevitable. In that sense, they sound a lot like their countryman, that bird-brained buffoon who killed nearly 100 kids recently.

It is hilarious how they make out the Norwegian Protestant Church to be some kind of all-powerful ogre whose buildings require incineration – as if we were all still in the Middle Ages, when the church actually had a huge say in all matters. But at least Fenriz realizes this, and mentions it at one point, when he says that his own revolt stems from an easy, comfortable existence. In other words, "I am cozy therefore I rebel". If there ever was a rebellion without a cause, it's this one. But this is hardly the first time that a bunch of hateful misfits use "youthful rebellion" against imaginary scapegoat enemies as an excuse for their own failings and inherent misanthropy.

Ultimately, UTLTU, though entertaining, merely confirms what we know about the BM scene: musically almost worthless, hence still relying on (whatever little) shock-value (is left) and the year 1994 to keep us interested. A movement that acts as a natural magnet for losers.

As a little bonus, UTLTU offers us a brief look at a retard that we all know as Harmony Korine (writer of "Ken Park", director of "Gummo"). If anyone ever had any doubts that he was an attention-seeking imbecile, his embarrassing behavior here should dispel them.

Not meant for the dress up wannabe Satanists.

[derklinge · 8/10 · 18 August 2010]

First and foremost a quick word of warning: if you expect to gain knowledge of what Black Metal MUSIC is and/or you're not familiar with so-called True Norwegian Black Metal then I suggest you do NOT watch this documentary or at least don't expect a rush through a history of bands and music. It does not contain any particular style comparisons, does not feature a whole lot of Black Metal music and also does not feature bands from the so-called 2nd or 3rd generation of Black Metal artists. You will not find any Gorgoroth (except for a short music clip) or Dimmu Borgir in here ;)

That said I can take a stand and say I just really enjoyed this documentary. I've been watching it multiple times by now and it's still a fascinating journey through the darker, moody inner feeling Black Metal itself is about (which it is supposed to be in the first place IMO). I really liked the fact that the creators chose Fenriz from Darkthrone as the main guide throughout the whole movie as I think he's got the most neutral stand in the whole Norwegian Black Metal scene and is not as biased (not to offend, though) as Vikernes or Hellhammer. The interviews are left uncommented, so everyone can think for themselves regarding the statements the interviewees make. Some other reviewers criticized the "techno" music. It's not techno music at all, but dark ambient synth music that fits the cold and gloomy Norwegian landscape very well. Fans of Burzum's ambient songs will agree with me. The "plot" mainly focuses on the incidents surrounding Euronymous' shop Helvete in Oslo, his murder (and also Dead of Mayhem's death), the Helvete gang which consisted mainly of Burzum, Mayhem and Darkthrone members. Basically to sum it up, I'll just quote Fenriz from the film: "How the hell did it all happen?".

I really recommend this film to anyone with a decent fascination for the early Norwegian Black Metal scene. This is not intended for people that just enjoy dressing up Black Metal style and give their head a bang or two as you won't quite understand this film.

Good solid documentary. Rough and interesting - the way it should be.

[BrickNash · 9/10 · 1 March 2019]

I'm not sure that some of the other reviewers on here get the concept of what an indie documentary is supposed to look like, or the concept of black metal as a whole. This is a fascinating look into the world of the genre which focuses on two of the most well know second wave pioneers as well as a few others.

It's shot mostly guerrilla style with shaky hand held footage and plenty of "at the moment situations". The roughness of the production fits the black metal aesthetic perfectly, so I'm unsure why people are complaining that it isn't super polished? The content is what matters and it's a really good watch.

It's easy to moan about something when you've done f%*k all with your own life. Gaining access to a prison in a foreign country as well as tracking down numerous personalities for interviews isn't exactly easy, so these film makers are to be commended for giving us a fascinating peek into a pretty cult world.

Once upon a time in Norway part II

[bernd-van-de-maele · 8/10 · 30 July 2012]

As someone who was quite entranced with the (decidedly early) Black Metal scene as an impressionable teenager way back in the early to mid 90's, a documentary like this is more a walk down memory lane than a revelation. As such, some prior knowledge of the genre is required before sitting down and watching this documentary. Do not expect a musical walk through, nor an explanation on the aesthetics of the genre, what you'll get is an account of the ideologies of the musicians, their perception of a bankrupt society with a complete disclosure of their (questionable) morals.

