by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind

Published by Feral House - £12-00

Satanism, paganism, devil worship, suicide, arson and murder. All the plot contents of a meaty horror novel you’d reckon. Well yeah, maybe! Except this book is Non-fiction and its full of all of the above!

Already a winner of a (much deserved) award for music genre journalism, this mighty tome makes for riveting reading. The two authors, Michael Moynihan (an American music writer) and Didrik Soderland (another music writer from Norway) have delved deep into a dark, morbid history to get their disturbing shit together!

‘Lords of Chaos’ relates a series of events beginning in the early 90’s, which lead up to suicide, arson and finally murder. A down tumbling spiral of madness, futility and mayhem, using a unique approach of cross blending true-crime journalism, rock and roll reporting and an admirable awareness of their subject matter, the two writers take the reader on a trip down the looney escalator and into the black metal underground. Their detective work reveals how, back in the distant past, the devil’s music (The Blues) has "evolved" through many, many manifestations, and sub-genres, to lead us into the realms of ‘Black Metal’. A musical concept willingly embraced by a bunch of Norway dwelling ‘Heavy/Death Metal’ fans back in the late 80’s. A cult following which quickly gathered steam amongst a faction of Norway’s disenchanted extremists.

Events and players got down to business in hand and some real heavy shit went down.

Space shortage doesn’t allow me to go into the gory details but suffice to say, ancient wooden churches were burned in arson attacks, a ‘main man’ of the movement blew his brains out and murder made an ugly appearance.

This worthy effort features a wealth of rare photos, detailed and knowledgeable analysis and exclusive interviews with Satanists, police officers, priests and long, insightful and shiver inducing discussions with some of the ‘big cheeses’ on and around the scene. Maybe it’s the harsh, unwelcoming natural climate of this part of northern Europe, maybe its partway down to a re-emergence of interest in ‘the old ways’ (odinism for example) that maybe these kids seize the black metal subculture as their own. Maybe reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and wanting the orcs to win was an early clue. Who can explain? Why did it all kick off? Maybe because the time was right!

A compelling gripper of a book, it grabs the interest and no way lets go. Very highly recommended. Feral House and the authors deserve top marks. This is ACE!

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