Many know that Varg Vikernes' solo project, Burzum, was for a long time signed to his friend/rival Euronymous' record label Deathlike Silence Productions (ex-Posercorpse). Many also know that Burzum was DSP's top earner, and literally the only band that was keeping the record label afloat: Enslaved's debut tanked, Mayhem hadn't released De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas yet, and Arcturus were too busy messing around in the studio instead of recording a proper album (they still haven't, to this day). That left only Burzum record sales to "pay the bills" so to speak.
However, Euronymous had a bad habit of not paying his artists. He owed a lot of money to Vikernes and, in April 1993, the Burzum frontman threatened to "go big" - i.e. sign with a major record label, much like Darkthrone had done with Peaceville years prior.
The rumours of Euronymous trying to "scam" artists aren't just made up either: Occultus, once a Mayhem vocalist, left the band after Euronymous failed to pay him for the Blasphemy vinyls he imported - at his own cost - and Euronymous sold at his shop Helvete. Euronymous would spend the rest of his life sending death threats to Occultus for "betraying the scene" when in fact, Occultus leaving Mayhem had everything to do with Oystein scamming him of his money.
I recommend you read this entire breakdown of the enmity that existed not just between Varg and Euronymous, but also between the Euronymous faction and the "original" members of Mayhem (Necrobutcher, Manheim, Dead's relatives, etc...). Mostly it has to do with the pictures of Dead's corpse, but there is more.
Nowadays, Varg Vikernes is mostly known for making funny videos and getting into feuds with influencers like Andrew Tate or rappers like 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) on X/Twitter, but at the time, Burzum was the single most potent force in black metal... and still is to this day.
Burzum and Earache Records
We all heard some rumours that Varg was approached by Earache Records in 1993. Are they true? Here is an interview with Digby, director of Earache, taken straight from the book "Racist Metal" by Antoine G. (not in its entirety, but long enough that you get the point). The book attempts to document the rise of fascism in extreme metal music, and has entire chapters centered around NSBM (with bands like Peste Noire, Graveland, Tsjuder, Behemoth and Immortal often mentioned).
Digby: Yeah, once again, it's true. Burzum was about to sign with Earache in 1993, soon after the debut 'Aske' was released on Euronymous' label 'Deathlike Silence'. But after spending two full days with Varg, I backed out of the deal at the last minute.Here's why:
Norwegian Black Metal was in its infancy and consisted of a handful of extreme bands and extreme personalities and musicians. Though it was such a small scene, it was already making shockwaves in the much larger worldwide Death Metal scene, which Earache played a part in. I was set on signing Burzum as I could tell from afar that Varg was a charismatic character, and we assumed he would do well, both as a musician and as a scene personality.
At the same time, UK's Kerrang! magazine unexpectedly ran a front cover story on the church burnings and all the general mayhem [t.n. yes, lowercase, don't know if pun intended?] and insane stuff going on in Norway. So we had to act fast to sign him - I paid for Varg to fly to the UK the very next week for a meeting with Earache to conclude the signing arrangements, and it proved to be his only visit to these shores ever, I believe.
So, in April 1993, Varg flew into Manchester airport. We had arranged a car to bring him to Nottingham, whereupon we (Varg, wearing his chain mail armor, myself, and Al Dawson, UK label manager) sat down for our business meeting at the local Nottingham pizza house "Bella Pasta" (it's still there) and discussed the signing of Burzum to Earache.
Varg impressed us during the meeting with his razor-sharp intellect. He talked at great length about a number of wide-ranging topics, [...], and for no particular reason, he began to air many of his racist viewpoints to us, which was really ridiculous as Earache has traditionally promoted bands like Napalm Death who stand staunchly against racism (as any sensible person would, naturally!!!).
Varg stayed over at my house, where we played the demos for Burzum albums 2, 3, and 4 (that's what you call planning ahead!) before he caught the flight back to Norway. But I was already getting cold feet over the signing because such right-wing views are just not compatible with the label's standpoint. On his return, Earache backed out of the deal and broke off all contact; Varg didn't seem too phased.
