Bård Eithun's Murder

The murder of Magne Andreassen stands in the book as a grave crime amid the Norwegian Black Metal scene’s escalating acts of violence and arson, but not as a solved case. The account emphasizes the gulf between a later claim identifying Bård Eithun as the killer and the investigation’s initial failure to find significant evidence or a persuasive motive.

The Killing and Its Uncertainty

Andreassen, a gay man, was found dead in the woods. The book describes the killing as a dead end for police: there was little significant evidence, and no clear reason for the crime. The circumstances as presented do not establish a motive, leaving the murder’s apparent senselessness central to the account.

Vikernes later said that Eithun had killed a man, a claim that helped set arrests in motion. That retrospective identification sits uneasily beside the account of the investigation itself, which says police had no meaningful evidence and were pursuing unproductive leads in the gay community. The book thus presents both the later accusation and the earlier investigative impasse without turning the latter into proof of the former.

The Following Day

The murder is placed in a sequence of criminal acts that continued without immediate consequence for those involved. The day after Andreassen’s killing, Eithun took part with Vikernes and Aarseth in the burning of Holmenkollen Chapel. The group reportedly went up the mountain to watch the fire, then returned to the record store; Eithun later described the episode as exciting and said they could hardly sleep afterward.

That juxtaposition matters: a killing that had left police without a workable lead was followed by another conspicuous crime. The chapel fire did not bring immediate repercussions for Eithun, whose participation appeared, in the book’s account, to be protected by the investigation’s failure to connect the earlier murder to him.

A Boundary Around the Crime

In a separate discussion of Ordo Templi Orientis membership, Bård Eithun was raised as a potential applicant. The response was that the organization’s rules did not admit a murderer. The exchange does not document a formal decision about Eithun’s membership, but it supplies a clear institutional boundary: the murder was treated as incompatible with admission.

The wider account places the case within a period of violence surrounding the Norwegian Black Metal scene. A later overview refers to two murders during 1991–1993 alongside assaults and other crimes. Against that background, Andreassen’s death is not presented as an isolated rumor or merely an element of the scene’s sinister image; it is a real killing whose unanswered questions and disputed attribution remain distinct from the spectacle surrounding the crimes that followed.