Scandinavia is not usually the first pit stop for riotous rebellion, but in 1991 murder and eardrum-bursting noise swept across Norway, churches burned and metal fans were condemned as the new mafia.

Rumours of Satanism and sacrifices spread like wild fire as the media tried to demonise this unfamiliar and intimidating black metal subculture. What is now main stream, commercialised and splashed across Kerrang was in the early nineties considered a serious threat to Christianity, society and culture.

The directors of this new documentary Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell spent a couple of years in Norway researching the iconography, music and key figures of the underground black metal scene, meeting the notorious originators of Norway’s biggest musical export (some of whom ended up serving time in the name of this misunderstood movement). Piecing together real and raw footage, their documentary Until the Light Takes Us is a far cry from Aaron Aites’ inoffensive indie roots (he writes/performs in Iran ) and even further away from your usual Christmas movie, but you just can’t peel your eyes away from the incredible and often insane tale of this dark Norwegian underworld.

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Until the Light Takes Us is showing at the ICA until 13 January 2011.

This entry was tagged as 1991, black metal, Kerrang, Norway, satanism, Until the Light Takes Us.