| Dir. Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell, Norway, 2008, 93mins
Cast: Fenriz, Varg Vikernes, Harmony Korine
Review by Christopher Upton
To many people, the Norwegian church burnings of the early Nineties are a closed book; Satanists poisoned by the influence of black metal carried it out. Until the Light Takes Us puts an alternate spin on these activities by talking to the main people involved and breaks away from the simple explanations to discover something much deeper.
Until the Light Takes Us is based around interviews with members of the bands that created black metal, including Mayhem, Darkthrone and Burzum. Varg Vikernes of Burzum fame is being interviewed from prison, where he is incarcerated for killing his friend, associate and band mate. The film discovers the rationale behind his actions and looks at the mark that black metal has left on the world of art and music in Norway.
The directors obviously want to bring a bit of light to this very dark subject, and in certain areas they succeed and uncover some truly unique viewpoints. They also manage to highlight a much more heartfelt reason for the church burnings which extends beyond mere cultish behaviour. Unfortunately by the end of the film when all their points have been made separately, there is no over-arching conclusion and you leave not really knowing exactly what the directors had set out to achieve.
Vikernes starts out as an eloquent and interesting study and, because of his charisma, his actions don't seem as destructive as they were portrayed at the time in the media. As an act of rebellion against the cultural and religious destruction of traditional Norwegian people, the actions almost seem noble. However, as he moves more towards the explanation for the murder that landed him in prison he starts to lose a lot of the conviction in what he's saying. His explanations become more akin to paranoid ramblings, the fear that someone was out to get him so he had to act first. As you may imagine this destroys a lot of the credibility he has built up with his speeches in the first half of the documentary.
By comparison Fenriz, drummer and songwriter for Darkthrone, is a much more enjoyable presence throughout. Cracking jokes and going about his daily life he seems to have been a major part of the scene, but not allowed himself to be engulfed by it. As such his major gripe is more about the dilution of the black metal brand and the bands that now masquerade in his band's shadow. This is much more relatable, and his sections will stick with you a lot longer than the over-the-top art scenes, which seem to typify the type of misunderstood reaction to black metal.
The intelligent and articulate musicians are what make this documentary interesting and some of the points that Until the Light Takes Us makes are made well. The problem is there just aren't enough of them and they don't correlate. Not only do you get the feeling that this doesn't make the most of its subjects, it ultimately makes a confused point about the state of Norwegian music in a post-black metal environment.
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