[tptacek]

Right, but Vikernes collaborated with Darkthrone, didn't he?

I can appreciate a lot of metal, but do not generally enjoy black metal just on musical grounds. But I find with repeated exposure I can usually find something to appreciate and enjoy in almost any music. When I was a teenager I had friends who were into the Black Metal scene (mostly because of theatrical bullshit like Vikernes and Euronymous), but after learning how racist the bands were, I decided not to acquire a taste for the music.

[actsasbuffoon]

They collaborated a long time ago. The last collaboration I'm aware of was a few decades ago when they allowed Varg to write some lyrics while he was in prison for murdering Euronymous. It's hard to know why they did that.

Varg has maintained that Euronymous was planning to kill him. When asked why he thinks Darkthrone allowed him to write some lyrics despite being a pariah in the black metal community, he said that he thinks Fenriz believes him about Eronymous' plans. He said Fenriz may think it was unfair that Varg was charged with murder for killing a man who was planning to murder him.

That's obviously not how the law works, and what he did was deeply wrong. That said, I can kinda understand feeling some sympathy for someone in that situation.

Who knows if Varg is right about Fenriz. Frankly, Varg believes some pretty crazy stuff, and I'm not inclined to trust him about much of anything. But you never know. Maybe Fenriz took pity on a really screwed up kid who made a terrible mistake.

Anyway, onto the subject of racism. I think there was definitely a bit of racism in the early black metal scene. It's hard to know if it was genuine or just some kids trying to find a way to shock people. Either way, it seems like that's mostly gone these days (I can think of a few exceptions, but they're seemingly rare).

Black metal (and the people who create and listen to it) has grown up a lot over the last couple of decades. Fenriz even got elected to local office in his hometown!