Once Upon a Time in Norway, is the long awaited documentary about the invention of Norwegian black metal and the escalation of violence within the scene, during the early 1990’s. It focuses on living and dead legends in or around the band Mayhem. Basically, it’s a much more satisfying and liable version of the stories and “facts” portrait in book like Lucifer Rising and Lords of Chaos.

When I had gotten through the wonderfully simple and no-bullshit menus and setup I got scared. The actual movie started out with the notorious Vikernes-quote “The guy I killed…”, where he manages to explain social Darwinism in three sentences and laugh about it (that statement shocked the world). I got scared because an opening like that smells very badly of brainless sensationalism, of mass media paranoia-tactics, and of sheepish moralist propaganda, hidden in wolf’s clothing. Luckily I was completely wrong about that.

The movie pays a tribute to the minimalism and simplicity of the music genre, which fiery birth it treats, by various fundamental tools: It structure consists of 13 chapters, all introduced by the first few seconds of the percussion intro, Silvester Anfang, from the Deathcrush album, and a black screen proclaiming the name of the chapter – e.g. Murder, Terror etc. This straightforward arrangement fits the theme and subject of Once Upon a Time in Norway very well indeed.

The entire movie is made up by interviews, either supporting or opposing each other as they go by. The main participants are the disturbingly conservatively looking Kjetil Manheim (co-founder and ex-member of Mayhem), current guitarist Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud (co-founder of Mayhem) and Billy “Messiah” Nordheim (ex-member of Mayhem). They are accompanied up by a variety of music critics, musicians and even the minister of one of the burned-down churches. Together they tell the tale of Mayhem and the black metal development, with emphasis – of course – on the role of Øystein Aarseth, the so called ring leader of the black underground in Oslo, killed by Varg Vikernes.

I had a good feeling about his movie after only a few minutes. It seems like every participant has been allowed to talk freely, without tons of annoying questions interrupting them. It also seems like the editing guys has kept the original meaning of the interviews sound, and generally this movie lacks the disturbing “freshness” of modern documentaries. For instance, there is no speaker. No one guides you through the movie, as if you were a complete idiot. That’s a very nice touch. I hate when movies talk down to me.

All in all, the movie is worth the time and the money. Its neutral and objectively observant. It doesn’t want you to burn down our historical legacy, but on the other hand it doesn’t morally condemn the criminals. The only thing this movie really needs (and the reason for not giving it a rating of 100) is an interview with Varg himself. I don’t know if he refused, or if the Norwegian prison system will not allow him, but I really miss it. He and Faust are the only (living) men mentioned in the movie, that doesn’t get a chance to defend themselves. I accept that Faust isn’t there – he’s neither as celebrated nor as despised as Varg. Varg is a phenomenon in himself.