The interview with Varg Vikernes of Burzum should be taken with a whole bag salt: it comes over as an apologetic discourse of his past crimes, his idealogical and political standpoints are more then questionable. The true star of this docu is without a doubt Fenriz, whose down to earth attitude is refreshing and serves as a stark contrast to the somewhat pompous and overblown pose of Satyricon's Frost and Mayhem's Hellhammer. Fenriz (Gylve Nagel) offers insight in the dealings of the Black Circle, the going-ons in Euronymous shop "Helvete" and power struggle of the main antagonists in the early black metal scene without ever going too far.

The documentary is well constructed, through a collection of interviews it focuses on the people in the scene and as such there is no overdubbed narrator. The soundtrack fits rather well, ambient pieces (by Burzum, Mum and ulver) mixed with furious early day black metal (courtesy of Mayhem, Darkthrone, Thorns and Burzum) serve to pinpoint the resemblance and the blend of the two genres. The ambient pieces also stress the ferociousness and ugliness of black metal, something present day black metal sorely lacks.

No frills, no bs, no plastic bands and no Gorgoroth: highly recommended for fans of black metal, present and past (like me)!

Could be better

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 21 July 2020]

The title for this film is a translation of Burzum's fourth album. Do you not know who Burzum is? You may walk away from this movie - with no past knowledge of black metal - believing that sole member Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes is a pretty intelligent, level-headed fellow. Then you remember, "Oh yes. He stabbed his rival Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth twenty-three times and also was broken out of jail by white nationalists. Yet - you can find plenty of photos of me wearing Burzum shirts, if you look on social media. And I own all the albums. And, well, I have no easy answers when it comes to black metal.

That's a cop out. I get it.

If you think that gangster rap - with its need to prove who was real and who was fake, leading to actual murder - is crazy, you're about to get an awakening. This film may jump around a bit to give you a balanced accounting. That said, it's a million times better than the excoriable Lords of Chaos.

Once upon a time, in the basement of what would one day be a Benetton, a bunch of people would meet to talk about bands they liked. And that turned into a contest to see who could be legit and the most evil. As these things turn out, things went a bit far. The kind of far that involves murder, burning churches and internecine warfare, which ended up with - as we began - Varg and Euronymous proclaiming that they would kill one another.

Pretty much everyone in the scene gets a part, like Mayhem vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin, who lived up to his nickname and whose suicide supplied a ghoulism album cover photo as well as supposed jewlery made from his skull fragments. Perhaps Fenris from Darkthrone comes off the nicest of anyone in this, as he seems like someone who genuinely just loves music.

The thing I dislike most about this movie is the sound and editing. They had the opportunity to get interviews with some people that have been very difficult to track down and yet, you can barely hear them at times and the imagery on screen rarely matches up. It's incredibly frustrating.

That said, I was shocked that Bård "Faust" Eithun appeared, despite only being seen in shadow. After stabbing Magne Andreassen outside Lillehammer's Olympic Park, he spent almost ten years in jail. One of his many bands, Thorns, put out several influential demos and their lone 2001 album is incredible.

Yeah. Like I said, I got no defense.

Pretty good!

[Juaqino · 10/10 · 5 November 2008]

So, I've been waiting almost two years for this film to come out, and it finally did. I actually just saw it today (November 5, 2008) at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood for the AFI Film Festival.

Until The Light Takes Us fulfilled many of my expectations. For one thing, it features lots of insight from Varg Vikernes. I was afraid that he would only be in a small fraction of the movie.

The film is pretty much about the beginnings of Norwegian Black Metal, and about all of the lies and misconceptions surrounding it. It was not made be black metal fans, so it's a very unbiased view at the events that took place in the late 80's and early 80's.

Though being a black metal fan myself, I believe this to be a very accurate and fascinating documentary. It is not a narrative, contrary to what I first expected, but basically interviews with various black metal artists such as Fenriz, Count Grishnackh, Abbath, Demonaz, Hellhammer, and many others (of whom I cannot remember the names of at this moment). This film has an amazing amount of credibility and really clears up what Norwegian Black Metal is all about.

This film had very few things that I disliked. Though several parts of this movie were shot with a hand-held camera; normally this doesn't bother me, but the whole time I was thinking "Why didn't these guys use a steady cam!?" The shaky camera movement almost made me feel sick. Fortunately most of the film isn't like this. Second of all, there is a sequence about this modern artist who made art surrounding the genre of black metal. I felt like this was sort of to kill time, and I felt like the man was just being pretentious. This, to me, had little to do with the subject of the film. The movie is also a bit scattered. The beginning starts out with Fenriz, and I didn't really know where the film was headed. The movie didn't become more chronological until later on, and even then there really aren't any signposts throughout the film so unless you are familiar with the subject you might get a bit lost.

