The name
Peter Beste is synonymous with the black metal movement and with good reason. For nearly a decade, the photographer has been one of the few civilians allowed to point his lens at the genre’s corpse-paint donning stars—and these musicians are understandably skeptic of outsiders who often want to sensationalize the genre before they truly understand it. On May 15 Vice Books will release Beste’s first book,
True Norwegian Black Metal, which contains 216 pages worth of the genre’s most nefarious stars.
Instead of exploiting his subjects, Beste embraces them; many of these photos show that there’s a human element to these musicians that’s lurking just beneath their sinister facades. In order to accurately portray his subjects, Beste took multiple trips to Norway to capture them in their natural environment. The results are striking. Elderly pedestrians recoil in horror when confronted with artists like Kvitrafn of Wardruna on the street. Other bands included in the collection are members of Darkthrone, 1349, Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Emperor, Mayhem, and nearly every other leading act in the subculture. Oh, and the book also contains quotes from a handful of these artists, including the notorious Gaahl from Gorgoroth.
If you live in New York, this Friday, May 9, Beste will have an opening for the book at the
Steven Kasher Gallery where he will display prints from the book and sign copies of
True Norwegian Black Metal. Oh, and if you’re really hardcore, we recommend visiting his site and pre-ordering a deluxe limited edition of the book which features a silk-screened black metal logo poster, a signed 8 X 10 Beste print and a hand-numbered slipcase, which are—you guessed it—limited to 666 copies. Whether you’re a hardcore black metal fanatic or are just interested in learning more about metal’s most underground and dangerous subgenre, we can’t think of a better starting point than
True Norwegian Black Metal.