Interview with Varg Vikernes
Transylvanian Hungerrr Blog (01.04.2011), by Stefan Raduta

Mr Brandon Stosuy,

People don't hate Burzum. People worship Burzum, and every one who's ever really discovered its beauty will carry the name branded in their hearts until they stop beating, without exception. If you listen to "Det Som Engang Var", "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" or "Jesus' Tod" and don't think that but the time you're sixty they will have aged even better, sound even more haunting and disarming, you're not there just yet. If Darkthrone gave Black Metal its primordial ferocity and unparalleled demonism, Varg Vikernes gave it its splendor, genius through majestic charm. He gave it class. He even turned into perfection, it's called "Filosofem".

The political debate surrounding Burzum should end because it's been a circus of fools since it started. Burzum is art, and art is eternal - knows not of race, religion or politics, sex or deception. Yes sure there is an individual behind the name, a man like each and every one of us, with faults and aspirations, etc. But once you get the music you no longer need to read about the man, you hear what's really important, his soul. When you listen to Burzum the right way, your eyes automatically want to close and you enter a different state of mind, you're under a spell as old as time itself... it's a sound that reaches out to the solitary in you, consumed by triumphs and failures, but more than anything experiencing the feeling of cosmic isolation, of objective nothingness. Chasing spirit, escaping consciousness, Burzum is the platform for both hope and despair, for the absolute forgetfulness we all think of more often than we want to admit. To forget everything, to forget yourself and the world, to reduce everything to ashes, to want not to know, not to know even that you don't know.

I'm tired of reading so many irrelevant opinions from people who's integrity wouldn't even pass the height of Varg's ankles. Ignorance and even plain mediocrity giving birth to false controversy just to get some attention - criticizing things they don't understand, giving advice when none was asked, "specialists" who live with their parents or never picked up a guitar in their lives... what have you done with your lives? If you have any sense of decency, it's time to stop throwing the mud of your ignorance on the knees of those who appreciate something you don't. Face the fact that you don't get it, and move on, whoever you are. What are we criticizing here, the music, or the person? Because Burzum is without a doubt some of the most sublimely introspective, sorrowful, epic music ever made by one individual - if you fail in seeing that, too bad. And if you're trying to say that your opinion on Black Metal counts more than tens of thousands of opinions, well, now you're an impertinent idiot. Just out of curiosity, if you look up "Det Som Engang Var" you'll find the song on youtube that's been accessed 750,000 times, and it was only uploaded 4 years ago, even if it was written almost two decades back. How is a song like "Dunkelheit" any less breathtaking than Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"? How could it have been listened to millions of times if it wasn't something special? Ask every musician in this scene who's created something relevant, everyone will agree that his music is genius. And if you still think all these people around you see something where there's nothing, I'm gonna ask you again, what have you done with your life?

First off, who has the right to throw a stone? All of a sudden people have opinions, knowing exactly what happened and making sure everyone hears them, but most never even stepped foot in Norway. So how could they know, what would they know? Varg Vikernes has paid for his acts in front of a Norwegian court, which gave him the maximum sentence it could give him. He took it with a smile because it was all already decided for him, there was too much smoke from burning churches in the air at that time, the press was having a heyday around a non-existent "Satanic conspiracy", heads had to fall. He was given 21, and spent 16 years behind bars, today refusing to speak about his family, politics, prison years. Move on. It's done. He's been under attack from all sides for all this time, either by the cutthroat media always hungry for the sensational, or by hypocrites who supposedly never done anything wrong in their lives, never said something questionable or acted on impulse, people who've always lived a perfect life of integrity, never even smiled at a racist joke, real church pillars! Right? Right. Understand this: Varg is a free spirit, always has and always will. He may have ideas you don't agree with but he's not knocking on your door nor trying to shove anything down your throats. And make no mistake, Burzum never ever addressed any political/racial matters, and besides touching on European myths it never even touched religion.

