Louis Cachet (born Kristian Vikernes; 11 February 1973), better known as Varg Vikernes (), is a Norwegian musician, neo-Nazi, and convicted murderer. He released five albums under the name Burzum between 1992 and 1996, making him an influential figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene and its offshoot National Socialist black metal (NSBM). In May 1994, Vikernes was convicted of first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth. He was also convicted of arson for the burning of four Christian churches in Norway. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison, and was released after having served 15 years.
A native of Fana in Bergen Municipality, Vikernes went on to join the band Old Funeral, in which he played guitar from 1989 until his departure in 1991. He recorded multiple tracks with the band, which were featured on the Devoured Carcass EP, as well as various compilation albums released years later. In 1992–1993, he also recorded bass for Mayhem's debut studio album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994).
In 1992, Vikernes, along with other members of the scene, was suspected of burning down four Christian churches in Norway. In August 1993, he fatally stabbed Mayhem guitarist Aarseth during an altercation at the latter's apartment, and was arrested shortly after. In May 1994, Vikernes was convicted of first-degree murder, church arson and possession of explosives. Vikernes has always maintained the killing was self-defense, and unsuccessfully argued for the charge to be reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He has denied committing the arsons, though he supported them. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum penalty under Norwegian law. During his incarceration, Vikernes launched the neo-Nazi organisation ('Norwegian Heathen Front'), had two books published, and released two ambient albums as Burzum. In 2009, he was released on parole. Afterwards, he moved to a small farm in Corrèze, France, with his wife and changed his name to Louis Cachet. In 2014, he was found guilty by a French court of inciting racial hatred against Jews and Muslims on his YouTube channel, Thulean Perspective, and sentenced to six months' probation.
Described by Sam Dunn as "the most notorious metal musician of all time", Vikernes remains controversial for his crimes as well as his political and religious views. He promoted views which combined Odinism and Esoteric Nazism, and openly embraced Nazism during the mid-to-late 1990s. He has continued to be associated with far-right politics.
Biography
Background and childhood Vikernes was born on 11 February 1973 in Bergen. In the interviews printed in the 1998 book Lords of Chaos, Vikernes discusses his background and childhood. Lords of Chaos also includes an interview with his mother, Helene Bore (the book and a newspaper depicted there refer to her with the given name Lene). In a 2004 interview, Vikernes said his mother was "working in a large oil company". His father is an electronics engineer, and his older brother is a civil engineer.
In the Lords of Chaos interview, Vikernes recalls that when he was 6 years old, the family moved for about a year to Baghdad, Iraq, because Vikernes' "father was working for Saddam Hussein" developing a computer program. Since there were no places available in the English school in Baghdad, the young Vikernes went to an Iraqi elementary school during this time. According to his interview, Vikernes here became "aware of racial matters". Corporal punishment was very common in the school, and on one occasion, Vikernes had a "quarrel" with a teacher and called him "a monkey" – but, as Vikernes perceived it, the teachers "didn't dare to hit me because I was white". Vikernes' mother also recalls that "the other children in his class would get slapped by their teachers; he would not". She mentions that this created problems, but generally she "has no good explanation" of how Varg developed his views.
When asked about his father, Vikernes states that he was hysterical that his son "had a swastika flag at home". Vikernes feels that his father was a hypocrite because he was worried about Vikernes "being a Nazi", whereas he too was "pissed about all the colored people he saw in town". About his mother, Vikernes states that she was "very race-conscious", in the sense that she was afraid that Vikernes "was going to come home with a black girl[!]". At the time of the 1995 Lords of Chaos interview, Vikernes still had a positive relationship with his mother but "very little contact" with his father. He also stated that his parents are divorced; Vikernes' father is said to have "left about 10 years ago", which would have been 1985, when Vikernes was 11 or 12.
According to the Encyclopedia of White Power and historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Vikernes was part of the neo-Nazi skinhead culture as an adolescent. When asked in the Lords of Chaos interview whether he hung out with skinheads in Bergen, Vikernes said that "there were no skinheads in Bergen".
Vikernes discovered other metal bands whose sound would be influential on his own band, such as Kreator, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Destruction, Slayer, Pestilence, Deicide and Von. Although Venom are widely considered the primary influence on black metal, Vikernes has always denied to be influenced by them, as well as defining the band as "a joke". He once wore a T-shirt of Venom's Black Metal to promote the genre but stated he later regretted doing that.
