Varg Vikernes founded Burzum and contributed heavily to the black metal movement before being jailed in Norway in 1993 for murder and possible church arson, then on his release in the 2000s began releasing the continuation of his prison-years ambient soundscape albums, most recently with Sôl austan, Mâni vestan and The Ways of Yore. Now he faces additional problems with both French and Russian governments.
Almost a year ago, Vikernes was arrested in France for suspicions of violating anti-discrimination and civil rights law there. His trial came up recently and a French court has convicted him and sentenced him to a six month suspended sentence and $10,000 in fines. In addition, Russian authorities seized his web site from June 18-23 because it found the Russian edition of his book Vargsmal violated Russian speech law as well.
While I can’t say that I agree with Vikernes — although I am fond of the first three and last two Burzum albums — in my view speech codes and goody-two-shoes laws are about the most un-metal thing there is. In the 1980s, the Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC) tried to prevent us from hearing music with lyrics containing gratuitous sexual or occult content, but now thirty years later, our governments are more worried about political speech. It tells us what threatens these governments that they are now just fine with our gratuitous sex and violence and occultism, but have turned their focus to ideas themselves. It’s an odd turn that I never could have foreseen.
For more information about Vikernes and his music, see our interview with Varg Vikernes from May of last year. For his beliefs, you can visit his blog and his website for his role playing game, movie and writings. There is also his official Burzum website and then, for a neutral viewpoint, the Burzum study group’s analysis of his music and beliefs. If you want to help with his burgeoning legal fees, there’s a donation page and his official merchandise page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbWMOoFFgLU
Tags: burzum, censorship, pmrc, varg vikernes
This enrages me to no end.
Despite the fact he has been persecuted for ideological reasons, he’s no victim. He knew what was coming and who would face him. He carried on anyways.
Grandparente are trying to take his children away. Governments and ideological parties are trying to lynch him.
I just hope I never get to see a picture of him defeated and broken.
He’s under the gun because he has committed murder. If he had not done that in his past he would probably be free to voice his opinions on the internet with no opposition. In my opinion he has done nothing wrong. If i hate chinks and am fed up with Canada’s immigration policy and decided to voice it through blogs or even on the street, id be just another pissed off person that nobody gives a shit about, there would be no gov,swat or police intervention.
As soon as you mention racial preservation and superiority people get all butt-hurt. Who gives a fuck if he doesn’t like you and thinks he is superior? Let me him preach his ways through internet, books etc. this is the 21st century when will we be able to control our emotions and stop being so easily offended?
He’s a problem because unlike anyone else that may hold such views, he actually has massive influence, knows it and is motivated as all hell.
People get offended easily because they have *no lives*…If you were getting what you wanted out of life, do you think you would get offended over what strangers say? But really, the vast majority of this planet are nothing but chattel to be used anyways, they are born to be slaves, and they believe in some kind of fantasy land that they can go to to get away from their problems and everything will be okay…Even ANUS believes in this…
The murder of Euronymous will linger over him forever and quickly draw attention to every move he makes. I love Varg’s contribution to music but I think the murder plus the church arson was his biggest mistake.
“this is the 21st century when will we be able to control our emotions and stop being so easily offended?”
Once we segregate ethnically.
He and his family should move to N. America, maybe Australia, because all of Europe is after him apparently.
America has more politically correct inquisitors than any place on earth!
True, but the feds wouldn’t be watching his every move.
That is not necessarily true.
As a long-time resident, I can say for sure that, once the natives got over his accent, he would fit in just fine with many of the Mid-Westerners here north of the Bible Belt in the US.
politically correct fascists are worse than those who they endlessly protest
“Varg says hateful things that hurt peoples feelings! i am sad!”-pathetic modern metal community
The rotting corpse of Western liberalism strikes again!
Varg is a walking “fuck you”-finger to the world lol. Too cool for school, 25 years and counting.
Some of what Varg rants about resonates with me, some of it doesn’t. I’ve seen Jurassic Park and I don’t think you can turn back the clock like he wants to. However I find myself cheering on the fucker from the sidelines. He’s like the eccentric metalhead friend of your older brother who gave you your first smoke and got you listening to Sabbath, and who you witness years later, being chased around town by the pigs, still fucking shit up…
But if he really wants to carry on doing his thing he’s going to have to reconsider his tactics. He’s a poster boy for the far right threat as far as the establishment are concerned. Hopefully he survives this latest setback, keeps his kids and continues having a voice.
And please don’t say ‘lol’.
lmfao
He really should come to the USA. If he were to live in Maine, or Idaho, or any place like that, he would have carte blanche to carry all the guns he wants, and say just about anything he wants. Would the feds watch him? Of course. They watch everyone. But hate speech is still largely protected here.
God Bless you Varg, whether you like Him or not.
-A Practicing Catholic of some-Jewish descent