I felt that the music for this movie was very appropriate. It did contain black metal, but not enough to turn away your average moviegoer. The soundtrack is a mix of black metal and ambient music, making the movie very easy to watch while still putting you within the dark atmosphere. I congratulate the makers of this film for not making it one giant music video! Though overall, I'm pretty impressed. I was highly anticipating this movie and it was very through provoking and enjoyable. I took a friend with me to see it, who knew nothing about black metal, and she enjoyed it. It's a great film for black metal fans and even those who aren't. I do hope that this movie wins some kind of award.

An actual deeper insight in the mental ways of the '90s Black Metal movement in Norway.

[Metaal · 8/10 · 5 August 2010]

An actual deeper insight in the mental ways of the '90s Black Metal movement in Norway. Not only focusing on the extremities, but on the movement and ways behind them. We have all seen the documentaries on the Music itself (whats more to say on the music we don't already know?) The interview with Varg Vikerness was quite interesting, as well as Fenriz' his talk on his childhood. The only downside of this documentary is the lack of broadness, they only interviewed a limited amount of musicians, which might be considered as a flaw in the documentary.

All the people out here who were hoping to see yet another documentary focused on the music, and on 30 different similar bands: lets face it, the music itself is known by now, this documentary finally shows about the ways behind these Black Metal pioneers, an insight on how this group interacted, and how the hell did it happen.

No more Boogiemen in Black Metal

[t_atzmueller · 8 September 2011]

If you were a Black Metal fan in the early 1990's, you were a fan of a very elusive music and a scene that was so mysterious that most fans really could only look in from the outside. It was also a violent scene where not only anti-Christian sentiment was rampant, but soon church burning and murder as well. Most early Black Metal bands didn't do live-shows (and if they did, they played in some remote Norwegian hamlet), some even refused to talk to the scene-press. Fans would only know figures like Euronymous or Grishnak from badly taking photographs, usually sporting the infamous 'corpse-paint' while posing in the woods or breathing fire. (In my case: the first picture of legendary Mayhem-vocalist, 'Dead', that I've seen, was on the cover of a bootleg that was taken by the bands guitarist after Dead had committed suicide).

Needles to say, most fans have been waiting for an extensive documentary done about the music, the scene and the artists – themselves, even. But is "Until the Light Takes Us" (the title of a Burzum album) this elusive documentary that people have been awaiting for almost 20 years? Yes and, afraid to say, not. Sure, we get to see plenty of rare, even unseen material from the 'golden times' of Black Metal, insights into the 'Inner Circle' and 'Helvete' – but times have changed and the mystery of the Black Metal scene these days has largely been replaced by commercialism and the hope of pulling as much pocket-money out of potential teenage consumers as possible. People like Fenriz, Faust or Hellhammer – shrouding themselves in mystery in the early days – reveal themselves, no longer mystical boogiemen but adults who've long ago learned that not only their music but communicating with the fans puts food on their table. Others, like Frost (who're considered "second-generation musicians") have never embraced the "satanic" reputation of Black Metal, performing for artistic- and financial gain.

Yes, this documentary may be sobering for impressive BM-youngsters or fans who took the scene a tit too serious back in the day – but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Until the Light Takes Us" is interesting, it's insightful (dependent on how close you were following the scene) and most importantly, it portraits the subjects as human, no longer mysterious Satanists in make-up, covered with spikes and inverted crosses, out to cause mayhem on the rest of humanity.

Perhaps "Inner Circle" founding member and Darkthrone-drummer Fenriz summons it up best: "Part of me wishes this whole thing hadn't become a trend, but, you know, people like to dress up." \m/

Nothing Like What I Was Expecting

[unholyblackness · 3/10 · 2 June 2009]

So I went to see this film tonight, this "documentary" if you will. I think the only thing good I have to say about it, is that the interviews with Varg Vikernes were really incredible. The rest of the film was nothing more than commentary from a very limited amount of the NORWEGIAN black metal scene (so few actually, I can list them all right here- Fenriz, Abbath & Demonaz from Immortal, Ulver, Frost from 1349/Satyricon, Hellhammer, and Faust from Emperor although he is supposed to be 'anonymized' with the silhouette and fake voice).

This film was only concerned with the interaction between Varg's killing, the church burnings, and started to touch base on the impact the BM scene has had on Norway in forms of other art. The soundtrack was horrible. It was 95% techno garbage. The only time the soundtrack did any good to add effect to what you were watching was a scene involving Frost, which I will get to in a moment. The rest of the film was following Fenriz around.