I don't believe in the idea of responsibilities as a listener and a consumer. To whom? You know you love the music, so just follow your heart - it's that simple. You don't need to find reasons for the things you love, nor feel the need to explain yourself to anyone for loving something. Those who think they hate Burzum, those who reject it, never understood this sublimely organic brokenhearted music, and because of that were never able to see beyond the man. And that's perfectly fine. Still doesn't change the fact that since the inception of this genre, from Venom to Celtic Frost to Bathory to Emperor, not one man has solely stirred so much unbridled passion and spiritual transfiguration in people as much as Varg Vikernes has.

My advice to you, the reader? Forget about everything you read in the media touching on this subject, we all know what's behind it. And forget about what others think. Listen to the music, this flawless and tranquil landscape reflection of a soul, screened through the most abrasive yet most melancholic filter possible.

Much like most of you I've been eagerly waiting for "Fallen" since I was listening to its amazing predecessor, "Belus". I would have been really pissed had that been the end of it all, because I really wanted to hear a totally free Burzum, I wanted to experience an album Varg has written in the middle of nature where he belongs and not in a cage. And without a doubt, this album is the best thing he's done since "Filosofem", it has its own heartbeat, it's truly sanguine and it feels equally more refined and yet more raw... I don't know if it's the ultra clean sound, but it feels so refreshing, so alive. Leaving aside the stunning cover artwork which reminds me of the good old Misanthropy days, for the first time we're hearing very clean, warm vocals, the guitar has such a peculiar sound, razor sharp and yet more comforting than ever. There's been a mad anticipation for "Belus" (which delivered, and then some!), but "Fallen" is simply sublime, it's another perfect album, from beginning to end... visceral, organic, pure heartfelt poetry.

It's great seeing how two decades later this man still stands on his own feet, going against the grain, creating such breathtaking music on his own, putting his art out there for us all to enjoy and contemplate upon. And more than anything it's wonderful that he still wants to share his art with the world, even if by now the only thing the world deserves from him is his middle finger.

Varg, when I discovered Burzum I found out that it went great with reading Cioran. The combination of the two would lead to my becoming the happiest depressed person I've ever known, but to this day I still think they go great together...what do you think of this passage, for example? Does Varg Vikernes identify himself with Cioran's nihilistic vision of the artist?

If with each word we win a victory over nothingness, it is only the better to endure its reign. We die in proportion with the words which we fling around us...Those who speak have no secrets. And we all speak. We betray ourselves, we exhibit our heart; executioner of the unspeakable, each of us labors to destroy all the mysteries, beginning with our own. And if we meet others, it is to degrade ourselves together in a race to the void, whether in the exchange of ideas, schemes or confessions. Curiosity has provoked not only the first fall but the countless ones of every day of our lives. Life is only that impatience to fall, to fail, to prostitute the soul's virginal solitudes by dialogue, ageless and everyday negation of Paradise. Man should listen only to himself in the endless ecstasy of the intransmissible. Word, should create words for his own silences and assents audible only to his regrets. But he is the chatterbox of the universe; he speaks in the name of others; his self loves the plural. And anyone who speaks in the name of others is always an impostor.

There is only the artist whose lie is not a total one, for he invents only himself. Outside of the surrender to the incommunicable, the suspension amid our mute and unconsoled anxieties, life is merely a fracas on an unmapped terrain, and the universe a geometry striken with epilepsy.

His vision is interesting. I like the part about how we die in proportion with the words we fling around us. We should remember, though, that an artist would probably die even faster if not expressing himself, and I think most artist wish to expose their inner selves to the world in order to be recognized as true geniuses by the world, in a desperate attempt to find a peace of mind and a reason to live. If the artist's inner self remains secret and hidden, the artist will never get the recognition he so much think he needs. Of course, he might never get this recognition, perhaps even if he turns out to be a genius, but as you know the road to the goal is often better than the goal itself, so... True geniuses usually remain unknown, because they usually know they are geniuses, and why would they then bother exposing themselves to the rest of us through their art? They don't need our recognition. They already know they are geniuses.

