I've read all of Lords of Chaos, and alot of it is speculative. It's a great book, but books like these are NOT absolute. Don't read this book thinking it is the be-all-end-all of black metal. The only people who know what really happened are either dead or in jail...except for Samoth and Ihsahn and a couple of others. Varg Vikernes is worse than a Jesus freak. He preaches and preaches about how the world should be, then changes his mind every couple of years. Such irony...the thing he most despised is the thing he became. All it is is interviews, that's it, with a little background information on the scene. Again, how many times has Varg changed his story, and his mind? What a moron.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was that there are alot of black metal bands with very prominent families. It's really easy to be evil and dark when you've got mom and dad forking over cash like candy. It's easy to have all that free time when you're a spoiled little child in your twenties. In my opinion, norwegian black metal was spawned out of boredom and lack of attention. The interviews with Emperor and Ulver are by far the most well-versed, comprehensive interviews that actually stand out. Everyone else was trying soooo hard to be so evil that it was silly. Euronymous wouldn't give interviews because he wanted to remain mysterious. Get off your high horse, Mayhem wasn't that great. On the other hand, Ihsahn and Garm were just like, "Hey, this is who we are. This is the life we want to lead. We're not into killing people and trying to be as evil as the next guy." In fact, Ihsahn said that he was generally a really happy person, who loved life. He doesn't like being moody and mean and trying to be evil.
Another funny thing was that Varg's birth name was Kristian, LOL!!!!!! What an idiot. He had good artistic vision, but Burzum-the-one-man-band was painfully simplistic. You might have been innovative, but Emperor outshined you by far.