Early in the 1990s, Øystein Aarseth, called "Euronymous", (Rory Culkin) created a new sound with his band "Mayhem". Norwegian Black Metal would soon become a large musical movement, but at this point, Mayhem were at its very center. Possessed by a desire to push boundaries in every imaginable way, the band found a new vocalist in young Swede Per Ohlin (Jack Kilmer), who took his stagename "Dead" very seriously and left the band in bloodily dramatic fashion before the first album was recorded.

Soon also needing a bassist, the band was soon approached by Varg Vikernes (Emory Cohen), a teen from Bergen, who wanted in on the actions of the "Inner Circle", which Euronymous had founded in the cellar of his Oslo record shop to put actions behind the music's claims. Spurred on by Varg, the self-proclaimed satanists soon found themselves starting fires in churches, to distance themselves from the pure theatricals of Death Metal. Drunk on destruction and a sense of their own power, things came to a head between the two. And things did not end well for one of them.

Jonas Akerlund turns the real-life crime drama into a colourful, showy spectacle and shows the overwhelmed teens behind the notorious events of 1993. Loosely based on the (itself not uncontroversial) book, the film has the support of most of the former and current member of Mayhem, as well as Euronymous' family. Whether or not this has biased the film is something viewers will have to decide for themselves.