
Loading summary
Jake Brennan
Foreign Guys, if you haven't heard me talk about Groons before, you're about to right now. There's a reason I'm talking about Groons. You know, I love Groons. They're a convenient, comprehensive formula packed into a snack pack of gummies to get you through your day. Guys, this is not a multivitamin, a greens gummy or a prebiotic. It's all of these things. And it's all these things at a fraction of the price. And it tastes great. And also, I'm not standing over my counter with green powder flying all over the place in my kitchen trying to make a drink. You know what I'm saying? Groons is a totally different thing. Daily snack pack of gummies because you can't fit the amount of nutrients Groons fits into just one gummy. Plus, I'm telling you, I'm watching what I'm eating these days and I look forward to eating Groons. They taste great. It's a treat with 6 grams of prebiotic fiber, which is three times the amount of dietary fiber compared to the lean greens powders. For context, that's more than two cups of broccoli and it tastes better than broccoli. There's the Groonie Smith apple flavor. Okay, that's my new go to. That's the Grun's fall flavor. I'm here for it. It's only available through October. It's got the same full body benefits that you know and love from Gruens, but this time tastes like you're walking through an apple orchard in a cable knit sweater, getting those New England vibes, all that warm apple cider, you know, those apple cider donuts. Maybe you're buying a little corn on the cob for later that day. You know what I'm talking about. Gruen's ingredients are backed by over 35,000 research publications. I love Groons. They taste great, they are super convenient, and they are chalk filled with healthy benefits. Grab your limited edition Groonie Smith apple Groons, available only through October. Stock up because they will sell out. Get up to 52% off. Use the code. Disgraceland. I was recently researching a subject for one of our podcast episodes whose home was broken into. And the algorithm started to then send me all these horrifying clips of home break ins. And I got pulled into the wormhole and naturally started questioning my own home security system at the time. And what I found out was that my system wasn't very preventative. And that's because most home security systems aren't very preventative. They're actually designed to only react and take action once someone has already broken in. And that ain't good. SimpliSafe, on the other hand, my new security system stops crime before it even starts by confronting potential threats the moment they appear. These break in videos online are horrifying and they're happening in neighborhoods all over. You need your home security to be dependable, and my question is, can a home security system really call itself security if it only responds once the intruder is already in your home? SimpliSafe is the way to stop someone from actually entering your home. Their AI powered cameras detect threats while they're outside before they intrude. And they alert real security agents who take action while the intruder again, is outside, not in your house. I'm now using SimpliSafe and I'm telling you that you guys should too. It's super easy to set up. They sent me all the components in one box. I was able to hook it up by myself. Made my wife happy, and now my home is protected and I've got rapid response. I've got a security system I can depend on and a great easy intuitive app that helps me monitor my home no matter where I'm at. Right now, my listeners can save 50% on a SimpliSafe home security system at simplisafe.com Disgracepod that's simplisafe.com DisgracePod there's no safe like Simplisafe. Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. Never has there been a more extreme form of musical rebellion. The Norwegian black metal, the genre's founding band, Mayhem, its sister act Burzum, and supporting cast of musicians with names like Necrobutcher, Hellhammer and Dead horrified Norway with supreme acts of terror including murder suicide, church burnings, grave desecrations and even cannibalism. And by the time the ashes settled, numerous band members would be dead or in jail, convicted of arson and or murder. And a new generation of young metalheads would find their way to Satanism through blast beats and dead notes. Some of those blast beats and dead notes amounted to great music. The music you heard at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for my melotron called Vienna Waltz Accordion MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the license for Jump by Kris Kross. And why would I play you that specific slice of prepubescent backward pant cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on June 6, 1992. And that was the day that Varg Vikras, aka Count Grishnak, mastermind behind the black metal band Burzum, and one time bass player for Mayhem, set off a string of church burnings and other acts of satanic rebellion that would terrorize an otherwise peaceful nation. On this episode, waltzing Viennese accordions backward pant cheese, mayhem, satanic rebellion and Count Grishnak. