You may or may not be aware of Black Metal, an extreme sub-genre of Heavy Metal with links to church burnings, National Socialism and even murder. It was certainly new to me until a few years ago I was approached by one of our own reviewers, himself a singer of explosive voice, with the idea of a documentary portrait of the music and its notorious and sometimes nihilistic practitioners. The film never came to be, but fortunately others were on the case in the shape of directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell, whose portrait of its sometimes incarcerated musicians resulted in the dicumentary Until the Light Takes Us.

Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans world-wide. The film goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of "Satanists running amok in Europe" to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture. It includes contributions from Gylve 'Fenriz' Nagell, Varg 'Count Grishnackh' Vikernes, Jan Blomberg and Harmony Korine, and music by Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Ulver, Thorns, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Boards of Canada, Black Dice, Sunn 0))), Múm, and original soundtrack music by Lesser.

After a successful summer roll-out, the critically acclaimed Until The Light Takes Us returns to the UK for a run at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (more commonly known as the ICA). Until The Light Takes Us will screen as part of a double bill with Anvil, The Story of Anvil on 15th December and will then continue a solo run at the ICA through December 31st.

For those of you not able to get to London, the film will also be released on UK DVD on 15th December from Field Pictures at an RRP yet to be confirmed. The disc will feature over four hours of extra features, including:

• 36 minute Black Metal short film of deleted scenes;
• Alternate ending;
• Outtakes;
• The Cutting Room with musicians not in the film including: Enslaved, Ted 'Nocturno Cutlo' Skjellum from Darkthrone, and Jørn 'Necrobutcher' from Mayhem, plus more with Ulver, Immortal, Jan Axel 'Hellhammer'
  Blomberg, Gylve 'Fenriz' Nagell and Kjetil 'Frost' Haraldstad;
• 46 more minutes of Varg Vikernes;
• A 45 minute class on the history of black metal with Fenriz.