''Until the Light Takes Us'' is an American documentary film about early Norwegian black metal by directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. The film premiered at the

AFI Film Festival The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

in 2008, a year before it was released in film theaters.

Featured interviewees

* Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell (

Darkthrone Darkthrone is a Norwegian extreme metal band from Kolbotn, Akershus. Formed in 1986 as a death metal band named Black Death, in 1991 Darkthrone embraced a black metal style influenced by Bathory and Celtic Frost and became one of the leadin ...

) * Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes ( Burzum, Mayhem) * Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg ( Mayhem) * Olve "Abbath" Eikemo (

Immortal Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

) * Harald "Demonaz" Nævdal (Immortal) *

Bjarne Melgaard Bjarne Melgaard (born 9 September 1967) is a Norwegian artist based in New York City. He has been described as "one of Norway's most important artists" and, following the 2014 publicity about his sculpture ''Chair'', "the most famous Norwegian arti ...

(visual artist) * Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg (

Ulver Ulver (Norwegian for "wolves") is a Norwegian experimental electronica band founded in 1993, by vocalist Kristoffer Rygg. Their early works, such as debut album '' Bergtatt'', were categorised as folklore-influenced black metal, but the band h ...

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) * Kjetil "Frost" Haraldstad (

Satyricon The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petro ...

, 1349,

Keep of Kalessin Keep of Kalessin is an extreme metal band from Trondheim, Norway formed in 1993. The group's early lineup consisted of Ghash on vocals, Obsidian C. (the group founder) on guitars and keyboards, Warach on bass, and Vyl on drums. They released two ...

) * Bård "Faust" Eithun (

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

) – Eithun chose to appear as a silhouette, with his voice distorted ;Archives footage * Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth (died in 1993) (Mayhem) * Per "Dead" Ohlin (died in 1991) (Mayhem) * Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch (

Thorns Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...

, Mayhem)

Release

Variance Films Variance Films is a privately held film distribution company founded in 2008 that uses an innovative model of self-distribution combined with select elements of traditional theatrical distribution to allow filmmakers to achieve quality theatrical ...

acquired the theatrical rights to the film in the U.S. and released it in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on December 4, 2009. The film grossed $7,246 on a single screen in its first week, the second highest per-screen gross of any debuting film at the time (behind '' Up in the Air'').

Reception

''Until the Light Takes Us'' received a 54 out of 100 score on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

and a 46% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Andrew O'Hehir of

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

called the film "crafty and compelling". Nick Pinkerton of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote, "The filmmakers seem cowed into obeisance by their subjects. Varg's last onscreen appearance is accompanied by a montage fitting a schoolyard crush, and the film's title is the translation of Burzum's fourth album, '' Hvis lyset tar oss''. ..

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

arrives a decade too late to add much."

References

External links

* * * *{{mojo title, untilthelighttakesus 2008 documentary films 2008 films American independent films Black metal Documentary films about heavy metal music and musicians Variance Films films 2008 independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films American documentary films

Featured interviewees

Release

Reception

See also

References

External links