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Dis. When Bo Diddley released his song who do Youo Love in 1956, it was heard by a country reeling in the shock waves of rock and roll. Bo sang about walking for miles on barbed wire, cobra snakes used for neckties, a house made from rattlesnake hide, a chimney made from human skulls. Parents, teachers and squares everywhere warned of the new music's influence on the clean cut youth of Eisenhower's post war conformist America. Surely this rebellious sounding noise would cause kids to grow their hair, smoke reefer, get pregnant, worship Satan and die. And the squares were right. That's exactly what happened. A decade later. Kids were uniformly long haired, smoking copious amounts of dope and the pill. By 1969 and into the 70s, they were sympathizing with the devil at Altamont and burning their bras in Times Square. And in the 1980s, cocaine, crack and AIDS would claim countless amounts of young lives. Finally, in 1991, a heavy metal musician from Norway would go Bo Diddley one better. It wouldn't be a chance he'd make out of a human skull. It would be a necklace made out of the skull of his recently deceased friend and bandmate. Bo Diddley's lyrics sounds tame now, but it only took a mere 35 years before its influence was brought to life in horrific fashion. Rebellion is metastatic. One generation's rebellion is another generation's norm. The line in the sand of what is and isn't acceptable gets redrawn with each new generation. Bo Diddley was a descendant of bluesman Robert Johnson, who, hack rock journalists will eagerly tell us, sold his soul to the devil. And Diddley's voodoo esque braggadocio went on to inspire countless classic rockers, including satanic sympathizers Led Zeppelin, whose unabashed admiration for known Satanist Aleister Crowley and melding of steroidal Delta blues made it rain royalty checks. Thus inspiring another band from England named Venom to take it one step further to full on devil worship with song titles like In League with Satan, Leave Me in Hell and A Thousand Days. In sodom Venom then went on to influence an entirely new generation of metal bands like Metallica, Slayer and Testament, until finally inspiring a new subgenre of heavy metal called black metal. Black metal was started by Norwegian teenagers unable to stand the strains of conformity, boredom, anonymity and long dark winters. Norway, a small constitutional monarchy, went through a brief Viking phase during its adolescence, flirted with fascism in young adulthood, and eventually settled lazily into a type of democratic socialism during middle age. The country, though small, is one of the world's richest. The state takes care of its own government bureaucracy employs 30% of the nation. Disability pensions for the unemployed are easy to come by. There isn't a lot of poverty, not a lot of income disparity. The crime rate is low and punishments for the crimes that do get committed are lenient. Historically, there's not a lot to get pissed off about because there's not a lot that goes on in Norway. The country's greatest cultural export is frozen fish. Norway is kind of like Europe's answer to an American flyover state. What I'm trying to say is that if you're a Norwegian teenager, you're probably bored. And even worse than that, you're probably bored without a whole lot to rebel against. How does the saying go? Idle hands at the devil's workshop without overt social injustice? Norwegian teenagers look to their heritage for a target to rebel against. Inspired by Venom, Bathory and a growing group of satanic inspired heavy metal bands in the 1980s, Norwegian teenagers saw in their country's Christian heritage a reason to rebel. Christian societies preach morality, so worshiping Satan is just about the strongest form of rebellion one can take. Mix in nihilism, Nazism, ancient Norse Viking mythology, paganism, blistering blast beats and speaker shredding power chords and you've got a strong elixir of teenage angst. Black metal became a thing on August 16, 1987 with the release of the Norwegian band Mayhem's Death Crush demo. Critics point to Mayhem's officially released first full length album, De Mysterios de Satanas, as black metal's genre defining record. But it has none of the charm of the Death Crush demo from seven years earlier. Death Crush sounds less like a band trying to make something and more like a bunch of extremely pent up kids bashing shit around in their basement in front of blown out microphones that just happen to be pointed toward their half broken amplifiers. Mayhem's demo, with its lo fi high energy metal recording, it doesn't sound like anything that came before. Sounds bleak and primitive. It sounds cold. Mayhem's Death Crush is inspired and inspiring. It was the landmark black metal recording that would compel hordes of bands to come. But before the Dark Thrones and Gorgorots of the world, a polite and unassuming Swedish teenager would fully commit himself to Mayhem's satanic nihilism. So fully that he would become the genre's first casualty, its first martyr, and its first sign of the extreme evil to come.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together, use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com hey Discos, if you want.
