In the history of Swedish black metal, there are a few names that stand out for their contributions to the scene. Demonecromancy, Morbid, Marduk, and of course Bathory.
Then again, there are also those bands that stand out for all the wrong reasons... Antekhrist, Dissection, Watain, Dark Funeral, Abruptum, and the rest of the posercore crowd.
In this post, we will be talking about Dissection, and particularly the band's charismatic frontman Jon Nödtveidt, and his relationship with other members of the black metal scene - including Euronymous himself, and the rest of the Norwegian black metal scene (Darkthrone, Burzum, Neraines, Mayhem, etc...).
Jon Nödtveidt, the frontman of Dissection, had a very tormented life. After going to prison for the killing of a homosexual immigrant in 1997, he would later reform Dissection to release their third and final album "Reinkaos", which was horribly received by metal fans - it was closer to Alice Cooper and the glam metal of the 80s than the "anti-cosmic terror" than Nödtveidt had spent year hyping. Jon eventually ended up committing suicide in 2008, thus ending the band Dissection.
"They all believed Fenriz had killed Euronymous with Varg..."
In a 1994 interview with Metal Zone, a zine to which he would occasionally contribute himself (as "guest of honour" no less), Jon Nödtveidt explains why he dedicated his debut album "The Somberlain" to Euronymous.
Jon Nödtveidt: There are a lot of reasons why [we dedicated this album to Euronymous]. First of all, we knew him well and wanted to celebrate everything Mayhem stood for. The darkness, the evil, the killings. They have fought for evil, and we should not give up the fight.
Jon Nödtveidt would later be arrested himself for the murder of a homosexual immigrant, the Algerian national Joseph Ben Meddour, in 1997.
"Many people used to believe that Fenriz was Varg's accomplice..."
This ties in nicely to the next part of the article, about Jon Nödtveidt's relation with Euronymous, Varg and... Fenriz.
In the book "Real Satanic Black Metal", author and blogger Jon "Metalious" Kristiansen explains why he believe so many members of the Swedish black metal scene, led by Nödtveidt, had a problem with Darkthrone and Fenriz in the 90s.
Metalious: Many people used to believe that Fenriz was Varg's accomplice in killing Euronymous. Jon [Nödtveidt] was one of them.
It turned out, much later, that it was in fact Snorre "Thorns" Ruch that had accompanied Varg Vikernes to Euronymous' Oslo apartment, but had not participated in any way whatsoever in the killing.
Nödtveidt also routinely made death threats to Varg and Fenriz, according to Metalious.
Metalious: On the second page of this issue's Dissection interview, there's a little handwritten note signed 'Dark Shadow'. This was a message from Jon Nödtveidt [of Dissection] to Varg [Vikernes, of Burzum] and 'Hank Amarillo', a name Fenriz [of Darkthrone] had used. It read: 'Be forewarned if the light takes you.' [...] and you could say it's almost like a death threat. He and I came up with that together. I didn't really have anything bad to say about Fenriz, but Jon and other people in Sweden were very unhappy with him. They would constantly send death threats.
Metalious justifies this by saying that the death of Euronymous affected "everyone involved" in the "small" Scandinavian metal world.
Metalious:The grief and anger affected everyone involved in the small Scandinavian metal world at the time. For instance, my first interview with Nifelheim is in this issue, contributed by a person called Dark Shadow, aka Jon Nödtveidt from Dissection. In late 1993, the Nifelheim twins Erik and Per Gustavsson, It from Abruptum, Mouloude from Antekhrist, and Jon Nödtveidt all came from Sweden to visit me at my old place in Sarpsborg. They were all upset with Fenriz of Darkthrone, because, to them, it looked like Fenriz approved of [Varg Vikernes killing Euronymous in 1993].
Another interesting point is that Kristiansen/Metalious and Euronymous were not in good terms, due to an incident where Euronymous disrespected the former's disabled brother Magnus Kristiansen (R.I.P.).
Thorns: At this point he goes "where's Jon [Kristiansen, aka Metalious], huh?" and the guy doesn't know. He was drawing flower pictures. [...] When we came back in, he was still drawing on vinyls with a marker pen. [Euronymous] obviously found that disrespectful, so he grabbed a broomstick and locked it in his wheelchair. He couldn't reach down and get the broom out, much less call for help, leaving him stuck at the soundboard. "I said where's Jon, we need to talk!". [Magnus Kristiansen] can barely speak as he is shaking so much. Euronymous then says "you better f[-]cking call him then!" and starts covering his drawings with [offensive signs].
This has led many to speculate whose "side" Jon Kristiansen is really on. The frontman of Enslaved, Ivar Bjornson, gives a much more relatable insight in which there were no "sides" at the time, and everyone was just "shocked" about the killings, the same way they had been by Dead's suicide.
It should also be noted that while Jon Nödtveidt has passed away in 2008, his younger brother Emil Nödtveidt is still active (though in the nu-metal scene, so we won't talk about those bands... Rammstein, etc). This just goes to show that the early Scandinavian black metal scene was a complicated place, with various factions who weren't always on good terms with each other.
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