 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Lords of Chaos • Year: 2018 • Country: UK, Sweden • Director: Jonas Åkerlund • Main cast: Jon Øigarden, Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen • Runtime: 112 minutes • Production company: 4 1/2 Film, Chimney, Eleven Arts • TRAILER |
While everybody is talking about the lame Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), this year has brought us another rock music biopic of one of the most important bands in its own style. And, also, probably, one of the craziest stories in rock history. It has everything, transgression, envy, lies, nazism, murder, suicide, madness and, overall, lots of church burnings. We are talking about the story of Mayhem, for many the fathers of Norwegian Black Metal.
Although the plot of the movie doesn’t dig in excess in the most obscure events, and some of the radical ideas of the stars of the story are shown closer to posing than real social-political positions, what the movie Lords of Chaos (2018) depicts is what really happened, impossible as it may seem. And if you are a metalhead you might already have heard about them. In fact, the movie is based on the book Lords of Chaos written by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, two true experts in history, sociology, religion and culture. And also, the director of Lords of Chaos (2018) is Jonas Åkerlund, which perhaps is better known with his successful and awarded music videos for Lady Gaga, Rammstein and many others, but we should never forget he was the founding drummer of Swedish Black Metal band Bathory, one of the pioneers of the style worldwide. So yeah, they know what they are talking about here.
The movie Lords of Chaos (2018) explains the story of the first formation of the band Mayhem, from its inception until the death of the former leader of the band Euronymous in 1993 murdered by his bandmate. And this is not a spoiler, this is what really happened. For almost 2 hours we are taken back to cold Oslo in the early 1990s and we travel together with these young rebels in black leather, demon makeup and religious despise. Loud music, greed of power and egomaniac attitudes, hatred towards religious symbols which are destroyed in order to overthrow the Christian dictatorship… Everything that makes Mayhem one of the undisputed symbols of Black Metal music.
Lords of Chaos (2018) is a good biopic, that is a sure thing. For the portion of the audience that never heard of that band or Black Metal music it might sound like some of the craziest and most extreme things to witness, and hard to believe all that shit actually happened. For others that we grew up aware of the events and the music, it was such a nice experience to see them portrayed on the silver screen, and in a movie that narratively is very well done and entertaining. It’s a fun history class. Looks good, sounds good and delivers knowledge. I only miss that the movie didn’t go deeper on the political and social controversies, but that is just my opinion. I am no one to tell Jonas Åkerlund what he has to show in a movie like this because he is the eminence here. And I can’t be anything but glad he took the time and efford to materialize this movie.
By the way, the story of Mayhem, the band, didn’t end in 1993. They are still active nowadays putting out records and touring worldwide. Perhaps this is a good chance to discover your new favorite band?
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4669296