Jake Brennan
More Disgraceland, be sure to listen every Thursday to our weekly After Party Bonus episode where we dig deeper into the stories we tell in our full weekly episodes. In these After Party Bonus episodes we dive into your voicemails and texts, emails and DMs and discuss your thoughts on the wild lives and behavior of the artists and entertainers that we're all obsessed with. So leave me a message at 617-906-6638 disgracelandpodmail.com orisgracelandpod on the socials and join the conversation every Thursday in our After Party Bonus episode. Limu Emu and Doug Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us. Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates Excludes Massachusetts Per Olin was from Sweden. He moved to Norway at the age of 19 to sing in the band Mayhem. He wasn't the band's original singer, but he was by far its most legendary. By all accounts, Olin was a kind and sensitive kid, albeit with a very dark side. Olin was obsessed with death. With dying. He claimed he'd wanted to die ever since he was three years old. His obsession with death and black metal led him to change his name to Dead and Dead, fully committed to the role in a way that would make most method actors feel inadequate to prepare for Mayhem gigs. Dead would bury his clothes in the Ground, so that when he eventually wore them on stage, they'd have the stench of the earth on them. Just as a corpse would before shows. He'd walk around inhaling the rotting stench of a dead bird he'd carried around with him in a bag because he wanted the smell of death in his nostrils. When he performed on stage, Dead would cut himself, dousing himself and bandmates and the audience with his blood. He wore all black and like most metal heads, he had a taste for denim, leather, studs, spikes. He painted his face white and blackened the area around his eyes to look more like a corpse. Not in a theatrical Alice Cooper or Kissway, but in a scary as All Hallows Eve way. With Dead fronting Mayhem, the band's reputation and influence grew and Norway's black metal scene grew wings. Its pilot was Mayhem's founding guitarist, Eystin Arseth. Arseth was by all accounts the charismatic leader of the Norwegian black metal scene. Before founding Mayhem, in Deathlike Silence Productions, the record label that released Mayhem's albums, Aerisith changed his name to Euronymous to complete his transformation from polite upper middle class Norwegian boy into full blown black metal God. Euronymous and Dead were joined at the hip. They were not only bandmates, they were also roommates. They listened to Motorhead and Bathory records, talked politics, dissed poser commercial metal bands like Death angel and Napalm Death, and plotted their band and their scenes rise to infamy. The hopes and dreams portion of their story, though it didn't last. Dead became withdrawn. He was likely clinically depressed, but this was a time, a place and a scene where such self awareness was not allowed. Some believe the Dead suffered from what is known as cauter delusion, a rare mental illness in which the affected person believes that they are dead, that they are actually a walking, putrefying corpse. This illness manifests after a life threatening trauma like the beating Dead took as a schoolboy, where he ended up in the hospital with a ruptured spleen. An experience that, it has been reported, left him clinically dead for a period of time. Whatever the reason, his obsession with death became all consuming. He got his hands on some snuff films on vhs. He watched them and then he watched them again and again and again. He sat alone in his room and he cut himself. He stopped eating in an effort to obtain starving wounds. He told friends he believed that his blood had frozen in his veins and that he was a non human and didn't belong on earth. That he died as a child and longed for the deep sleep he'd experienced for a brief period as a boy. On April 8, 1991, per Ohlin, aka Dead, singer of Mayhem, the world's preeminent black metal band, sat down on his sofa and began to write a note. Its first words said, excuse all the blood. When authorities found the note, Dead's blood was indeed in need of an excuse. It was everywhere. Dead had slit his wrists, then he slit his own throat, and somehow, after all of that, managed to fire off a shot from a shotgun directly into his forehead. Dead was dead at 22 years old. Hieronymus discovered Dead's body, and he assessed the situation with the cold dispassion of a grizzled homicide detective. And then he moved fast, not to call authorities or family, but instead he moved quickly out the door, down the street to purchase a camera. He hides it back to the apartment where Dead's exploded skull and bloodied body lie in the early stages of rigor mortis and began taking pictures. Hieronymous knew a good album cover when he saw one. He then began collecting bits of his friend's skull and brain. The shards from the skull would make for great necklaces and the bits of brain Hieronymous would later boil down into a stew and consumed so that he could claim the vaunted status of cannibal. Let's see those from Napalm Death eat some brains, posers. We'll be right back after this.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Word.
