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Norway’s Black Metal Music Finds Its Place in the National Library
Norway’s Black Metal music scene emerged in the mid-1980s as a rejection of the country’s conformist society, featuring brutal and abrasive music with lyrics entwined with Norse mythology, Viking history, popular legends and Satanism. The raw and primitive sounding music soon gained notoriety due to its association with murders and the burning of churches. However, today, Black Metal has earned its place in Norway’s cultural heritage with a new exhibit at Oslo’s National Library called “Bad Vibes”.
The exhibit, curated by Thomas Alkarr, showcases the contemplative, almost intellectual side of the genre that lies 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. “Black metal’s raison d’etre is not to sleep with girls, it’s to look into the abyss,” explains Alkarr.
Despite its association with violence and chaos, Norway’s Black Metal scene has become mainstream in recent years. Its heavyweights, such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, Emperor and Dimmu Borgir, have achieved international fame, with bands like Dimmu Borgir performing with the national radio’s symphony orchestra and Satyricon accompanying a Munch Museum exhibit. Black Metal even has its own category in Norway’s version of the Grammys and a well-known festival called Inferno.
While Black Metal bands are widely accepted in Norway, they do not always enjoy the same acceptance further afield. In March this year, Brazilian authorities cancelled a Mayhem concert, mistakenly believing the group to be neo-Nazi. Despite this, the music genre has developed a loyal international fanbase, prompting the foreign ministry to even brief its diplomats on the subject.
In conclusion, Black Metal, which emerged as a rejection of Norway’s conformist society, has found its place in the country’s cultural heritage with a new exhibit at Oslo’s National Library. Despite its association with violence and chaos, Black Metal has become mainstream in Norway, with a loyal international fanbase.
