If you’ve never read Lords of Chaos, the epic origin story of Norwegian black metal, you are depriving yourself of something profound. Atavistic, elemental paganism! The burning of beautiful, 1000-year old churches — an act of purest, despicable philistinism…

There is apparently a movie, Until The Light Takes Us, coming next month. This is a joyous and evil event.

Postscript: In college, my friend Sam and I, under the influence of Lords of Chaos, flirted with the idea of forming a Native American black-metal band called Great Spirit, to adapt the animating (and animist) construct of black metal to its closest American analogue. We would have of course had to pretend we were Native Americans, which wasn’t in the cards. But someone should do this!