Ah well, sure, the artist who invents only himself does not lie completely, to use his words, but... you embrace only the ideas others have if they are in harmony with your inner self, and in that respect they might as well come from you. Or at least that's what many feel. And this is why most individuals appreciate art to start with; they identity with the art and the artist, and see themselves in his art, and also in the artist. They find what they want to be their own. They to some degree feel as if they created the art they appreciate and as if they are the artist. They need to in some way in order to fully appreciate it, because they are individuals of their own, with an ego of their own, a mind of their own. They feel as if they become the artist themselves, by buying his paintings, listening to his music, and so forth, and thus feel that they are the geniuses - and so they find some peace of mind and a will to live... and that's why you see all those individuals wearing their favorite band's logo on t-shirts, and why so-called intellectuals go to art exhibitions to see their favorite artist and most importantly let others see that they fancy his art, by purchasing and hanging his art on the wall in their living rooms, or similar.

As I see it the stereotypical artist is but a person fallen into despair, for some reason, and he needs some sort of entertainment in order not to end his own life. He is neither honest nor dishonest, just desperately trying to cope with the fact that he finds no meaning in life.

There are many reason to fall into despair, but I think Plato's allegory of the cave shows us the most common one; when you know that the shadows on the wall are but illusions it is hard to live amongst those who think they represent reality.

How did you make this album sound so crystal clear, so sharp? And why? You used to want to sound as harsh and abrasive as possible, you used to record your vocals through headphones... What happened?

Well, I did that - use the headphones for the vocals and such - on Filosofem to revolt against a trend in the Black Metal scene in Norway 1992-1993, when everyone started to sound the same, but the message was never understood by anyone, so...

Today I don't care what the rest of the music world does or thinks; I just make music and I do it to make it the way I like it. I did not plan to make the sound clear; it just turned out that way when we recorded this album. The dynamic sound on the other hand was very much intentional, and I achieved that by telling the guy who mastered the album to do it as if it was a classical album - and he did a great job.

How much of the music on Belus was written while you were behind bars? I imagine that you had a hunger to record it as fast as possible, to get it out of your system and write freely again?

A few tracks were written in prison, a few tracks before I went to prison, and the rest after I came out. "Belus" should be seen as the album I needed to make to assess my situation, so to speak, and know where to head next. When I had completed "Belus" I knew that I would use more clean vocals on the next album, because it worked well on "Belus", but other than that...

Please describe to me what Fallen is about, since I can't read the lyrics. What's the message you want to send out with this new, amazing album?

If you have a interest in this you can go to www.burzum.org and read the English translations of the lyrics. I would prefer it if you read the lyrics and made up an opinion of your own, on what the lyrics are about. It is best if I don't create any prejudice in those who have an interest in this, and those who haven't shouldn't be bothered by my "original" meaning. I don't want to shove my meaning down anyone's throat.

Once again you record every single instrument yourself. How does the creation process work with you? Is there something different you do today that you were not doing back when you started? Technology definitely opens new doors...and Fallen shows that you're doing new things...

Well, today I use a PC instead of a tape recorded, when making rehearsals for myself, to work with. Other than that it's basically the same as before. Technologically there is nothing new to what I did on/with Fallen.

I really enjoyed your contribution to the Until The Light Takes Us documentary. From the very beginning I was really excited to hear what you had to say, and it seems that for the first time, you were allowed to speak your mind about what happened in the early 90's in Norway. You exposed Euronymous for a guy who was basically an agitator obsessed with his 'evil' image but didn't really have an evil substance...he also completely betrayed you lying to the press and blaming all the church burnings on you. How important was it for yo to finally set the record straight and tell people that this movement was never about Satanism, that he was really not what he was claiming to be?

Unfortunately I have yet to see this film, so I should not say too much about it, but whether it is any good or not, I must say I wish I had never participated. The whole subject is a waste of time, and I wish I had not participated in a project wasting the time of others.

How did the directors of the documentary approach you with this, and what made you say "Yes I'll do it" ? The media has always been hungry for the sensational, and especially in Norway they completely thrashed you in every way they could. What was it about this group of people that made you go back in time and re-live all that circus?

Well, they had traveled all the way from the USA, and they had very little money to do this documentary, so if I had not participated they would have been in deep financial problems. They should have asked me before they left the USA, sure, but for some reason they didn't - and I am sure that was what made me participate. I have turned down dozens of similar requests before and after that, and like I said I wish I had not been so soft and caring. I should have sent them to their financial downfall instead....

