Black Metal Cultist/Bio & Battles

Black Metal Cultists were a group of outcasts in Norway during the late 1980's and 1990's. They formed an entire counterculture of rebellion and revenge, centered around a rejection of the ultra-conformist society in Northern Europe at the time, as well as an extreme contempt for organized religion, especially Christianity. Most Black Metal Cultists were Atheists or Neo-Pagans, but a few of the later ones were Satanists and Infernalists, though the core of the movement was not Satanic in any way, shape or form, but rather anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian.

Their name comes from Black Metal, an extreme subgenre of Heavy Metal known for its dark lyrical themes of darkness, despair, and misanthropy, as well as an individualist and anti-authoritarian agenda. The first Black Metal bands came from Britain and Mainland Europe in the 1980's, and included Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, and Mercyful Fate.

Black Metal Cultists formed a second wave in Norway at the end of the 1980's. These bands included Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, and Satyricon. Called "The Black Circle" or "The Inner Circle" by fans as well as the panicked mainstream media, the movement began to grow, but was taken over by tragedy and terror.

The leader of the Black Metal Cultists was Oystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, guitarist of Mayhem and a noted atheist who held far-left political views. He adopted an evil Satanic persona for onstage, as well as for interviews with newspapers, but in actuality, had no ambitions of violence and terror at first, but began to buy into his own persona towards the end of it. His contemporaries included Varg Vikernes of Burzum, a man noted for his extreme right wing views and advocation of violence to achieve their goals, as well as Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin, a quiet and kind man who suffered severe depression and was gripped by nightmares and fears that originated with a near-death experience from childhood.

The main headquarters of the Black Metal Cultists was a record shop and studio in Oslo called Helvete, which had black walls decorated with Medieval weapons and artifacts, as well as album covers for various black metal bands.

In 1991, Per Yngve Ohlin, vocalist and songwriter for Mayhem, after many suicide attempts, shot himself in the middle of the night, and his suicide note ended with an apology for firing a weapon indoors and the phrase "Please excuse all the blood". Euronymous, upon arriving at the scene, called the police, but not before taking pictures of the corpse. One reel of film was lost, while the other one ended up on the cover of "Dawn of the Black Hearts", a live album.

Things took a turn for the worse as people were being mugged and murdered in parks, and dozens of historic churches across Norway were burned to the ground, most notably the Fanloft Stave Church in 1992. It would later be revealed that Varg Vikernes, with help from Faust of the band Emperor, and Snorre Rusch of the band Thorns, was responsible.

Euronymous, increasingly paranoid and slowly slipping into mania, feared that Varg Vikernes was endangering the movement, and began to warn others at Helvete.

In 1993, Varg Vikernes broke into Euronymous's house, and brutally murdered him with a hunting knife, before being arrested and sentenced to 21 years, the maximum sentence in Norway. It would later be revealed that Varg Vikernes and his accomplices were planning to blow up the historic Nidaros Cathedral in Oslo, and tried to seek help from Euronymous.

After Varg's arrest, the Black Metal Cultists became fractured and frenzied, as dozens of copycat arsons and attacks spread all over Norway and into Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. By 1997, the movement fizzled out, and black metal was once again an underground genre of music rather than a movement.