Jake Brennan
Word.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Word.
Jake Brennan
Hello, Finney. Did you think our story was over, Mr. Grammar? This Friday, you're dead. Dead is just a word. Critics are saying Ethan Hawke is pure nightmare fuel. Discover the secret behind the mask. What do you think happens when you die? It's time to find out. Black Zone 2 only in theaters Friday. Rated R. Under 17. Not admitted without parent.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Arc Raiders. A multiplayer extraction adventure video game set in a lethal yet vibrant future earth. As a raider scavenging the remnants of a derelict world world, you settle into an underground settlement. Hoping to thrive. You jump on the chance to start over. But doing so means you must return to the surface, where arc machines roam and survivors motives remain dangerously unclear. But if you're brave enough, who knows what you might find? Play the server Slam open test from October 17th through 19th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS and PC.
Jake Brennan
This episode is brought to you by 20th Century Studios New film Springsteen. Deliver Me from Nowhere starring Golden Globe winner Jeremy Allen White and Academy Award nominee Jeremy Strong. Scott Cooper, the director of the Academy Award winning movie Crazy Heart, brings you the story of the Most pivotal chapter in the life of an icon. Springsteen. Deliver Me from Nowhere, Only in theaters October 24th. Get your tickets now. Dead's grisly suicide would be immortalized on the COVID of Mayhem's 1995 live bootleg dawn of the Black Hearts. The photo is arresting. It's the type of thing you wish you could unsee, but you can't. The irony, of course, is that this is a live album with a real life picture of a Dead guy named Dead on the COVID The album's closing track is one of Mayhem's first compositions, Pure Fucking Armageddon. In Pure Fucking Armageddon was exactly what the black metal scene was about to unleash onto Norway. To be from Norway in the early 90s and to be truly in the black metal, it meant that you had to be truly evil. The type of evil that went way beyond the B grade horror movie lyrics from Black Sabbath. The type of evil that was much scarier than some long haired skateboarders in baggy shorts and painter's caps listening to anthrax and crushing cans of Meisterbrau on a school night. To be truly black metal meant you had to live for death. You praised Satan not because you really believed in Satan, but because it was so fucking subversive to believe in Satan. You declared war on society and all things moral, particularly Christianity. You listened to and made raw, primitive sounding heavy metal. You had no patience for poser metal bands who didn't take death and destruction seriously. The goal for Norwegian black metalheads was to be truly evil, to completely subvert democratic morality and to banish poser metal bands back to the punk rock ghettos they crawled out of. Euronymous, in the scene he lorded over, had a new charismatic personality. Varg Vikannis, AKA Count Grishnak, the one man engine behind the new exciting black metal band Burzum. Euronymous agreed to release Burzum's records on his Deathlike Silence Productions label. And Varg, through the strength of his Manson esque gaze and the excitement of his fresh new band, quickly ascended to an unofficial leadership role in the fast growing scene that now included a flock of new bands like Dark Throne, Immortal and Enslaved. Varg was committed to the cause as Euronymous and Dead before him. But Varg's commitment infused black metal Satanism with an even more toxic and racist ethnonationalism. Varg believed Christianity had purged Norway of its heritage by casting aside Norse tradition. He took this shit personally. Varg was out for revenge against Christians, Blacks Homosexuals, posers and basically anyone who wasn't a nihilistic blue eyed pagan. Metalhead Euronymous record shop Helvette, which in Norwegian translates to hell, served as a meeting place for himself, Varg and other scenesters, a group that would later be called the Black Circle. But it was outside a morbid angel show in Oslo where plans came together to bring Norway to its knees in fear. Shortly after, graves were found vandalized. The home of Christopher Johnson, frontman for so called poser death metal band Therion, had been set on fire. A note was stuck to his door with a knife. It read, the Count was here and he will come back. A homosexual man was killed randomly stabbed over 30 times and left to bleed out in the woods behind Olympic Park. And then the fire started. The first church to go was the Fantas Stave Church, one of Norway's historical treasures. It made national headlines. Next the Revheim Church, then the