“The ancient Greek philosophers were blonde and blue-eyed and, even then, talked about how their race was mixed with others and how this affected their society negatively. When there were no more natural blondes and no more blue eyes in Greece, they incidentally stopped producing great philosophers.”
“Innovation, creativity, and lunacy goes hand in hand.”
“Until I was around 12 or 13, I only listened to classical music, mostly Tchaikovsky. But around that age, I started listening to Iron Maiden, and that’s when I purchased my first guitar, a pearl-white Westone.”
“I am not a philosopher, only frustrated by the development of the world we live in – and too stupid to keep my mouth shut when I see injustice.”
“If the so called ‘democratic’ individuals out there really believe in their talk about diversity, they should let those with truly different opinions be allowed to talk freely in public, too.”
“Globalization is very destructive to our species.”
“I wear clothes reflecting the color of my soul!”
“I believe in blood, soil, and honour; family, homeland, and hamingja; strength, traditions, and courage.”
“Astrology is interesting but not very accurate. It’s a science I don’t trust very much.”
“As I respect others, I want others to respect me.”
“Hate is irrational. I am a rational person.”
“If people knew that Burzum was just the band of some teenager, that would sort of ruin the magic, and for that reason, I felt that I needed to be anonymous. So I used a pseudonym, Count Grishnackh, and on the debut album, I used a photo of me that didn’t look like me at all to make Burzum itself seem more out-of-this world and to confuse people.”
“That Hollywood ‘LotR’ movie really sucked, and was a true turn-off. That’s what Hollywood always does, even to good stories.”
“Life is best when lived your way and not as a negation of what you don’t like.”
“Music inspires contemplation, dreams, and the imagination.”
“I only want to make music I like and that I can enjoy myself and be proud of.”
“I really don’t want to be associated with the low-brow Black Metal genre. If you want to know what I mean when I say that, just have a look at an Immortal video on YouTube or something. It’s so dumb I don’t know what to say, really, and it’s so ridiculous, we can barely tell the difference between the real stuff and the parodies.”
“To be honest, I would probably rather spend, like, a month in prison than spend a month rehearsing with some musicians, metalheads. I pick prison over that, really. And I say that knowing well what prison is like, so don’t get me wrong here. Prison sucks big time.”
“If you want to change the world – I do – you have to start with yourself.”
“Burzum is not a political or religious band, or even an anti-religious band. Burzum is music – art if you like – and the interpretation of art lies in the eye of the beholder.”
“My main problem with Norwegian Black Metal is that almost all the bands from 1992-1993 are made up of rats, who ratted each other out and blamed me for everything that went wrong in the scene. I really don’t want to be associated with them in any way.”
“You should never trust anything reported by the media. Their first priority is to spread propaganda; their second priority is to make money. They never really care if they tell the truth or not.”
“I am no friend of the modern so-called ‘black metal’ culture. It is a tasteless, lowbrow parody of Norwegian black metal circa 1991-92, and if it was up to me, it would meet its dishonorable end as soon as possible.”
“My biggest inspiration was always early Iron Maiden, because it was the only band I knew for some time, and, as we all know, Iron Maiden is great.”
“I am sorry, but recording an album is just hard work; tedious, repetitive, and not very fun at all. Mixing is a bit better, but still pretty boring.”
“I think the growing disregard for the environment, culture, and heritage is a natural consequence of capitalism.”
“To live like we are supposed to, we need to listen to our blood, so to speak. Our paganism is in our blood, and to be able to create a positive and meaningful civilization in the future, on the ruins of the ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ we live in today, we need to live in accordance with our blood.”
“I wrote, exercised, ate healthy, and responded to life in prison very well.”
“I am not a vegetarian. For some time, I tried to be a semi-vegetarian, eating only fish, birds, and no red meat, but… I don’t know if I have an opinion on vegetarianism.”
“This might disappoint you somewhat, but I have to say my interest in Tolkien has faded dramatically over the years. His language skills are amazing, his story good and fascinating, but… he has a very Judeo-Christian perspective, and his use of mythical creatures is very… ignorant.”
“I am not concerned about my posthumous fame. Monuments are no good to the dead.”
“It probably would be impossible for me to make music and not make it sound like Burzum. This is the music I make and the only music I am able to make, so I have no other options musically.”
“Actually, I have never been a great fan of martial arts competitions. Not even when I was training martial arts myself.”
“I make music, and if anyone wants to dislike it because of my logo, or lack thereof, then fine by me.”
“I think metal fans are more loyal than other fans, and they are often more inclined to collect the albums of their favorite bands.”
“I wore a ‘Black Metal’ Venom T-shirt once, in January 1993, to promote black metal, and I regret having done that ever since.”
“Burzum is the reflections of my personality. It’s my dreams and desires.”
“If you work for Christianity in any way, you work for the Jews. Plain and simple.”
“Burzum was never my choice of life. I didn’t even want to become a musician.”
“Hellhammer is the best drummer ever, and Euronymous is a musical genius.”
“I have learned from my mistakes and become older.”
“Now I just want to be together with my family.”
“Musically, ‘Fallen’ is a cross between ‘Belus’ and something new, inspired more by the debut album and ‘Det Som Engang Var’ than by ‘Hvis Lyset Tar Oss’ or ‘Filosofem.’”
“I can confirm that I have been released from prison.”
“My mind has never been in prison; I think all the time about what I should do on the day that I am released.”
“I have barely seen my son since he came into the world. Even though I hear his voice on the phone almost every day, it is very tough to not be present while he is growing up.”
“I look forward the day that I could work on my farm, create music, write books, and be with the wife and kids around the clock – and live a normal life.”
