Varg Vikernes has officially ended his long-running black metal endeavor Burzum after relinquishing his sole copy of the project's 1992 eponymous debut to a fan who beat the controversial musician in a "manly," ATV-related "duel." In a video blog posted to YouTube over the weekend, Vikernes explained that he'd promised the CD to a fellow named Nathan B., provided that the fan had get his 4x4 vehicle from 0-60 mph faster than the musician. Vikernes lost that bet, claiming in the video that he never intended to win in the first place, and that the project was kaput. "Bye Bye, Burzum," he declared. "See the sun rise and see her banish all the darkness of this world."
Vikernes claimed that he lost his bet with Nathan B. on purpose in order to make a point about greed. "Everything is always about people trying to make profit: Profits to this, profits to that, the more the merrier, and there's no end to it," he said, instructing viewers to "cure the rot of greed in [their] brain[s]" by doing things for the benefit of others, rather than for profit: "If you want to change the world — I do — you have to start with yourself." (Denouncing white supremacy would be a great place to start, Vikernes: just a suggestion!)
From there, Vikernes went on to distance himself from Burzum and music in general, calling the solo vehicle to his "painful past in a reeking bog, that took [him] many years to get out from."
"Burzum was never my choice of life," he admitted. "I didn't even want to become a musician. It was just something I did whilst waiting for something that never came, and that never could come. I have left all reeking bogs, and I have moved on."
Vikernes founded Burzum in 1991, following his departure from the Norwegian death-metal band Old Funeral, featuring future members of Immortal. He released two albums under the moniker before his arrest and imprisonment for the 1993 murder of Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, as well as the burning of several Norwegian churches. Vikernes continued to release recordings from prison — notably 1996's Filosofem LP, which many critics rank among the best metal albums ever made — before finishing out his sentence in 2009. The last Burzum album, The Ways of Yore, came out in 2014.