Hohmankollen Chapel in Ermoya Church. Satanic symbols started showing up around the sites of the burnings. Norwegians had no idea what was happening. The press covered the artisans breathlessly. And as the coverage expanded, more churches burned. The Black Metal rebellion was on. Norwegian black metal heads were literally carrying a torch for their scene. And black metal was no B grade horror flick. It was full on evil, real evil. A step further than any metal scene had gone before. Band leaders became heads of arson squads continuously trying to outdo one another. More churches burned. The Skold Church, the Haujeto Church, the Assane Church, the Sarpsburg Church. That one took the life of a firefighter. Over 30 churches had been set ablaze. The press blamed an until now unknown, unnamed, unimaginable clan of Satanists. There were after all, satanic symbols discovered at the burn Seeds. And who else would be desecrating graves? But authorities were slow to pounce on the Satanist theory. Some held out hope that all of the fires and the other assorted crimes were all just a big accidental coincidence. Bottom line, nobody had a clue who was behind the terror. Fear was rampant and there was no real boogeyman in sight. Not until January 1993 anyway. That's when Varg Viganist decided he had had enough with the rumors surrounding who was behind the church burnings. The press blindly milling about for a nameless group of Satanists was one thing, but back at Helveti, the Black Circle seemed to be giving Euronymous way too much credit for the church burnings. When Varg knew the real deal, it was he, Varg Vikernes Count Grishnakh, who spearheaded the arson effort. It was he who was putting the black metal scene onto the international map and onto the front page of Kerrang magazine. Varg had had enough. He decided to try to cheekily set the record straight by giving an interview to a daily newspaper. In it, he claimed he knew who burned the churches and who murdered the homosexual man in Lillehammer. It took local police about five minutes to identify Vargas. With his penchant for being photographed with torches, knives, chainmail and long hair. It was easy for them to mark him as a person of interest. And it wasn't long before they were onto the entire scene. And within no time, authorities had found a Burzum flyer promoting the band's new album, aptly titled Ashes. On it there was an image depicting the burning of Van Tuff Stave church. The flyer also had on it Varg's address. For all his high minded, Norse, Viking, neo racist, pseudo intellectual horseshit, the Count sure seemed like a fucking moron. The police showed up at the address on the flyer and found him holed up with enough explosives to blast them all to hell and back. He was taken into custody before he could use them to blow up a cathedral in celebration of Mayhem's next album release. Now that's how you throw a record release party. Remarkably, Varg was released for lack of evidence. He was now the BMOC of black metal. His ego grew. So did his animosity for his friend Hieronymus, whose dabbling in cannibalism notwithstanding, Varg believed Euronymous wasn't truly evil. He thought he was soft and believed he was a closet homosexual. Furthermore, Euronymous didn't share Varg's fascist leanings. Varg was a devoted follower of Stalin and of Hitler's ss. Euronymous, despite his black metal identity, was a socialist who collected government welfare and still took money from his parents to help get by. Further complicating their relationship, Euronymous owed Varg money for unpaid BURSM royalties. Then Varg heard a rumor that Euronymous was planning on killing him. Not just murdering him, but kidnapping him, torturing him, filming the torture, and then killing him on film. The circumstances around dead suicide, the rumors of Hieronymous cannibalism, the church burnings, grave desecrations, rumored death of a homosexual man at the hands of someone in the scene, and the harassment of other people, poser metal bands, all caused Mayhem's reputation to ring out worldwide. But a snuff film showing the torture and murder of one of the scene's biggest stars. That would truly be something. True evil. Let's see. Dave Mustang rub out James Hetfield on film. Megadeth. More like mega pussies. It all made sense to Varg. Euronymous was an insecure egomaniac who felt threatened by Varg's growing rep. And practically Euronymous owed him money. So murdering him was a handy way to erase a debt. Varg was enraged. He wasn't going to let a brown eyed socialist closet homosexual who owed him money get over on him. Euronymous had to be confronted, and fast. When Varg turned up at Euronymous apartment unannounced at three in the morning, it was under the guise of signing his Bursum record