Varg Vikernes

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Varg Vikernes : biography

11 February 1973 –

Trial

Vikernes’s trial began on 2 May 1994. Many other members of the scene, including Blackthorn and Faust, were put on trial around the same time. Some of them confessed to their crimes and implicated others. According to Lords of Chaos, "Vikernes is disgusted by the fact that, while he held fast to a code of silence, others confessed".Lords of Chaos (2003), p.141. During the trial the media made Vikernes "the nation’s first real bogeyman in fifty years".Lords of Chaos (2003), p.145. At the trial it was claimed that he, Blackthorn and another friend had planned the murder. The third person stayed at the apartment in Bergen as an alibi. To make it look like they never left Bergen, he was to rent films, play them in the apartment, and withdraw money from Vikernes’s credit card.Lords of Chaos (2003), p.129. On 16 May 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway’s maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the arson of three churches, the attempted arson of a fourth church, and for the theft and storage of 150 kg of explosives. However, he only confessed to the latter. Two churches were burnt the day he was sentenced, "presumably as a statement of symbolic support". Blackthorn was sentenced to 8 years in prison for being an accomplice. Vikernes smiled when his verdict was read, and an image was widely reprinted in the news media.

That month saw the release of Mayhem’s album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which has Euronymous on electric guitar and Vikernes on bass guitar. Before the release, Euronymous’s family had asked Mayhem’s drummer, Hellhammer, to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes. Hellhammer said "I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record. I put word out that I was re-recording the bass parts, but I never did".

Time in prison

Vikernes served his sentence at the prisons in Bergen, Tønsberg, Ringerike, Trondheim and Tromsø.

In late 1994, Vikernes wrote a Norwegian-language book called Vargsmål. He said he wrote it to defend himself against "all the media lies" and that the book is marked by his isolation and anger at the time. However, Vikernes claims that "the prison authorities confiscated the manuscript, and for several years I wasn’t allowed to even proof-read it. It was an unfinished manuscript, consisting of many separate articles, and ideally I would have been able to make some changes before it was published, but I wasn’t. Eventually I gave up and just published it as it was – with all the errors and not-so-balanced articles".Vikernes, Varg. . Burzum.org. 15 December 2004. Retrieved 4 April 2013.

On 8 April 1997, Norwegian police arrested five neo-Nazis in Hemnes. According to police, the young men were part of a self-styled "Einsatzgruppe" and were plotting attacks on political and religious figures in Norway. They also had plans to break Vikernes out of prison.Lords of Chaos (2003), p.362 The group "had all the trappings of a paramilitary unit", including guns, explosives, bulletproof vests, steel helmets and balaclavas. One of its members, Tom Eiternes, had befriended Vikernes in prison before escaping while on leave. Vikernes’s mother, Lene Bore, was arrested for supplying the group with 100,000 kroner. She confessed, but claimed she did not know they were "right-wing extremists" and said her son was being attacked by fellow inmates. In late 1996 his jaw had reportedly been broken in a fight with another inmate. However, the prison director said her claims were unfounded, and police suspected that the money came from Vikernes himself. Lords of Chaos says that Vikernes adopted a "skinhead" look and wore a belt buckle with SS insignia around this time. Despite her confession, Bore was not convicted, and in 1998 the case against the "Einsatzgruppe" was dropped.;Lords of Chaos (2003), p.369

During his time in prison, Vikernes recorded two albums made up wholly of ambient and dark ambient music. The first, Dauði Baldrs, was recorded in 1994–1995 and released in October 1997. The second, Hliðskjálf, was recorded in 1998 and released in April 1999. Vikernes was denied access to an electric guitar, bass guitar or drums, and instead used a synthesizer. In 2000, Vikernes ended his musical project. He believed that his philosophy was constantly misinterpreted by an ignorant fan base that was too closely related to black metal and Satanism. Later, through his website, he indicated that he hoped to continue Burzum after his release from prison, stating: "I will publish a few books, possibly using a pseudonym in order to stay anonymous, and perhaps a Burzum album or two, but that’s it".