Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries

July 16, 2011

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CHRIS

I have just had the pleasure of finishing Jon Kristiansen’s book titled Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries, which reprints some of the old Slayer magazines, a primitive yet revered Norwegian fanzine in a ‘best of’ format. Within 700+ pages we are treated to a rare glimpse inside the man affectionately called “Metalion” by friends and fans alike. Brilliantly edited by Tara G. Warrior, this duo embarked on one hell of a journey back in time to one of the finest, yet saddest periods in heavy metal history from the eyes of a man who saw it all firsthand.

So, where does one begin? Well, I suppose it would suffice to give you some background on Jon, or Metalion.  In a complete abridged couple

of sentences, he has ever taken a back seat to the main players in the Norwegian black metal scene, and criminally so.  Metalion started his fanzine on a shoestring budget armed only with some interviews, reviews, musings and passion; the first three are byproducts of what was to become a legendary ‘zine in our underground metal scene, but the passion is what drives the mammoth book. Jon’s honesty, warmth, and often self-deprecating nature are his charm, and while I’m sure he understands well his contribution to the movement out there he never espouses his own victories per se. He is a humble man that assigns his love and reverence for the music above all other peripheries, and it shows in every page of the book. While the ‘zine was primitive and immature in its humble beginnings, the level of musical expertise and raw volition was what made it acceptable and forgivable for such imperfections. I myself bought some of the first issues back when, and as a young man on American soil I was duly impressed with a guy only a few years older than me handling all of this himself and posing some serious questions to the likes of Quorthon, Tom Angelripper and Schmier, to name a few. Again, the generic vibe was what made Slayer a tangible and impressive piece of metal history.

In the book we learn about Metalion’s ascent up the annals of the Scandinavian metal underground, his trials and tribulations, his friendships and business ventures, his accolades and refuters, his triumphs and failures, not to mention his personal inner conflicts and eventual foray into photography; it’s all told in such a brilliantly paced, even timid fashion. While reading this, I can’t help but picture this hulking guy with a ‘regular Joe’ look to him that was smack dab in the middle of this wonderful period just soaking it all in, which is what I did back in my day far on the other side of the water. The difference is I was seeing bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Metallica, Testament and Slayer rise through the ranks, while he was witnessing Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone, Immortal and Dissection build up a wonderful network of dark, powerful music, only to see it crash down in tragedy and violence that I won’t mention here in detail. If you know the story, there’s no need to reiterate, and if you don’t, then buy the book and be enlightened. While both of our respective movements made history, Metalion trumps anything I ever did or hoped to do as a musician or a fan simply because his man hours, often thankless I’m sure, never wavered. While it seemed he struggled both financially and internally at times to even print copies of the ‘zine, Metalion managed to get his cut-and-pasted creation into the hands of metal fans around the world, occasionally late, but never half-assed.

When you read this collective you can’t help but be impressed at the often nomadic life he lived and the isolated feelings he often felt growing up in Sarpsborg, Norway that are conveyed with a bright honesty and true reflective care. As a kid who felt literally everything he described as a young kid myself, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the vastness of his life and times. Make no mistake, this is no self-serving offering filled with untruths and grandiose recollections the likes of which you’d find in that abominable Lords of Chaos tripe; what we have here is a brilliant piece of history that literally can’t be commended enough for its base-format delivery, lack of rhetorical trivialities, and a total denouncement of tabloid-esque circus fare. Rarely do we have such a piece of rock literature that encompasses all of the nuances of the topic without blind subservience to the events, no matter how much our palates might gravitate towards such things. It’s our nature, sure, but you lose this at the front cover due in large part to the openness with which Jon Kristiansen bares himself.

