True Norwegian Black Metal

American documentary photographer Peter Beste has spent the last eight years working in the milieu of this insulated and secretive community. With each visit Beste saw more, photographed more and eventually accumulated enough material for his new book “True Norwegian Black Metal,” a stunning visual testimonial to this subculture.

In the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called Black Metal has emerged in Norway. It has its roots in a heady blend of splatter movies, heavy metal music, Satanism, Pagan mythology and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990’s, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society.... how could you not just love it?