Early musical career
Vikernes started playing guitar at the age of 14. When he was 17, Vikernes came into contact with members of Old Funeral. He played guitar with them during 1990–1991 and performed on their Devoured Carcass EP before he began his solo musical project, Burzum, and quickly became involved with the early Norwegian black metal scene. During 1992–1993, he recorded four albums as Burzum.
On Hvis lyset tar oss, he also borrowed Hellhammer's drum kit, the same one Hellhammer used to record De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem. In 1992, Vikernes joined the black metal band Mayhem, a year after band member Dead committed suicide on 8 April 1991.
Arson of churches
On 6 June 1992, the Fantoft Stave Church, dating from the 12th century and considered architecturally significant, was burned to the ground by arson. The cover of Burzum's EP Aske ("ashes") is a photograph of the destroyed church. By January 1993, arson attacks had occurred on at least seven other major stave churches, including one on Christmas Eve of 1992. Vikernes was found guilty of several of these cases: the arson and attempted arson of Åsane Church and Storetveit Church in Bergen Municipality, the arson of Skjold Church in Vindafjord Municipality, and the arson of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo Municipality. He was also charged with the arson of Fantoft Stave Church, although the jurors found him not guilty.
At the time, media outlets reported that Vikernes was associated with theistic Satanism. In later interviews Vikernes, while not accepting responsibility for the arsons, said that they were not Satanic, but instead "revenge" for the Christian desecration of Viking graves and temples. According to Vikernes, the arsons were on the anniversary of the Lindisfarne Viking raid. Vikernes claimed that all the burnings, except for the one at Stavanger, were done by one person. His arsons inspired similar attacks on churches in other countries over many years.
Bergens Tidende article In January 1993, an article in one of Norway's biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende, brought the black metal scene into the media spotlight. Two friends of Vikernes interviewed him and brought the interview to the newspaper, hoping they would print it. In the anonymous interview, "Count Grishnackh" (Vikernes) claimed to have burnt the churches and killed a man in Lillehammer. BT journalist Finn Bjørn Tønder set up a meeting with Count Grishnackh with help from the friends. The journalists were summoned to an apartment and reportedly warned that they would be shot if the police were called. There, Vikernes and his companions told the journalists that they had burnt the churches, or knew who had done it, and said that the attacks would continue. They claimed to be devil worshippers and said: "Our intention is to spread fear and devilry [...] that is why we are telling this to Bergens Tidende." They gave the journalists details about the arsons that hadn't been released to the press, so BT spoke with the police before publishing it, who confirmed these details.
The article was published on 20 January as the front page of the BT. It was headlined "We Lit the Fires" and included a photo of Vikernes, his face mostly hidden, holding two large knives. However, by the time the article was printed, Vikernes had already been arrested. The police found him by going to an address printed on a Burzum flyer.
At the time, Burzum was about to release the Aske mini-album. Some of the other scene members were also arrested and questioned, but all were released for lack of evidence. Jørn Inge Tunsberg of Hades said that the interview had "grave consequences" for the rest of the scene and that they did not know he was going to talk to the press, as "he had said nothing". He added that they became "bloody angry" and he, Tunsberg, was "pissed off".Torstein Grude: Satan rir media, 1998.
Norwegian magazine Rock Furore published an interview with Vikernes in February 1993. In it, he said of the prison system: "It's much too nice here. It's not hell at all. In this country prisoners get a bed, toilet and shower. It's completely ridiculous. I asked the police to throw me in a real dungeon, and also encouraged them to use violence". He was released in March for lack of evidence.
Murder of Euronymous In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. After the Bergens Tidende episode, Euronymous decided to shut Helvete down as it began to draw the attention of the police and media.
On the night of 10 August 1993, Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death at his apartment in Oslo. The murder was initially blamed on Swedish black metallers by the media. It has been speculated that the murder was the result of a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records (Euronymous owed Vikernes a large sum of royalty payments), or an attempt at "outdoing" a recent stabbing in Lillehammer committed by Emperor drummer Faust. Vikernes claims that he killed Euronymous in self-defense. He says that Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up, and torture him to death while videotaping the event. Vikernes explains: "If he was talking about it to everybody and anybody I wouldn't have taken it seriously. But he just told a select group of friends, and one of them told me". He said Euronymous planned to use a meeting about an unsigned contract to ambush him.