Without giving away much of the content of the book, allow me to share just some of the things, paraphrased of course, that made this book so necessary for me. As many know who read my reviews I am an aging metalhead who has pretty much seen it all, heard it all, seen it live and witnessed a few tragedies from a fan’s eye view myself. While that sounds boastful or arrogant it’s offered more as a middle-aged epitaph for a long lost period that I literally pine for every day. I do recall with fondness my true introduction to the Norwegian black metal movement in 1992 when demos and CD’s started filtering over here to the U.S. through some specialty stores and snail mail correspondence. I recall trading no more than two or three lengthy letters with Oystein Aarseth, or Euonymous of Mayhem, as I bought some music from his Deathlike Silence label. I remember hearing Burzum and thinking the guy must have hot tacks in his boots to scream so agonizingly, and Marduk’s “Fuck Me Jesus” in a numbered 7” was one of my prize acquisitions from Record Swap (RIP). As a pre-Internet black metal fan my knowledge was limited to rumors, interviews in ‘zines, innuendo, outright lies and fallacies, and conjecture passed as fact. All of these wonderful periods are recalled in this book from Jon’s point of view and lends complete accuracy and alternate views to some of the main players of these events. Where Aarseth has been relegated to a shady figure quite capable of coldly dismissing a friend’s suicide with all of the care of swatting a fly, his one-time best friend Metalion shows us that while Aarseth may have been trapped in the Euronymous persona too long for his own good, he was a trusted and valued friend, albeit a bad businessman possibly too overextended in spots. We’re also treated to yet another side of Varg Vikernes as the usual narcissist, even delusional figure that is as much an enigma to those close to him then as he is to us laymen across the sea some 20-years after the fact. The most poignant part of the book for me comes in the form of the sincere and warm efforts Metalion uses to describe Per Ohlin, AKA Dead, the tragic Swedish singer of both Morbid and Mayhem that ended his life in a Norwegian bedroom where he completed his suicide. I won’t go into the insipid cover of that bootleg album or the events surrounding it because it warrants no relevant mention here; the damage of such a lasting image is forever done, but while many a figure out there tries to paint Pelle Ohlin as this dark, horrid character that was destined to die, or ‘called home’, Metalion gives us a side of Ohlin that is genuine and immensely sorrowed. We get a picture of a young man that might have been saved had someone bothered to offer help or guidance to him rather than ride the coattails of his enigmatic depression. Such situational niceties are not only unwelcome in this scene but often ridiculed, and more than once when reading this memoir I found myself choked up beyond belief that some of these figures I had been following from afar should still be with us today creating music or art. The metal community doesn’t allow for emotional responses because of some perceived lack of manliness or general weakness, but I sit here ready and willing to lend myself to such inferior criticisms because the music is only an extension of the people that create it and the depth to some of these people is incredibly viable.    
        
Through these pages we’re treated to the life and times of a man who has fought against adversities both printed and human, but aside from the personal reflections we have reprinted pages of some of the Slayer mags that made Metalion a household name in the homes of underground fans for over 25-years. The wonderful musings of some of the more extreme players in this scene are still digested easily today, even some decades after the fact. The quality of such little quality is what makes this little Norwegian ‘zine so important to the history of heavy metal, and we are lucky to have someone so selfless offer his time and labor to a medium that is now rife with pretenders, frauds and illegitimate posers. I dare say the fact that Metalion sat and did his issues mostly by hand with glue sticks and scissors makes these ‘zines even more precious and valuable. The pieces on Mayhem, Emperor, Bathory, Sadistik Exekution, Dissection, Marduk, Sodom, Destruction, Usurper are all fantastic pieces of historical importance that I cannot stress enough, and that’s just naming a sparse few, my friends. For the price of this book it is worth every damn penny and then some. As usual, Metalion undercharges for his acumen and efforts.

As a fan I can say Metalion is a legend that is one of the unsung players in the Norwegian black metal movement that can easily stand aside Aarseth, Vikernes or Bard Eithun with total and complete validity. His contributions are second-to-none and one viewing of this book will guarantee that. Now, as a fellow metalhead from the 80’s I say a personal ‘thank you’ to you, Jon, for actually causing me to tear up and fondly recall my youth as more than a lost consequence of time. Your efforts and love for our music make you one of my heroes, and I mean that sincerely. Near the end when you talk about how much music means to you and how you would get angry or feel ‘let down’ when band put out a bad album I literally yelled out, “Thank you!” People tend not to understand why I get so emotional about hearing some third-rate group waste my time with banality under power chords. Reading your passage about how seriously and personally you took and take our music makes me sad we never got to actually grow up together. As a reviewer and interviewer myself I understand the desire to sometimes backtrack to a time where you listened to music for its own sake and yours, but sometimes I find myself breaking down music as a reviewer, not a fan, when buying new music and separating the two is not easy, especially in the eyes of those that aren’t responsible for issuing an opinion, good, bad or otherwise. That said I accept my role and wouldn’t change a thing about it, as I’m sure you too are proud of yours, my friend.

Heartstring pulling aside, I firmly believe our music chose us, not the other way around - we were destined to be found by this wonderfully intelligent and sustaining musical style because it was, I believe, inherent from day one. I’m not sure I believe in a predetermined ‘destiny’ or any of that other Christian jargon, but I do believe this music was our chosen life soundtrack and you made a timeless donation to the cause, and I thank you for such a wonderful peek inside your life. You deserve every accolade you get here.

My eternal respect and humility is offered to you, sir!

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Author:  Jon Kristiansen
Hardcover: 744 pages
Publisher: Bazillion Points
Release Date: July 19, 2011
Language:  English
ISBN-10: 0979616344
ISBN-13: 978-0979616341

METALION:
THE SLAYER MAG DIARIES