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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peņa made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Satan Rides The Media

Story
Satan Rides the Media is a documentary by Torstein Grude, that was aired in early 1999 in Norway. As the title suggests, it deals with Satan, or that is satanism, in the media which was a huge deal at the time, due to that a bunch of churches were burnt to the ground in Norway. It tells about the satanic enviroment in Norway so to speak, dealing with black metal, and some of the people involved in the scene. But its main focus is on Varg Vikernes aka. Count Grishnack of the band Burzum, who didn't just burn down several churches, but who also murdered Øystein Aarseth of the black metal band Mayhem. Basically this documentary is about Vikernes, what he did, his trial, how it all started, and what happened to the black metal scene after that Vikernes was convicted to serve 21 years in prison.

Comments
Satan Rides The Media is actually a quite fair documentary which tells you about what happened in Norway in the early 90's. Usually when watching stuff like this, there's always an angle to it, but to my big surprise, Satan Rides The Media was told in a straight-forward way, explaining what happened and why, without ever judging or taking sides. It lets the people involved tell what they know from their point of view, whether it be some guy from a BM band, the journalist who did the interview with Vikernes which later led to his arrest, or Vikernes himself for that matter, among others. The fact that the documentary is of the neutral kind, and does not take a stand, but instead shows us and explains what happened helps a lot. It's never about taking sides, or fearing the evil satanists for that matter, but instead just to get an insight to what it was all about.

Varg Vikernes Varg Vikernes
Vikernes in prison Vikernes at the trial

If you know nothing about the scene, and is totally new to everything this documentary has to offer, you might find it strange and horrible at the same time. For me personally, growing up in Sweden and being just a few of years younger than the guys who used to be big names in the scene, I've heard about all of this a countless number of times during my teen years (when I used to do a death/black metal zine as well). It was still interesting to see Satan Rides The Media though, and especially to see the interviews with Vikernes. When the arsons started in Norway, it of course spread a lot of fear among the people there, and at the same time it hurted a lot of people who were involved in the scene because of the music, and not for satanism which everyone seemed to believe. There were just a small group of people, so-called satanists, who commited these crimes, and then the media blew it up in the papers, creating a lot of hype, and spread fear among ordinary people in Norway at the time.

Dawn of the Black Hearts Mayhem was the first band in Norway to start playing black metal, and soon after them came others, in particular a one man band called Burzum, with the one man being Vikernes or 'Greven' which translates to 'The Count'. Øystein Aarseth, the guitarist of Mayhem, opened a shop called 'Helvete' which translates to 'Hell', and had his own record label were he released Mayhem's recordings on. Øystein Aarseth's stage name was Euronymous, and he was the big name in the scene during that time. Mayhem are also famous (or infamous) for their singer called Dead who blew his brains out, and later Euronymous discovered the corpse but did not call the police. Instead he got a polaroid camera and went back to where Dead's body was to take pictures of the corpse. One of these pictures ended up being the cover for Mayhem's album 'Dawn of the Black Hearts' (see pic to the left).

Since this documentary has its focus on the crimes commited that involved people in the BM scene, you never really get a full insight to the music itself, what it is and how it evolved. You still get to learn a few things regarding the music though, but first and most, it's all about crime. Most people involved in the scene back at the time weren't satanists at all, they were just into the music and everything that came with it, that be the hair, the clothes etc. Since BM music lyrically deals with the subjects of Satan, death and so on, I guess it was natural for people and journalists to see the people involved in the scene as satanists. But of course most of them weren't, and aren't in those bands that exists today. It's just an image, and that is basically all there's to it. When breaking it down, it doesn't come out as very mysterious at all. But back in the day, when black metal was something new, it sure had a lot of mystery to it, and that was what made it interesting.

Final Comments
Satan Rides The Media has in a good and true way a lot to offer for those interested in the events that took place in Norway in the early 90's. You get to hear all sides of the stories from different sources that had some involvement in what happened, whether it be the BM people themselves, or the journalists writing about them. It was fun to see that a journalist actually admitted that they had printed a lot of false information, and had made things up in order to get exclusive news. Satan Rides The Media proved to be a great and fair documentary, and is definitely recommended to check out if you have any interest in this whole thing.

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Satan Rides The Media

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Satan Rir Media
MOVIE YEAR: 1998
DIRECTOR: Torstein Grude
WRITING CREDITS: n/a
GENRE: Documentary
CAST: n/a
COUNTRY: Norway
RUNTIME: 52 min

RATING: 9/10

Satan Rides The Media Website/IMDB Click here
Satan Rides The Media Trailer Click here

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