In 1987 Oslo, 17-year-old Euronymous becomes fixated on creating “true Norwegian black metal” with his band Mayhem. He mounts shocking publicity stunts to put the band’s name on the map, but the lines between show and reality begin to blur.
Based on an astonishingly true story, LORDS OF CHAOS recounts the exploits of the Norwegian black metal movement’s most notorious band: Mayhem. Its founder, Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous, was one of the originators of the annihilating metal guitar sound that burst onto the scene in the early ’90s. After the gruesome suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin, who performed under the pseudonym “Dead,” Euronymous used the opportunity to inject a mix of satanism, havoc, and murder into the music to sell more records. Bassist Varg Vikernes began to take Euronymous’s headline-grabbing talk too seriously and went on a spree of church burnings, forming a deadly rivalry between the two bandmates that culminated in an infamous and bloody end.
Drawing from the 1998 book of the same name by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, director Jonas Åkerlund injects his distinct visual style into the material. Vigorous performances from Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Sky Ferreira, and Jack Kilmer bolster this unhinged account of black-metal brotherhood gone wickedly wrong.