A teenager's quest to launch Norwegian black metal in Oslo in the 1980s results in a very violent outcome. Lords Of Chaos tells the true story of True Norwegian Black Metal and its most notorious practitioners - a group of young men with a flair for publicity, church-burning and murder: Mayhem.

Drawing from personal experience - director Jonas Åkerlund was a drummer for the Swedish extreme metal band Bathory for a short time in the early 80s - his adaptation of Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's book Lords Of Chaos details of the group's rise and fall via Mayhem's co-founder/guitarist Øystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous (Rory Culkin) and his relationship with two volatile collaborators: Per Yngve Ohlin aka Pelle aka Dead (Jack Kilmer), the band's ultra-melancholic first singer who killed cats and then himself; and Varg Vikernes, aka the Count (Emory Cohen), a fellow outcast and Aarseth's eventual murderer.

In a new interview with The Scotsman, Åkerlund discusses the film.
 
“To go as deep inside and try and present a portrait of the relationships between these kids is risky,” confirms the filmmaker. “I’m not saying this is exactly how they were and this is exactly what they did. I’m saying this is my perspective and my belief that there must have been some humour in their lives, there must have been some emotions in there, there must have been moments when they looked at each other and wondered what the f*** was going on. They couldn’t just be young machines that were just evil.”

Read more at The Scotsman.

An official video trailer for Lords Of Chaos can be found below. The film, released by Gunpowder and Sky, is co-produced by VICE Studios, 20th Century Fox, Scott Free Productions and Insurgent Media.

Visit the official Lords Of Chaos website here.