Blabbermouth:
“Black metal was never meant to reach an audience,” Gaahl told The Observer. “It was purely for our own satisfaction. Something entirely self-centered. The shared goal was to become the true Satan; the elite human, basically. The elite are above rules. So people did what they wanted to do. And they had a common enemy which was, of course, Christianity, socialism and everything that democracy stands for, especially this idea that every man is alike and equal to his neighbour. That, of course, is a fake.”
Gaahl’s extremist outlook is undoubtedly influenced by his surroundings. He lives on a farm three hours outside of Bergen, isolated from the mass of humanity. “My family owns three mountains,” he said. ‘There’s not much else around there. Love of nature is a big part of black metal. It’s easy to feel isolated in nature. And solitude and distance from everyone else is very important to us.”
Here.