VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen & Jonas Akerlund On ‘Lords Of Chaos,’ Metal Music

Swedish drummer and director Jonas Akerlund may be mostly known for directing music videos, but he has now helmed and co-written a thriller film called Lords of Chaos. 

The film stars Macaulay Culkin‘s younger brother Rory Culkin and Emory Cohen and centers on the death metal music scene in Norway during the early 1990s. Culkin, Cohen and Akerlund sat down with uInterview exclusively to discuss the movie — which is based on real people and events — and death metal culture, among other things.

“Lords of Chaos is a true crime story about Norwegian black metal, particularly a band called Mayhem,” Culkin explained. “They’re most notable for their publicity stunts and church burnings and things like that, and it all built up and eventually led to a brutal murder within the band. I play Euronymous, who is the guitarist of Mayhem and the self-proclaimed true creator of Norwegian black metal.”

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Akerlund, 53, has directed music videos for some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5 and Duran Duran.

Cohen — the star of movies like Brooklyn and The Place Beyond the Pines — plays a young man named Varg, whom he described as a Mayhem “superfan” and who he said is perhaps the biggest criminal of the group.

“[Varg] starts making his own music and becomes part of the scene,” Cohen said. “I think he’s the one who goes too far. He’s the one who starts burning down churches.”

Akerlund revealed his desire to make Lords of Chaos began nearly ten years ago and that he wanted to show a side of Mayhem and Norway’s death metal scene that wasn’t shown in documentaries or books on the subject.

“I think that the one thing we haven’t really seen and that is worth reminding people of is that these guys were very young,” said Akerlund. “They were basically like very young, driven children. They came from really good backgrounds and were very friendly [yet] I feel like in the documentaries there’s always an insert of fire and a deep voice that’s telling the story of the darkness up in Norway.”