The film makers didn't even explain what BM is, how it started, how it's evolved, and what the BM scene is like today. The subject matter was widespread and didn't flow whatsoever with the story. If they were talking about Dead from Mayhem now, in five minutes they were talking about a Norwegian artist who is inspired by the corpse paint BM musicians wear, then going into stories about Euronymous, maybe followed by some clips of Fenriz walking around Oslo or in the woods. There was also a scene where Frost was taking part in an art exhibit in Milan, where he was breathing fire onto some art hanging on a wall, followed by him knifing up and destroying a couch, followed by him slashing his wrist (down the road, not across the street), and slitting his throat on the destroyed couch. The background score during this scene was the most effective throughout the movie, almost similar to that of what I've seen in the movie "Irreversible" during the Tenia hunt scene.

The film was very low budget, but I have seen low budget films that were far superior to that of this one. I read a review someone gave stating that this film was made by "indie hipsters exploiting the BM scene" and I agree with this. There was no effort made whatsoever to explain the main purpose of the scene: the music, and the message portrayed.

I can only hope that this film never makes it to DVD. The only reason it's getting 3 stars is because of the Varg interviews.

People Like To Dress Up...

[PatrickfromCanada · 9/10 · 18 February 2012]

First off, let me just say that, when it comes to the creation of black metal, you must be from the north. Experience the northern frost, the northern moon...I digress...

This is one of the most revealing black metal movies ever made. It shows at once the artistry and legitimacy of black metal as an art form while showing the fallacy--******* who think they're black metal and who revel in its darkness, yet cannot fully comprehend the true capacity or meaning of the genre.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who truly loves black metal music. To all those who are just getting into black metal: this film is not for you. If this film in itself is your introduction to the darkness that is black metal, back away now. You must be well versed in the art form firsthand to fully appreciate this film. Regardless of the filmmaker's intent, 'Until the Light Takes Us' shows the duality of those who believe they 'participate' in the creation of art within the black metal medium: once again, those who falsely participate, and those who do so rather actively. (Note: the g00f dancing in the art gallery: kill yourself. Kill yourself and all your friends now.) In a brief aside, nothing more can be said about Fenriz that has not already been said. He is the pillar which holds black metal aloft to this day, and remains (along with his band Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal, and a few others) the true gatekeepers of the genre.

In closing, buy black metal albums, support the church burnings of all Christian nations, listen to Darkthrone & Burzum, and **** the world!

P.S. This review was edited for language: very, very UN-black metal. **** *** *******!!!

an excellent documentary

[mr-kostis · 10/10 · 5 January 2011]

Well, documentaries (on anything actually) do not get much better than this. I could say, that this film can be equally interesting for the unsuspected viewer who had never even heard any of the names of the musicians involved and the one that grew up listening to their records and already aware of a lot of the details. Only this by itself, for such a specialized subject matter, is almost a triumph. Kudos to the directors for their dedication to their project (they stayed 2 years in Norway) and their artistically perfect view (both visually and sonically speaking). This is a rare and highly enjoyable documentary whose only problem is that you'd probably think 91' are not enough. But then again if this is the case the DVD includes about three and a half hours of extras.

so then, what's Black Metal and why should I care?

[edoslan · 3/10 · 29 November 2009]

I'm surprised at the high grade this film received. Anyone who wants to know about Norwegian Black Metal would be better off reading 'Sound of the Beast' which goes into far more detail than this.

After seeing 'American Hardcore' and 'Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal', I think I have an idea of what makes a good documentary about a musical movement.

Those include but are not limited to: putting the movement into some social context, having a good sampling of the music, having some actual live footage, describing how it developed and what its influences were and describing where it ended up.

All of these basic ideas were touched on in very limited quantities. So apparently Black Metal was a cultural war against American capitalism and commercialism. How is that any different from Hard Core and why Norway? Furthermore how does that equate with burning churches down? Where did this music even come from? Fenriz briefly mentions Bathory and we see a lot of Venom t-shirts and that's it. No contrast with other styles of music? Furthermore Fenriz complains about its supposed commercialization (a dubious claim in the first place), but what got it there? And why NO live footage? This film could have been great. The directors could have expanded on why perhaps someone is being *praised* for killing a homosexual. One of these musicians says it as if it's good with no followup, no balance. And really, what is the link between Black Metal and violent performance art, of which we see a lot of.

The film has LOTS of interviews - a virtual downfall of documentaries - and many with Varg Vikernes, arguably the most notorious member of the Black Metal scene, yet aside from his very black and white argument against conformity, there is no explanation at all about his racism and anti-Semitism and how this came from Black Metal. The closes thing to live footage is a grainy video of Mayhem rehearsing... by the way, who is Mayhem? Were they the first band, was Dark Throne, Burzum? And why is Harmony Korine thrown into this documentary, just because he likes the music? This is an interesting topic and I hope that another documentary is about it some day. Oh and Fenriz is the most boring character to center a movie around.

