Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground New Edition (Extreme Metal)

This book is genuinely so interesting i couldn’t put it down honestly

Definitely in reading this book and I find even more understanding in the Black Metal scene!!!! Where this started from!!!!! From the days of Venom to Mayhem to Burzum and on. Anyone interested in this from Black Metal fans to Metal fans to Christians to pretty much anyone who wants an understanding of the music behind the music this is the book to get!!!! I have been a fan of Black Metal for 15 years and I love this book enough that I would love putting together a Black Metal band!!!!! Anyone who gets this book will not be disappointed in my own opinion!!!!!!!

This book rules if you don't own any Roadrunner Records CDs. I think it's about music? But it's really about MURDER and SUICIDE and CHURCH BURNINGS and GOBLINS and TREES and s***. If you don't like black metal and you end up reading this book, you'll probably hate the musicians involved even more now, because they do horrible things to each other. I happen to like listening to people scream like old Jewish ladies through tin cans, so I really liked reading this book. It's a comprehensive history of what cool people in Norway and Sweden were doing while we were in North America wearing sweatpants. If it weren't for this book I probably would've never listened to Mayhem or Burzum or Emperor or Dissection. If it weren't for this book I probably would've still been listening to my mom. Or Scott Burns.

This is the definitive book out there on the cultural significance centered around the rise of the Black Circle and Norwegian black metal in general, but that said buyer beware: if you're looking for a standard music history book that focuses on the music itself that's not really what these two authors were going for here. You do get a lot of lurid true crime details and plenty of interviews with the participants in said crime - the latter in particular make this book indispensable for capturing the mindset of the participants at the time these events were still fresh in everyone's memory - but outside from a brief overview of how darkness and evil manifested itself in heavy metal prior to Mayhem and co-horts, there's not a lot here as far as in-depth coverage of how black metal spread globally after that initial burst. The book mostly focuses on the rise of Euronymous and his inner circle, the falling out with Varg and subsequent murder, and assorted crimes mostly centering around that Helvete inner circle. Doing a little research on the author Michael Moynihan it seems like he has a knack for fringe ideology, so unsurprisingly a huge portion of this tome is centered around getting in depth into the occult, Satanic, psychological, etc underpinnings behind the various actions and ideologies. Still a worthwhile book by any other metric, but if you're looking for a straight up history of black metal from a musical perspective you might want to look elsewhere

Not only is this book an entertainng read on a genre of music, it's also a a well written history of Satanism in music. How a troubled youth finds an expression of the idyllic sermon of sin; black metal.

OK, I love Black Metal, and wanted to know more on the dark history, which is what this book promised… BUT!!! after my initial excitement at the size of the book and sprinklings of photos and embellishments, there's not much actual info on the history and development of the music. I'm guessing this book was written at least 15yrs ago, and written to cash in on the interest of the scene, and bring the fuss to america, and make some money. There's too many 'introductions' and amendments, re-edition notes and thankyous etc… Yawn, Just get on with the book please! It's very repetitive, with a lot of flowery nonsense. The author must like sounding clever. Very quickly it dissolves into a load of mumbo jumbo about boring pretty unrelated pagan/satanic theories (sounds interesting, but it's not) Yes I wanted to know fresh insights on all the carnage, but also about the music developments etc. It doesn't even touch on the music!? 1/3 of the book seemed to be just Varg ranting on about UFOs etc! These days, there is a ton more info on wiki about the early murders, suicides and church burnings, and written more to the point My advice: Wiki up Black Metal, and read all the related stuff about Mayhem etc. Then watch real interviews etc on youtube If you want crazy B/W obscure photos of corpse painted instigators and interviews, I suggest getting the AWESOME book Metallion diaries, that dude was actually there! This book could have been SO much better, too much hype, they needed a strict editor, and I WISH they'd asked ME to design it! a bit messy. HAIL SATAN!!

I read it once as a teenager before my ideology changed. Having matured a bit, I read it again while I now look at the metal scene in an entirely different way. This book still manages to capture the truth of metal, despite the authors blanket statements about metal. All in all, they are excellent writers and masterfully present what was intended to remain "un-presented". Great book!

Lords of Chaos is one of the very rare books that comes off as objective. Too many authors of others books on this sort of subject like to put their own spin and judgement which resembles mainstream media. I highly recommend any fans of metal to buy a Burzum album. It's the pinnacle of Black Metal!