“I am not the ‘Count’ that has been portrayed in the media.”
“It is not possible to know how to behave in threatening situations before you even end up in such a situation.”
“I don’t like to play live. And if I don’t like to do it, why should I?”
“I never do anything to make money. I do make money, but that’s because I do something. Big difference.”
“I’ve been offered, I think it was ã300,000 to play live two concerts in London some years ago. And I said ‘No. No thanks.’ I would rather stay home here and change oil on my car, or collect some rotten wood from the forest, spread on my ruined former agricultural land.”
“Everything is always about people trying to make profit: Profits to this, profits to that, the more the merrier, and there’s no end to it.”
“The prison system in Norway is fairly civilized, by world standards, and so are the prisoners and the guards.”
“I must say it was not very inspiring to see that tons of new bands emerged from nowhere and started to play the exact same music as I did. Why would I want to play this type of music, when tons of other bands did, too?”
“Venom was a joke in the ’80s, their heavy metal music sucked big time, and I really have no interest in them – not then, not now.”
“I just make music. If you don’t like it, you don’t need to buy or listen to it.”
“If I can, I will make an album each year, but time shall tell if this works out. I have other things to do in my life as well.”
“Life treats me very well, as has always been the case, no matter where I have been.”
“Burzum was never formed, as Burzum is no group, only Count Grishnackh of many colors.”
“If I had something to say about my lyrics, I would say they were about different subjects concerning the darkness and the night.”
“After twelve years in prison, I think I have listened to the radio maybe 30-40 times in all, and only when I have been without even a TV.”
“The spirit of Burzum never changed, but my ability to make music changed dramatically when I was imprisoned. It is more or less impossible to record music in prison, and the only music I could record was electronic music, when I was allowed to have a synthesizer for a few months in 1994 or 1995 and in 1998.”
“It was good to get out of prison and home to the family.”
“Music, for me, was something I did because I was disillusioned after the Cold War’s end and did not know what I wanted in life.”
“My record company certainly wants me to play live, badly, but I have no such plans. My only motivation to do such a thing would be money, and I don’t think that’s a good reason to play live.”
“I know too much about religion to be religious, so to speak, and I am not that stupid, either.”
“Art should be perceived as subjectively as possible, and if anyone wants to see something in ‘Belus’ that I had not planned, that is fine.”
“I don’t think I have an image of being an underground musician. I have an image of being an uncompromising musician, and I am well known in Norway partly because of that.”
“I live an isolated life, and I rarely meet others.”
“My name is well known, but my image is not, because the image presented to the public is very twisted and far from reality. So, not many recognize me on the street. And I don’t usually walk around in the streets, either.”
“Burzum is a projection of me or, at the very least, a projection of a side of me, but you can, of course, view Burzum and Varg as separate entities, as you surely can like the first and dislike the other, or vice versa for that sake, but to me, my music will always be a natural part of me.”
“I do vote, and naturally, I vote for so-called extremist parties, the further to the right the better, but that’s where my participation in politics ends.”
“Music is an artform, and I always though art was beyond censorship. I thought this was a common view. Apparently, I was wrong.”
“Yes, maturity in life brings maturity to the music I make.”
“I am not religious in any way, but I have a pagan ideology and pagan values.”
“Rock and roll promotes a primitive and destructive lifestyle. Metal can be seen as a subgenre of rock and roll, and thus, metal is not much better.”
“I expect either total success or total failure. That’s my lot in life.”
“Lead by example. Be better than those you despise.”
“To record an album is cathartic, or at least it was with ‘Belus,’ but to make music is more fulfilling than anything else, I think.”
“My musical roots and inspiration lie not in rock n’ roll or metal music, but first and foremost in classical music, balalaika, and in underground house music.”
“I live in the present and in the future. Not in the past.”
“Personally, I am a nationalist, but my race is my nation, and I see all true Europeans as my racial brethren and part of my nation, be them Norwegian, Danish, or Swedish, French, German, or English, Russian, Polish, or Belorussian, or whatever.”
“When it comes to political forces in Norway and elsewhere, I – simply put – sympathize with all those who wish to throw out every single Muslim and Jew from Europe, all those who wish to ‘dismantle’ the E.U., and all those who want to nationalize all countries in our world.”
“Only native male citizens with a wife and children, a property, and a military rank should be allowed to vote and be elected for office.”
“Defiance in itself is a sign of strength, and strength is a light side of human nature – when at all present, that is.”
“To me, personally, an ideal society would be a world where only I and those I care for exist.”
“I don’t care much about society.”
“Keep the masses fed and entertain them to keep them in line.”
“I enjoy making music and take my time to do everything until it is ‘perfect.’”
“Some musicians make and record music; other musicians play in a band… I just make and record music, and I don’t feel a part of anything in any music business.”
“It was hard to play the drums at all when I got out of prison.”
“Music is entertainment, and we need that in order not to fall into the pit of despair.”
“Civilization is going down the drain, and the sooner it does, the better.”
“If you want to build something fantastic, just do it. Who is stopping you?”
“Climate changes are caused by solar radiation and other natural phenomena, so I don’t worry one bit about that. Nothing we do can change anything in the climate.”
“Time moves too slowly for me to notice any evolution in my creative tendencies.”
“The romantic image of the ancient world is very inspiring, as is nature itself, but I think the dissatisfaction with our modern world is the strongest force keeping me going.”
“I don’t think the important part of making music is the method used but rather the spirit put into it, so to speak.”
“What I think is more important than actually believing in reincarnation or thinking about a post-death existence is to live in the present.”
Leave a Reply