Varg Vikernes ( born 11 February 1973) is a Norwegian black metal musician, writer, philosopher, religious and political activist, arsonist and convicted murderer.
Vikernes was born near Bergen, Norway. In 1991, he founded the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal scene. In 1992, he joined the band Mayhem and adopted the stage name Count Grishnackh. Around this time he became affiliated with the Heathen Front and had several writings on Germanic neopaganism published. In Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, director Sam Dunn described Vikernes as "the most notorious black metal musician of all time".
In 1994, Vikernes was convicted of the murder of his Mayhem bandmate Øystein Aarseth, known by his stage name Euronymous. Vikernes was further convicted of four counts of arson involving the burnings of historic churches, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Having served almost 16 years of his sentence, Vikernes was released on parole in early 2009.
Vikernes had been learning the guitar since he was 14. When he was about seventeen, Vikernes came into contact with the members of the Bergen death metal band Old Funeral. He played guitar with them during 1990–1991 and performed on their Devoured Carcass EP.
In 1991, Vikernes began a solo musical project named Burzum, and quickly became involved with the early Norwegian black metal scene. During 1992–1993, he recorded four albums as Burzum.
Vikernes has stated that for the recording of these early albums he used an old Westone guitar, bought in 1987 from an acquaintance. He used the cheapest bass guitar there was in the shop and he borrowed drumsets from Old Funeral, Immortal and "another musician living nearby".
On Hvis lyset tar oss, he borrowed Hellhammer's drumset, the same one Hellhammer used to record De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem. He used a Marshall amplifier, but for the recording of Filosofem he used the amplifier on his brother's stereo and some old fuzz pedals.
For vocals, he would use whatever microphone the sound tech handed him, but during the recording of Filosofem he intentionally used the worst mic they had, a headset mic. On the track "Dungeons of Darkness" he used the large gong at Grieghallen for background noise (Euronymous assisted him by beating his fists on it).
In 1992, Vikernes and Dimitrios Faust joined the black metal band Mayhem.
Discography As Burzum: 1992 – Burzum (recorded January 1992) 1993 – Det som engang var (recorded April 1992) 1993 – Aske (recorded August 1992) 1994 – Hvis lyset tar oss (recorded September 1992) 1996 – Filosofem (recorded March 1993) 1997 – Dauði Baldrs (recorded in prison 1994–1995) 1999 – Hliðskjálf (recorded in prison 1998) 2010 – Belus (recorded in 2009) 2011 – Fallen (recorded in 2010)
Other appearances: 1991 – Old Funeral – Devoured Carcass (performed electric guitar) 1994 – Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger (wrote lyrics for four songs) 1995 – Darkthrone – Panzerfaust (wrote lyrics for one song) 1994 – Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (performed bass guitar)