Until The Editing Room Takes Us...

[waitforslumber · 4/10 · 3 June 2009]

Disappointing, very disappointing. I guess I'll start from the technical stand point and transition to story. This documentary from beginning to end displayed the fact that basically anyone with a little bit of money can buy a HD cam then shoot and distribute a film without any technical background and thus creating zero art form. The opening consists of numerous amounts of would be unusable shots of hand held, out of focus, non-steady footage of Fenriz of Darkthrone walking to the subway, pubs, or 7-11 set to trance music. The majority of this film displays a massive lack of camera operating skill where it looked like the operator just walked around Norway filming any bird or bee in their path. Several pictures were shown of Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor that were too small of a resolution rate and looked disgustingly distorted on the screen. I honestly couldn't believe that they were satisfied with the finished product when it left the editing room for a work print. There's even a scene where they filmed from the subway through the window for a nice portrait of the setting winter Sun except that there was a HUGE smear on the camera lens completely ruining the shot. I filmed a TV Episode for the Travel Channel all over Norway a few years back, where we filmed identical scenes of Oslo and Bergen and if we had been responsible for a 10th of the bad shots they used in this, we would have been fired immediately, and that was while I was still in film school that I was able to handle that at only 21 years of age. The only scenes that the camera isn't completely a mess, is when they sat down to interview Immortal, Fenriz in the white room and Varg Vikernes in prison. And by this I only mean that the camera was steady on the tripod (which is something you can learn to do from any instructional booklet) not that there was any artistic side to this documentary style interviewing. Varg's interviews looked dry and dull. I'm all about a natural and anti-Hollywood look whenever there is a chance, but you still have to throw some kicker in the back a couple flags on the side and CTO over the top and alter some of the light coming in through the window. Fenriz's interview in the white room was so blown out that I can't believe the filmmakers allowed these shots go to print. It was almost unbearable to look at and was screaming for color correction all over the place. Immortal's interview was another setting where they didn't use any lights but what was provided in the pub which was saving grace for the filmmakers. The overhead light from the pub glared down on Abbath's head who was wearing a black leather jacket, black sunglasses, a black shirt, and black pants while sipping a dark brew which gave the interview a dramatic and intriguing look though as anyone could guess purely by accident. Usually in a documentary, you have some basic composition language going on with establishing shots cutting to medium shots cutting to close ups, etc. but the editing of this film was what put me over the top because it was so random and contributed to the downfall of this documentary rather than tying it together. Usually when a film's cinematography is as bad as this film's, there is a payoff in quality of story. The huge problem with this film's story: there was NO story. At all. The entire 110 minutes was a series of random clips of interviews stating opinions rather than fact and set to a few trance and black metal tracks. There was no point and they had no closure at the end. In the beginning it looked like they were trying to piece together a bit of history by discussing Burzum's early work, A Blaze In The Northern Sky, and Deathcrush but instead it kept going in circles of images of church burnings, opinions on black metal becoming trendy, therefore avoiding any direction. I really thought this was going to be a documentary that avoided the hype of Dead's suicide, Euronymous' murder, and the church burnings but anytime they got to a tiny bit of insight they would show 10 seconds of it and go straight back to the pieces of the stories that everyone already knows about. Like Fenriz's statements about being Norwegian: "To be Norwegian is like to be at the bus stop waiting for the bus, but always staying 2 or 3 meters from every other person". That kind of insight was really useful and I was hoping for more of that and maybe an explanation of why corpse paint became such a huge part of black metal or why Norwegians feel such a bigger connection to black metal than the Swedes or Danes, their fellow Scandinavians who paved the way for black metal in the early 80s. One of the very few scenes that I liked other than the interview that Fenriz has with the magazine journalist over the phone which is hilarious, was the live art exhibit in Milan, that Frost of Satyricon and 1349 chose to perform in. He, in full corpse paint and leather gear, blew fire onto the paintings, took a blade to his forearm and cut himself deep all as a crowd of bystanders looked on in shock. But again his interviews along with everyone else's really made black metal and extreme music in general look extremely childish. Maybe I'm biased because I've been a fan of this style of music for 9 years and I feel that this poorly made documentary disgraced the scene. In closing, this is the era we live in. Anyone can download Final Cut Pro onto their MacBook, buy a $4,000 camera, and shoot and edit. This is 2009. But that doesn't make you an artist. And when the subject truly is a mystifying art, that art suffers.