Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: music, good documentaries
Likes: Scandanavia
Dislikes: most metal music
Hates: "music" made up of growling, shouting or shrieking

The Movie
If you paid attention to world news in the mid-'90s, especially if you were a regular viewer of MTV's newsbreaks, you probably remember the spate of church burnings and dark events that surrounded the Norwegian black metal scene of that time, when some musicians made headlines for murders and arson, with media outrage blaming Satanic music and beliefs for the crimes. The problems slid out of view, and the rise of rap gave the media a new target, so no one really gave much though to bands like Burzum or Mayhem, as the key figure at the center of the atrocities, Varg Vikernes, served his brief time in prison (due to lenient Norwegian sentencing) for murdering his former band-mate and black metal legend Oystein Aarseth.

Well, a couple of first-time American documentarians decided to move to Norway, earned the trust of the biggest names in black metal and managed to get an extended interview with Vikernes in prison, in order to tell the story of the scene's tragic mainstream peak. It's told mainly through two subjects, Vikernes, who looks nothing like the long-haired, made-up gothic performer he earned fame for, and Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell, who looks just like you'd expect, only a bit softer and a bit older. While Vikernes uses his interview time to talk about the murder he committed and his Norway-first philosophy (which sounds unmistakably Nazi-like, complete with anti-Semitic views), Nagell is more of a historian, acting as a guide through his world of black metal, while tossing in his own goofy sense of humor and awkwardness along the way. Their interviews are mixed with sit-downs featuring the biggest bands from the Norwegian scene, as well as plenty of news footage from the church burnings and Vikernes' trial. Between the two of them, there can't be much of the topic that isn't uncovered, with the exception of where this genre is positioned in the overall Norwegian culture, which is pretty key when dealing with a foreign culture.

The ill-edited material aside, the very presentation is not strong, with a mish-mosh of video styles and quality, a lack of actual black metal music for the uninitiated and some strange selections in terms of what made it in, to say the least. While in the midst of presenting all these black metal stars and their views of their music, we get a strange segue into the world of art, where black metal's more visually intriguing elements have taken some hold, via a visual artist's black metal-inspired work, a strange video of aggravating artiste Harmony Korine, and a violent and bloody performance piece by one of the genre's bigger names. Admittedly, I'd somewhat lost interest in the film at this point, due to the rambling interviews and aggressively disinteresting structure, but I honestly couldn't understand the point of introducing these elements to the already strained narrative and it seems the filmmakers couldn't be bothered to try to explain why they were there.

If the film's intent is to support the idea that black metal was a victim of the attention it received, getting co-opted by outsiders, thus weakening the genre's status, that point should have been more obvious. You can't expect the audience to guess based on the musicians' complaints and some randomly inserted clips, especially when you spend most of your time with Vikernes and his xenophobia or the musicians' recounting of their pasts. It's also hard to have sympathy for the hardcore, as they seem petulant at best, almost daring you to like them, and then arbitrarily creating standards to limit the intrusion of those interested in the music. They are like the hipster music snobs that most everyone is disdainful of, because they only like music you've never heard of, and if they sell more than 10 CDs, they are somehow a sell-out. Is there something about Norway that takes this elitism to an overly dramatic and violent level? If there is, we'd need to talk to someone not wearing corpsepaint and spikes to find out, and it doesn't happen in this movie.

The DVD
Can't say what the packaging is like for this release, as we received pre-release screeners, but the film and the limited-edition bonus content are spread over two DVDs, which feature static, anamorphic-widescreen menus, with options to watch the film or extras and adjust subtitles on the film. There are no scene selections and no audio options, though subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.

The Quality
NOTE: We received a preview copy of this disc which may not be the same as the retail product. If and when we receive the final version, this review will be updated. The comments below reflect the preview quality and are provided to give you an idea of how the disc looks and sounds.

The anamorphic-widescreen transfer is good, but not great, thanks mostly due to the use of plenty of low-quality archival footage. When the filmmakers control the setting, like when they bring Fenriz into a studio, the video looks great, but otherwise it can get a bit rough. I've certainly seen better-looking documentaries. The disc doesn't have any noticeable dirt or damage, but compression artifacts can be found throughout, particularly some boxiness during Vikernes' interviews.

Surprisingly for a film about music, the audio is presented via a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, so the presentation is very straightforward, balancing the sound centrally without any dynamic mixing. The dialogue is pretty clean, making even the most heavily-accented English easy to hear (though the subtitles certainly help.)

The Extras
The main disc offers up a couple of minor extras, starting with the two-minute alternate ending. Comparing it to what's in the actual film, this alternate concept works better if you're trying to illustrate that black metal's time has passed, but since the film fawns over the genre, the creators went with a far more romanticized ending.

Up next is 2:32 of outtakes, which is a great idea, considering how serious the subjects take themselves. Look at this as the lighter side of black metal, but it's a bit disturbing to watch a cold-blooded murderer crack jokes. There's also the trailer for the film, which is actually rather excellent.

The limited edition release of the film includes a second DVD, which is an incredible archive of the film's production, featuring over three hours of interviews that didn't make it into the film. Divided into two groups, Deleted Scenes and The Cutting Room, this is the area for true metal fans. You can view a 36-minute reel of footage that apparently was cut from the film (thankfully) or dig into one of seven interviews, one per band, which never made it in, including 46 more minutes with Vikernes, almost 37 minutes with Fenriz and anywhere from eight to 21 minutes with the other groups. To be fully honest, these interviews were far more interesting than the film, because in this form they were cohesive and complete, allowing the stories to be told in clearer fashion, not to mention covering additional topics that didn't make it into the movie.

The other more engaging extra is Black Metal 101, a 46-minute classroom-style education on the history of the genre, hosted by Fenriz. He utilizes four blackboards to sketch out the growth of black metal, explaining the core elements, the big names and the defining moments with the relative ease of a quality professor. It probably could have been half as long, as a large chunk of the time is him writing out names and drawing diagrams (complete with inverted lower-case T's) but there's a charm to him moving the boards around, erasing and connecting ideas with chalk lines. If they had used this concept as the skeleton of the film, it would have given the movie a far better structure, and a true star.

The Bottom Line
If you dig black metal, or any of its fellow metal siblings, there's a good chance you can find something to like about this movie, which is something of a love letter to the genre it seemingly views as misunderstood. But it's also not the finest example of documentary filmmaking, as the editing leaves the story disjointed and the look, for the most part, is disappointing for a film focused on such a visually-dramatic world. On the plus side, the DVD presentation is supplemented by an outstanding deal of bonus content on the limited edition release, including the impressive "Black Metal 101" history of the genre. Temper your expectations and you might be interested by this look inside a unique world, but it would be great to get an experienced documentary editor a crack at this film and the wealth of deleted content. With a limited edition this packed, you could actually do it yourself.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.