Until the Light Takes Us

Although I'm not what you'd call a big fan of the music scene at the core of this film - I don't own a single one of the records - I've been aware of bits & pieces of the story over the years and had enough of a casual interest to catch a screening of the documentary at an AFI screening.

I was happily surprised by a few general aspects of the film - the general good film quality, the unlabored presentation of the characters, and also the unexpected soundtrack. As another reviewer says: "the music for this movie was very appropriate ... a mix of black metal and ambient music, making the movie very easy to watch while still putting you within the dark atmosphere." I'll add that this ambient music helped make the metal segments seem all the more heavy-hitting and abrasive. A wise choice.

It's refreshing, as in case of Until the Light Takes Us, when a documentary doesn't judge it's subjects, especially when the urge to justify their approach (aka cover their ass) must have been present. The viewer benefits most from this in the interesting present-day clips of Fenriz and Varg Vikernes (Burzum) and the unforced comparison of the two and the time they are given the time to reveal themselves, both good and bad (and very bad) through their own words and ideas.

Although this doc is unmistakably about a metal scene, it's also got a wealth of insight to the power of the entertainment news media to re-define the reality in ways they're irresponsibly probably not even aware of.