varg vikernes review torstein grude satan rir media satan rides the media.odt
TRANSCRIPT
An attempt at a review of Torstein Grude's "Satan Rir Media" (Satan Rides The Media)
Satan Rir Media
Norwegian VersionSatan Rides The Media
English Version
Director: Torstein Grude
Release year: 1998
Company: Subfilm in co-production with TV2
Format: VHS/NTSC
Recorded in: 1991 - 1998
Total Playing Time: 52 minutes In early 1999 a TV channel in Norway
broadcasted a documentary by Torstein Grude. It was called "Satan
Rir Media", and to my knowledge his purpose for this documentary
was to show that the media had created a satanic subculture in
Norway, and abroad for that sake, based mostly on fiction and
nonsense.
Like always my reviews are flawed in some way, and this time the
problem is that I saw this documentary one single time, when it was
on TV, in early 1999. I tried to see it a second time in 2003 when
on a leave in Oslo, together with a Russian friend who wanted to
see it, but the tape was broken. So this review is based solely on
what I remember...
The documentary was rather spectacular, in the sense that it
unveiled that a journalist had actually gone to the police and
snitched on an interviewee (me), who was pulling his leg in the
first place. When the police arrested me the next day the
journalist edited the interview and the newspaper he was working
for, "Bergens Tidende" (Bergen News) published an insane version of
it the following day, without even letting me read through it. In
addition to that he told everybody he had read it to me on the
phone and that I had "confirmed the contents", which was not true.
He then told his version of things to the other journalists in
Norway, when I was in prison without the ability to correct him,
and in that sense he single-handedly created the notion of a
Satanic movement in Norway on false pretence. This scared a lot of
ordinary people, naturally, and of course caused a lot of
unnecessary fear. Children and other weak souls had problems
sleeping in the night and unruly kids were even threatened by their
parents that if they didn't behave they would end up in prison with
that horrible "Count" (and ironically I have met many of them in
prison later on, when they - as expected - grew up to become
criminals. Obviously the threats didn't work...).
The main problem was that the journalist's interview was bullshit
and his version of reality was false, but when this documentary was
broadcasted on TV, disclosing him as a fraud and a police informer,
then suddenly nobody in the media followed up the story. The
bullshit story was interesting to them, but not the truth. It was
broadcasted on TV one single time, no reruns, and it wasn't
mentioned by the press at all. They just pretended it had never
been shown on TV. It was uncomfortable to them, because he had
fooled them with his lies, and they didn't want to admit that to
the public. In fact it was a bit surprising they showed the film on
TV in the first place, but I guess they had to in order not to lose
money (the TV channel had after all already paid for it, and money
is all that matters to these parasites anyhow).
Officially nothing happened to the journalist either, but sources
working in the newspaper have told that they discussed whether to
sack him or not, but instead gave him some unimportant job in the
same newspaper. From being their hotshot crime reporter he ended up
writing about local "cultural" events. His career as a crime
reporter was over. His motives for lying about all of this seems to
have been the fact that he was a fanatic Christian, who saw people
like me (heretics) as "Satanists".
I can add that Torstein Grude did an excellent job investigating
the so-called satanic milieu in Norway. He interviewed a lot of
people, and concluded that there was no satanic movement in Norway
at all, but what emerged after the media-lies was a subculture
consisting of rebellious teenagers who liked metal music and
flirted with satanic symbolism to provoke the establishment. Also,
as a direct result of the media coverage about 40 churches in
Norway had been kindled from 1993 to 1998, mostly by teenagers who
had been inspired to do so because of the thoughtless media
coverage of the so-called "Satanist Case" (the persecution of
"Faust" and "Samoth" of Emperor, Tunsberg of Hades, the [in 2004]
drummer of Immortal, a Greek church burning Black Metal fan in Oslo
and me).
He concluded with more than an ounce of malice that the journalist
in question and the media were pretty much responsible for the fast
growth of this subculture. They insisted on presenting us all as
"Satanists", even though none of us were, and in the process
created a subculture that, as You know, promoted very unchristian
ideas to a lot of people. So in a sense, "Satan" benefited from all
of this... hence the title "Satan Rides The Media". Also, I was
made a local celebrity that had the power to influence so-called
impressionable youth with my heresy. With his ignorance he handed
me (a villain in his eyes) a powerful tool. This tool is of course
a mixed blessing, so to speak, but still.
Torstein Grude was no an expert in this field. He didn't claim to
be an expert either, like many do. Like I said, he interviewed a
lot of Black Metal people and got to know this milieu pretty well,
and being a "malicious bastard", I just have to mention that he
also talked to the Norwegian co-writer of "Lords Of Chaos", and
concluded that this guy had no clue whatsoever, so he didn't bother
to interview him and include him in the film.
There are some conclusions and assertions in this film that I
disagreed with and some things are outright wrong, but all in all
Torstein Grude did a good job and as far as I remember this
documentary is rather good. He is indeed far more knowledgeable and
trustworthy than everybody else that has tried to unveil the
secrets of this milieu, not least compared to self-proclaimed
experts on the subject, like the useless writers of "Lords Of
Chaos", "Djevelen Danser" and "Lucifer Rising". He had to keep in
mind that this film had to be accepted by TV, though, so perhaps he
was more critical towards some of the people involved than he
really wanted to, but I have to stress that this is just
speculations. I don't know any of this for sure, I just choose to
believe so because he is a professional and a clever person. He
knew what he had to do to get it on the air. Varg "The Bugbear"
Vikernes
Trondheim, Norway
The 16th of November 2004
Fama crescit eundo!
(The rumour grows as it goes)