Credits:

Darkthrone

Description:

Heavy metal has always championed the darker things in life, but whatever they might say in their interviews, most bands are really just mugging for the press, fronting a fantasy image for the benefit of their impressionable young fans. But all bets are off when it comes to the infamous Norwegian black metal scene where, in the early ’90s, popular bands like Mayhem, Emperor, and Burzum saw key members charged with real-life acts of crime ranging from church burnings to outright murder. Standing just outside this macabre “inner circle,” as it was called, was the Oslo-based Darkthrone, whose mentorship under scene leader (and later, most notorious victim) Euronymous began to bear fruit with their third album, A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Unlike many of their peers — whose hellish symphonies were often overblown, ultra-complex affairs influenced by classical and Scandinavian folk music — Darkthron