The part on Napalm Death making threats "behind the scenes" to deplatform artists they don't like is entirely consistent with the stories told by Marduk (and Horna, and Emperor, and others). You can read in their own words why Napalm Death (the interviewed) thinks deplatforming "enemy" bands is such a good thing.
More on the Planned Burzum Signing
The aforementioned Al Dawson, the UK label manager, was also asked more details and how it went down with Varg. Here is his direct answer, perhaps a bit more nuanced than above, but with a twist at the end.
Al Dawson: Yes, it is very true we were interested in signing Burzum back in 1992/93.I was talking directly with Varg for some time - this was long before the days of email - I got his phone number from my Australian friend who was the editor of Kerrang magazine at the time. I even spoke to his brother a few times.
I thought what he was doing musically was like no other metal music at the time and was a big fan. He had such a vision for Burzum that he already had the next two albums planned out and even sent me cassettes of either the finished songs or near to perfect finished songs for these albums.
We decided that we would like to get to know him better, so we offered him to fly from Norway to Nottingham to meet us. There were no direct flights from Norway to Nottingham, so we flew him into Birmingham International Airport with a car service to pick him up and drive him the 1-hour drive to Nottingham (where the head office is based).
This was many years before 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, but at this time you still had to walk through metal detectors to get on the plane. You can imagine my surprise when the car service pulled up in front of the office and Varg got out wearing full Viking chain mail! This guy is the REAL DEAL!
Digby (the owner of Earache) and I took him to the local pizza place for lunch. We had a very good lunch with him, maybe 3-4 hours, and we saw that he was a very serious artist who took his work to heart. We had deliberated a lot about signing someone so controversial but figured as fans of his music that was ultimately the most important thing - you understand?
We walked back into the office after lunch and one of the staff, who had always been a fun-loving and not very serious guy, stood up and announced, "If you guys sign neo nazi right-wings, then I am quitting." We were like, "Wow, what the fuck?"
Later that week, we were in London and some metal music writers were also not happy as they had heard the rumor we were in talks with Varg. (When the black metal mafia first came on the scene, they rumoredly had a "hit list" of people to attack - some being Kerrang writers who actually went into hiding to avoid getting attacked.)
At this point, we figured that it might be too much to handle, that PLUS some of the stories Varg told us in our lunch meeting - I thought he would be in prison within 6 months!
Oddly prescient, is it not? These events happened in late April 1993, and by August 1993 (approx four months later), Euronymous was removed from the black metal scene by none other than Count Grisnackh aka Varg Vikernes... who was promptly arrested, which his accomplice Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch (and not Fenriz, as Jon Nödtveidt stupidly thought).
When Necrolord first met Varg Vikernes
As a final bonus for my readers, I dug up this old interview / snippet of Necrolord. You have know him as the man behind all those black metal logos (Mayhem, Immortal, Enslaved) and even some album covers (In the Nightside Eclipse). Here is his first encounter with Varg Vikernes, in his own words.
Necrolord: First time I saw Vikernes, he just drove me and some mutual friends to the place we were going to. We didn't speak then... But soon after, we met again, and thats the first time we spoke... 17th of May is the National Day of Norway, so the 16th of May "everyone" goes out and gets drunk.... As did we. And at this small party I met Vikernes. I remember he was wearing a brown leatherjacket, where the inside of the pockets were so worn that it was really just big holes into the fabric of the jacket. This worked as one huge pocket going from one side around the back to the other. The reason why I am telling you that is that first time we met, I was amazed over how much stuff Vikernes could pull out of his pocket... Sodas (he didn't drink then neither of course), knives, flashlights, ammunitions and yoghurts, etc... - He seemed to have the world in there. Dull I know... Nothing dramatic. Then we started hanging out.
It's certainly an interesting story. Would Euronymous have willingly made death threats to someone he knew when around carrying an entire military apparatus in his pockets? According to Necrobutcher and Hellhammer at least, yes, he would have done so anyway. But I hope this post answered some of the questions around how Burzum, the most underground of underground bands, ended up in contact with more mainstream labels.
PS: Yes, of course the title is a Nargaroth reference... it's a bit of an inside joke. You have to be "in" on it.
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