Norway’s black metal earns a place in halls of culture

OSLO

Norway’s black metal music first gained notoriety with murders and church burnings but has now earned its spot in the halls of culture with a new exhibit at Oslo’s National Library.

“Bad Vibes” showcases a dark world of music that has a contemplative, almost intellectual side beneath its destructive exterior.

It features video clips full of naked bodies and crosses in flames, a provocative CD cover illustrated with a charred church and sold with a lighter, and news clippings chronicling the genre’s legal woes.

“Everything here tends to be about feelings,” explains exhibit curator Thomas Alkarr above the din of raspy shriekings from the background music.

Black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal, first appeared in conformist and tranquil Norway in the mid-1980s, styling itself as a rejection of the country’s straight-laced society and a return to its roots.

Crammed with Norse mythology, Viking history, popular legends and Satanism, the lyrics are set to brutal and abrasive music deliberately made to sound raw and primitive.

Yet the genre’s reputation abroad, where the bands are sometimes perceived as ruthless “baby eaters,” is actually the result of just a few radical individuals, Alkarr said.

“The truth is that most of them are just normal people who like to watch skiing in a comfy armchair,” the curator said.

The black metal scene also no longer has the same run-ins with the law and has today become more mainstream.

In Norway these days, Dimmu Borgir can be heard performing with the national radio’s symphony orchestra, while Satyricon has accompanied a Munch Museum exhibit.

Black metal also has its own well-known festival, dubbed Inferno, its own category in Norway’s version of the Grammys, and budding stars in youth music competitions.

The existence of an international fanbase even prompted the foreign ministry to brief its diplomats on the subject.

But further afield, the bands do not always enjoy the same acceptance.

In March, Brazilian authorities canceled a Mayhem concert, mistakenly believing the group to be neo-Nazi.