Did you watch the final edit of the movie? I totally devoured everything you and Fenriz had contributed with, I was really disappointed with what the Immortal and Satyricon guys brought to the table. First off - they shouldn't even have been there. Second, they showed complete lack of substance and class. Immortal to me looked like a bunch of pompous, condescending douche bags, and Frost was completely pathetic, still acting like a 17 year old trying to impress the world with how evil he was. It totally ruined the experience of watching this documentary for me...what are your thoughts?

Well, I have to say I disagree with you. Without the morons from Immortal and Satyricon the world would not know just how brain-dead and ridicules they are in that scene. Sure, the good Fenris is not a fool, and I don't think of myself as such either, but most of the others.... *phew* I can only say I pity our species for producing such individuals.

Let's talk about Emperor, a band that I feel stands out of this whole bunch, for showing real character, class, respect towards themselves and the fans. They quit while they were at the top of their game, and won't release another album simply because they're admitting they're not in their 20's anymore, they changed, and a new Emperor album (as much as the whole world is praying for one) would be a lie to themselves, and the fans. That's something that I personally admire. Do you? I'm asking this because I know you consider them rats for turning on you when you got attacked from all sides...can you at least give them consideration for stepping down and not make a mockery of the great band they once were?

Well, I think Emperor splitting up was simply Vegard's (Ishahn) way to get rid of the dead weight in the band. He made all the music in Emperor, and he still makes all his music, for his solo project, so as I see it Emperor just changed name - although I don't know about the musical side of this. I haven't heard their or Ishahn's music, so I cannot tell for sure. (Well, I think I heard some split album they did with Enslaved in early 1993, but that's all I have ever heard from them, and all I can remember is that it sounded a lot like Immortal.)

To me Emperor was one of the follower bands, who just jumped on the train in 1992, the moment they saw that Black Metal would become popular. They already had a crappy death metal band (Thou Shall Suffer) with no success whatsoever, so they changed name to Emperor and all of a sudden played Black Metal instead. The same was the case for Enslaved, and in 1992 we - the "others" - saw them as unoriginal copy cats, and that's the image still stuck in my mind. Amongst others, they were the ones I revolted against with my Filosofem album in March 1993...

I will not hold it against you if you like their music though. You are free to like whatever you want.

It is indeed true that Christianity has destroyed not only amazing pagan cultures but also the records of those cultures, whether European, Asian, American. You speak of the great library of Alexandria, and other such examples. Norway is a Christian country now, although a millennium ago that would have been unconceivable. But looking around today, do you really think the Christian church still holds this power, that it's still a threat? Cuz all I see is them being attacked on all fronts and today they can't do anything about it...this religion is weak now, it's finally paying for all it's caused. It's not the same story with Islam though...they are the radicals today, wouldn't you think? Is Christianity still the root of all evil, as you recently mentioned?

No, Judaism is the root to all "evil", to use your word, and both Christianity and Islam derives from this so-called religion. Christianity was but a tool to turn the Europeans into slaves to the Jewish will, and today we - the Europeans - have become so weak, broken and ruined by all these years with Christianity that they don't really need it anymore. We accept interests. We accept that money - their true god - is our true god. We accept them and everything they do. We accept that they turn us into slaves, we accept that we are living in societies where we soon have no freedom left. We soon have no freedom left because we have sacrificed it all to buy "security" for ourselves, we think. This "security" we somehow think we need only because they came up with their bogus "war on terror", and only because they have allowed thousands and thousands of Muslim to live amongst us - to scare us into accepting whatever they suggest, to "protect" us from terrorists. Forget about Orwell's 1984. This is much worse...

Alas! The future will not be bright.

Your self released CDs and vinyl's are some of the most sought-after Black Metal items on Ebay....people literally fight each other for them, and sometimes the prices end up being quite obscene. To own the first pressing of Aske on vinyl is to really have the Holy Grail in your hand...did you ever think Burzum will become such a cult phenomenon in this music scene? Does that do anything for you? At least a smile of satisfaction?

The vain part of me smiles, but thankfully this is not a very large part of me, so most of me just think this is sad. I don't like any form of idolatry, hero-worship or anything of that sort.