contract. This was something that Euronymous, despite the time of night, was very keen on making happen. Bursum was one of his record label's moneymakers. Without a signed contract, there were no royalties to collect. He buzzed Varg in to let him up to his fourth floor apartment. It would prove to be a crucial mistake. Varg wasn't there to sign any papers. He was there to find out what in the fuck was going on and to put an end to this beef one way or another. Euronymous opened the door in his underwear. And when Varg asked him about his plans to murder him, Euronymous attacked. Varg kicked him in the chest. Varg was stunned. He. He grabbed Euronymous and threw him to the floor. Euronymous quickly got to his feet and ran toward the kitchen. Varg assumed to grab a knife or some other sort of weapon. Maybe the shotgun the dead shot himself with. Varg knew Euronymous kept it handy. The count was not afraid. He was determined. He grabbed his own knife and took off after Euronymous, catching up to him before he could find a weapon. And Varg stabbed him. But Euronymous managed to keep moving back toward the door and out of the apartment. He broke down the hallway, screaming for help and ringing as many doorbells as he could along the way. Varg was hot on his trail, close enough to continue stabbing him all the way down the stairwell. Euonymous could do little, but he somehow stayed on his feet. His momentum kept hurtling him down the stairs. His adrenaline. Adrenaline kept the screams for help coming at a piercing volume. The horrific sounds kept the neighbors terrified and paralyzed in their apartments. And Varg's hate kept the stabbings coming. 22 of them, until Euronymous could run no more. His momentum slowed. He staggered to a wobbling standstill for a second or two before falling to his knees, bloodied and gasping for breath, he looked up to face his murderer. His one time friend and comrade in arms, Varg Viknis. Who then took his knife in both of his hands, raised it above his head and silently called upon the great Norse gods of thunder. And with the pure Viking rage that was his lineage, Varg brought the knife down straight into the skull of Euronymous. He died instantly. Varg was arrested nine days later. An informant gave authorities all they needed on Varg for the killing of Euronymous in the church burnings. Another member of the Seed Bard, Fost Ethian, drummer for the black metal band Emperor, admitted to the murder of the homosexual man in Lillehammer's Olympic park. He claimed he just wanted to see what killing a man felt like. He got eight years for killing a man in cold blood for no reason other than that the man was gay. Way to go Norway. Pure evil with little consequence. Varg pled innocent to all the charges and turned his trial into a sideshow that no doubt made Charlie Manson proud. Playing the role of Satanist neo fascist and pagan warlord. If the rebellious shoe fit, Varg wore it in the press. They ate it all up quickly, making Count Grishnak Norway's public enemy number one. Varg Vikennes was convicted for arson for three of the 30 plus church burnings, attempted arson of a fourth, possession of illegal explosives and the murder of Euronymous. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, which unbelievably is the maximum penalty allowed in Norway for murder and arson. Amazing. Pure evil with little consequence. Again, way to go Norway. Norwegian black metal is bigger than ever. Second generation bands like Gorgoroth have taken the genre far beyond the cold, dark Norwegian forest to every corner of the world the horrors carried out by Dead Euronymous. Varg and others from the original black metal scene built a notorious reputation for the genre to attract new generations of followers with Mayhem. Still sells records and still sells out shows. Sure, it's with one original member. And yeah, their shows these days have more in common with the Vegas Review than the Dark of the Black Hearts bootleg. But my point is that despite or possibly because of the band's horrific acts, there was a large and active international audience for Norwegian black metal, a genre of music that was built on a foundation of murder, arson, cannibalism, and what can only be described as the most extreme form of musical rebellion to ever exist. Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page@gracelandpod.com if you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to Disgracelandpod.com Membership members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free. Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgraceandpod.com membership for details, rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at Disgraceland pod and on YouTube at YouTube. Com @gracelandpod Rocka Rolla He's a bad, bad man.
