"Lords of Chaos” Review
2018 had two music biopics that I was looking forward to. One was "Bohemian Rhapsody" (which I thought was the most generic fucking music biopic ever with a pretty great soundtrack and terrific lead performance) and the other was "Lords of Chaos" which chronicles the early era of notorious Norwegian Black Metal band Mayhem.
For those that don't know, the members of Mayhem have been involved in a series of disturbing incidents in the early to mid 90's. *spoilers for real life: there were a series of church burnings, murders, and a suicide.* Mayhem and its members would go on to make some of the most influential music within the metal community and is known due to their notoriety.
Based on a book written Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind and directed by Jonas Åkerlund (ex-Bathory drummer), Lords of Chaos shows us a lot of brutality. There are unflinching depictions of all the things I've mentioned above and will make any normal person shudder. A lot of times, it seems to focus too much on its violent subject matter and not the people that the story is based on. It's like reading a Wikipedia entry and most of these scenes played out as I had imagined in my head when I had read about them. It's well documented but besides Euronymous and Varg Vikernes, I never really knew what the other band members were really about. But kudos to the amount of depth they've brought to those two characters, despite the miscasting of Emory Cohen as Vikernes -whom gives a great performance within the clear limits of the script that was provided. Rory Culkin's Euronymous is actually great and gives a lot of humanity of what had been described of the actual Øystein Aarseth from the people who knew him and this gives a nice perspective to what I had already known about him previously.
The film chose to keep its musical moments sparse (due to how uncomfortable the music can be to newcomers) but the music that was allowed to be used in the film was used well and at good moments. I've heard that a lot Mayhem's contemporaries refused permission to their music and that was true. Mayhem seems to exist in a vacuum in the film's universe and that's very unfortunate. But some songs from Mayhem do make an appearance.
In the end, Lords of Chaos was a bit of a hollow experience. There's a lot that the movie goes over and there are a lot of gruesome scenes that went on for way too long. But the movie comes to life when it focuses on Euronymous' complicated relationship with Dead and Vikernes. But it's not enough to make it an especially memorable experience or an emotional one. Only see this if you're a hardcore black metal band and if you're as fascinated by Mayhem as I am.
PS the Sigur Rós score didn't do this movie any favours.