Oh, and I may add that I gladly gave away 79 original Cymophane "Aske" CDs and mini-LPs and some original DSP "Burzum" CDs and LPs, and other stuff in the same lane as well, some time ago. Death to capitalism.

Is the fact that you have such a rabid fan base one of the reasons you still make music today? I couldn't believe you're indifferent to the fact that you've changed so many lives with your music.

Well, my friend; what else can I do? After 16 years in prison there is really not much else I can do.

I met a musician from Norway a few years back who told me that because of the arson trials, you own so much money to the Norwegian government that you really can't have a decent income (from your music) and you're pretty much under the radar financially speaking. Not that you'd buy a Bentley with the royalties, but is this true? And if it is, does it bother you, that you can't make a living out of your own art?

You shouldn't trust what any Norwegians say about me or my situation. I do just fine, and the only thing the Norwegian government gets from me is my finger.

Now that you're a free man Varg, do you have any desires to travel the world, to experience other cultures or lands? If you could go anywhere and stay for a month, what would be the first 3 places (anywhere in the world) that you'd like to see?

No, I don't have a desire to travel the world or experience any more cultures or lands. There is no place like home. If I had to go some place and stay there for a month, the 3 first places I'd go to would be Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq - and I would be sure to bring a rifle along and plenty of ammunition...

What does the future hold for Burzum? Are you planning to experiment with your music? I would love to hear an acoustic project by you, something like Wardruna but simplified, that would be 100% you.

Sorry, but I have not heard Wardruna before, so I cannot tell if I will ever make music like that. All I know is that I intend to make music in the future as well, and we will see what will happen. Thank you for the interest and support, my friend.

"The only fear is, in fact, the fear of death. Different kinds of fears are merely a manifestation of the same fundamental psychological reality in its various aspects. Those who try to eliminate the fear of death through artificial reasoning are totally mistaken, because it is impossible to cancel an organic fear by way of abstract constructs. Whoever seriously considers the question of death must be afraid.

Even those who believe in eternity do so because they are afraid of death. There is in their faith a painful effort to save - even without an absolute certitude - the world of values in which they live and to which they contribute, an effort to defeat the nothingness inherent in the temporal and to attain the universally in eternity.

Death met without religious faith leaves nothing standing. Universal category and form become illusory and irrelevant when confronted with the irreversible annihilation of death. Never will form and category grasp the intimate meanings of life and death. Could idealism or rationalism counteract death? Not at all. Yet other philosophies and doctrines say almost nothing about death. The only valid attitude is absolute silence or a cry of despair.

Philosophers are too proud to confess their fear of death and too supercilious to acknowledge the spiritual fecundity of illness. Their reflections on death exhibit a hypocritical serenity; in fact, they tremble with fear more than anyone else. One should not forget that philosophy is the art of masking inner thoughts"

"The feeling for the irreversible and the irrevocable, which always accompanies the awareness of agony, can achieve a painful acceptance mixed with fear, but there is no such thing as love or sympathy for death. The art of dying cannot be learned. Most people are unaware of the slow agony within themselves. For them there is only one kind of agony, the one immediately preceding the fall into absolute nothingness. Only such moments of agony bring about important existential revelations in consciousness. That is why they expect everything from the end instead of trying to grasp the meaning of a slow revelatory agony. The end will reveal too little, and they will die as ignorant as they have lived.

Since agony unfolds in time, temporality is a condition only for creativity but also for death, for the dramatic phenomenon of dying. The demonic character of time, in which both life and death, creation and destruction, evolve without convergence toward a transcendental plane, is thus manifest.

The feeling of the irrevocable, which appears as an ineluctable necessity going against the grain of our innermost tendencies, is conceivable only because of time's demonism. The conviction that you cannot escape an implacable fate and that time will do nothing but unfold the dramatic process of destruction is an expression of irrevocable agony. Isn't nothingness, then, salvation? But how can there be salvation in nothingness? If salvation is nearly impossible through existence, how can it be possible through the complete absence of existence? Since there is no salvation neither in existence nor in nothingness, let this world with its eternal laws be smashed to pieces!"

E.M. Cioran

Author: Stefan Raduta (© 2011 Transylvanian Hungerrr)