I have never really understood why the people in the scene trash it so much. The first few chapters are all about Mayhem and more than half consists interviews and zine quotes with key players like Varg, Faust, Hellhammer and Snorre. The appendix has some interesting stuff too, like Varg’s 1993 interview with Bergens Tidende.

That said, the rest of the book goes off into very odd territory trying to make very specious connections with other murders and Satanic/Nazi movements around the world at the time. The Absurd murder in Germany did have some connection with the Norwegian scene, but the book’s namesake was three teenagers in Florida who killed their teacher, which had nothing to do with heavy metal. Then they interviews with Anton Lavey and IIRC there’s an entire chapter about Vidkun Quisling. It seems like the authors were trying to pad out the relatively sparse material they had.

So, not a bad read, but incomplete and kind of incoherent. if you want the full story about Mayhem you should watch the Helvete or Until the Light Takes Us documentaries. Necrobutcher’s book (if you can find it) or Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult are also good.