On April 8, 1991, in a cabin in Norway, Per Yngve Ohlin, known as Deadhe shot in the head after opening his veins. He was the vocalist of the Mayhem Black Metal Band. Before doing so, he left a suicide note that said: Sorry for the blood. When Øystein Aerseth, aka Euronymousfounder of the band, found the body, the first thing he did was to buy a camera. He did not call the police until after capturing the scene in images, one of which would end on the cover of the pirate album Dawn of the Black Heartswhich would be published in 1995. Years later, Euronymous himself would be killed by Varg Vikernes, bassist of the band, with 23 stabs, the last one in the skull; In his trial he claimed to have killed him in self -defense, but Vikernes also obtained the longest sentence in the history of Norway – then.
Mayhem took the Black Metal beyond music and made it a story of violence, sectarianism and cult. The burning of Churches, the devotion to death and hate to society turned those adolescents into icons of a scene that proclaimed himself an enemy of everything. From Murcia, the illustrator Magius has collected this story in Black Metal, His last work. Posted by Autsider Comicsthe work reconstructs with disturbing stroke those years in which the genre ceased to be only music to become a chronicle of events. And he does it with a brilliant narrative decision: portraying its protagonists as children.
Magius, a pseudonym of Diego Corbalán, is one of the most unique illustrators of the Spanish comic. His work has been characterized by exploring power, violence and hidden structures that govern society, from political corruption in Spring for Madrid – National Comic Presence 2021– until the criminal networks in The Gemini method. With a style that refers and a narrative that balances satire with documentary crudeness, the Murcia has turned each of his work into a dissection of the mechanisms of fanaticism. Now, in Black Metalmoves his gaze to the extreme scene of the 90 and a generation that confused transgression with destruction.
In Spring for Madrid You used a graphic style very marked by the aesthetics of the old engraving. In Black Metal You keep that tone in the funds, but the characters have a more childish design. How did you decide this approach change?
Years ago I made a fanzine on Black Metal and [ahora] I wanted to make a story especially these events in Norway, the burning of Churches and such. And I wanted to draw it very detailed, but I had been, so it occurred to me to make them children to parody them a little. As in real history they are young between 17 and 20 years old, but they also do absurd and very violent things, I thought that drawing them as children would be funnier and give him a touch of black humor, right? That also suits many things, as a relationship between father and son, for example.
Your interest in occultism and secret societies was already present in other works, but in Black Metal You have focused on satanic iconography.
Black Metal is closely related to the aesthetics of classical Satanism. What happens, of course, is that the Church of Satan, which is a kind of sect that speaks that Satanism is something liberating for the human being; That is an atheist Satanism, in which Satan is really symbolic … and Euronymous and these people were against that.
They wanted a really demon; A demon they imagined [como en la cosmogonía cristiana] With horns and tail, who lives in hell and is evil. And although they were young and can say many nonsense, black metal began to take as a way of wanting to repeat their Viking past, of claiming paganism. Norway was one of the last countries to become Christianity and they did not see him as his true religion. In fact, there are many references to paganism [al hielo, a los bosques y a la naturaleza]at least in Norway. In other places, such as Greece, they allude to a more refined Satanism, more focused on black magic, the entire movement of golden dawn … or also return to Greek paganism.
Seen what has been seen, do you no longer become metalmers like those before? Did this transgressive component lose the Black Metal?
The Black Metal began as a subject of esotericism, of going against the provisions of the Church and by many thoughts that have always presented themselves as antihumans. Antihuman and nihilists. All that. So, really, in itself, Black Metal has no ideals. No? It’s like worshiping a demon with horns and tail. That is not ideal.
Then, of course … these groups have grown up and some have tried to be bad [más allá de la propia pose]like Burzum’s, for example, and they have gone to the extreme right, and at that point they have already been lost. They can continue to play Black Metal, but in themselves, they have ceased to be metal growers because they go against their ideals; against the ideals of nihilism.
And, speaking of nihilism, does not give you a bad vibes talk about churches on fire now that the Christian lawyers are hunting?
There are already people saying that with the mosques I dare; That the day I get with Muhammad I will be consistent. I put a photo of Varg Vikernes and told him that he would agree. To the last national award [de Cómic]Bea Lemas, have sued her because in one of her comics, instead of a consecrated host they give an aspirin.
Look those who set up those of getting heard.
Those are related to the anvil, which is another sect.
Does it have the same significance for a Norwegian as for us to burn a church? Here almost they sell it as a Casus Belli for the civil war.
I think so, simply that the churches burn easier because they are made of wood and at that time they were not monitored.
The book Lords of Chaos It is a fundamental reference for any interested in this story, but it is quite sensationalist. How have you documented to Black Metal?
More than 20 years ago I got several sources of documentation. I asked for the book in libraries and was nowhere because there was only the English edition. I didn’t know English, but I started translating it as I could. Lords of Chaos It is sold as a book on Black Metal, but half is about things that are not related to the Norwegian scene.
It is a rather yellow book because it hardly talks about music. Instead, it focuses on anecdotes, interviews with theologians and reflections that move away from the main theme. The essential is fine, because it is based on real events, with interviews and press cuts in the appendices. But today there is much more documentation, including documentaries where, for example, Dead’s brother talks about what he has lived to see images of his dead brother on the Internet. When I started to make fanzines there was not so much information, only a specialized magazine. Then, Lords of Chaos It served to enter the subject, but did not contribute much beyond the basics.
And having, as we have, both rugged regional product, as the Katana murderer, have you considered doing something set here?
In Fanzines not only talked about the Norwegians, he also took bands from other countries: Germany, France, Poland, some group of South America … I also made a story set in Barcelona, because in the 90s there was a black metal scene there Blackcelona. I published a fanzine about that, telling a story in which one night there was a fight, then one disappeared and nobody knew if he was dead or if he had gone through the Pyrenees. So, I could do something set here. In fact, one of the first comics that I took out was about the Katana murderer, because it had happened recently, a couple of years before.
Speaking of Murcia, how is the scene here?
The Murcia Metal scene is quite active. Years ago there were many festivals organized by different groups, and now there is another group that works between Alicante and Murcia. There is also a club called executors. A lot of underground metal concerts are organized and there is a lot of movement. But, compared to Norway, I would always have liked that there were more Black Metal groups. In Murcia there have been very few. It is true that the world of classic metal, especially heavy metal, tends to be repeated. The current bands do exactly the same thing that was done in 1984, without evolving. In that sense, they also have their share of guilt for not getting out of their niche.
This nihilistic vision is a collateral effect of the Enlightenment, and now we enter a period that start calling dark illustration, what do you think about it?
I think that [el reaccionarismo] It comes for a boredom issue that others come who do not think like you to give you lessons about things you do not understand; And that, in addition, those lessons are imposed. If on top, who tells you is someone who falls badly, that you do not like or who is not part of your world or your way of seeing the world, the reaction is why would you have to tolerate it? I guess it’s something like that; [Y el fanatismo que provoca] It makes it exactly the same if Abascal or the other have stolen, or have charged a beach bar; It doesn’t matter, because [sus fanáticos] They perceive them as an opportunity to load everything else.
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