''Satan rir media'' (''Satan Rides the Media'') is a 1999 Norwegian documentary by Torstein Grude. The film covers the controversy that surrounded

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

musician

Varg Vikernes Louis Cachet (born Kristian Vikernes; 11 February 1973), better known as Varg Vikernes (), is a Norwegian musician and author best known for his early black metal albums and later for his crimes. His first five records, released under the name Bu ...

in the early 1990s, who not only has been tied to a series of church arsons in Norway, but received widespread media attention for the murder of

Mayhem Mayhem most commonly refers to: * Mayhem (crime), a type of crime Mayhem may also refer to: People * Monica Mayhem (born 1978), Australian pornographic actress * Jason "Mayhem" Miller, American mixed martial arts fighter * Mayhem Miller (dr ...

band member Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth.

Summary

According to ''Satan rir media'', two (unnamed) trainee journalists had approached the ''

Bergens Tidende is Norway's fifth-largest newspaper, and the country's largest newspaper outside Oslo. is owned by the public company Schibsted ASA. Norwegian owners held a mere 42% of the shares in Schibsted at the end of 2015. History and profile Founded ...

'' (BT), a major Norwegian newspaper, with a story they had done with Vikernes. This story mentioned the torching of churches and a murder which attracted the interest of Finn Bjørn Tønder, a crime journalist. He persuaded the two to show him the man and eventually met Vikernes, describing him in the documentary as the "weirdest person I think I have ever met in my life". Tønder conducted an interview with Vikernes and promised him full anonymity. According to Vikernes Tønder claimed he needed a photo of Vikernes in order to prove to his colleagues that the interview was real, but that this photo would never be used in the newspaper. The night before the article was published in the newspaper, Vikernes was arrested. Tønder then went to see if he could confirm the facts independently with hospital and law enforcement. While making several phone calls, he insists he protected the anonymity of his source. However, Vikernes was convinced that the journalist gave information to the police and misrepresented his words in the published article. In the film Svein Erik Krogvold, the main police investigator in the case, said that police got the name directly from Tønder and thus could initiate an arrest of Vikernes.Tønder avsløres
/ref> Vikernes was arrested the day the article was printed. The documentary also shows the development of the

early Norwegian black metal scene The early Norwegian black metal scene of the 1990s is credited with shaping the modern black metal genre and producing some of the most acclaimed and influential artists in extreme metal. The scene had a distinct ethos, and its core members ref ...

, the inspiration for it, prevailing thoughts and attitudes and ultimately how the Norwegian media contributed to making the scene known worldwide by hyping the Satanist angle and thus inspiring copycat

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

References

External links

*
Torstein Grude page
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Entry
for the Torstein Grude film ''Lykkejegerne'' on the webpage of the Nordische Filmtage Lübeck (also mentioning the film ''Satan rides the Press''.) 1999 films Crimes involving Satanism or the occult Black metal Documentary films about heavy metal music and musicians Norwegian documentary films {{music-documentary-film-stub