Host: Jake Brennan (Double Elvis Productions)
Original Air Date: October 17, 2025
This episode of DISGRACELAND dives deep into the infamous origins of the Norwegian black metal scene—a subculture that fused extreme music with real-life chaos. Host Jake Brennan dissects the emergence of Mayhem, Burzum, and their dramatically violent and nihilistic offshoots. The story lays bare church burnings, murder, suicide, cannibalism, and the warped brotherhood that spun out of control in early 1990s Norway. Blurring the lines between theatrical rebellion and genuine evil, Jake follows the movement from its musical roots to its grisly apex, revealing the personal darkness that fueled its principal players.
“Norway is kind of like Europe’s answer to an American flyover state… if you’re a Norwegian teenager, you’re probably bored. And even worse than that, you’re probably bored without a whole lot to rebel against.” (Jake Brennan, 06:06)
“He wanted the smell of death in his nostrils when he performed on stage.” (Jake Brennan, 15:20)
“He then began collecting bits of his friend's skull and brain… the shards from the skull would make for great necklaces…” (Jake Brennan, 17:51)
“For all his high-minded, Norse, Viking, neo-racist, pseudo-intellectual horseshit, the Count sure seemed like a fucking moron.” (Jake Brennan, 27:24)
“Varg stabbed him... 22 of them, until Euronymous could run no more. His momentum slowed. He staggered to a wobbling standstill... before falling to his knees, bloodied and gasping for breath. He looked up to face his murderer, his one time friend and comrade in arms, Varg Vikernes.” (Jake Brennan, 32:48)
“A genre of music built on a foundation of murder, arson, cannibalism, and what can only be described as the most extreme form of musical rebellion to ever exist.” (Jake Brennan, 36:08)
“What I’m trying to say is that if you’re a Norwegian teenager, you’re probably bored. And even worse than that, you're probably bored without a whole lot to rebel against.” (06:06)
“He claimed he’d wanted to die ever since he was three years old... He believed that his blood had frozen in his veins and that he was a non-human and didn’t belong on earth.” (15:46)
“To be truly black metal meant you had to live for death. You praised Satan not because you really believed in Satan, but because it was so fucking subversive to believe in Satan.” (21:55)
“For all his high-minded, Norse, Viking, neo-racist, pseudo-intellectual horseshit, the Count sure seemed like a fucking moron.” (27:24)
“His adrenaline kept the screams for help coming at a piercing volume. The horrific sounds kept the neighbors terrified and paralyzed... And Varg’s hate kept the stabbings coming. 22 of them, until Euronymous could run no more.” (32:48)
“Despite, or possibly because of the band’s horrific acts, there’s a large and active international audience for Norwegian black metal—a genre of music built on a foundation of murder, arson, cannibalism, and what can only be described as the most extreme form of musical rebellion to ever exist.” (36:08)
Jake Brennan’s narration turns the chaos of Norwegian black metal into a chilling, fact-infused thrill ride, drawing direct lines from musical rebellion to true crime. The episode peels past the sensational headlines, giving weight to the real-life violence while never downplaying the undeniable influence and allure of the music and its mythology. As he concludes, Brennan sets Norwegian black metal apart as a genre forever haunted—and promoted—by the horrors at its roots.