King Ov Hell - Ideology and Relationships With The Broader Metal Scene

Ideology and Relationships With The Broader Metal Scene

According to Gaahl - who was his contemporary for ten years spanning from 1999 to 2009 - he and King are friends with Martin Eric Ain and Thomas Gabriel Fischer of the influential extreme metal band Celtic Frost. He has also been closely associated with Shagrath, Dani Filth, and Rob Caggiano of Anthrax.

Since becoming more known to the broader black metal scene after joining Gorgoroth, he has also garnered numerous detractors. Gorgoroth guitarist Tormentor departed from the band in 2002 due to no longer being able to cooperate with King. Vocalist Pest clarified that he would probably not have liked to work with King when mentioning in a 2010 studio report by Sheol Magazine that he sometimes did ponder how it might feel to join the band again after having left in 1997. Fenriz of Darkthrone has openly expressed disdain for King many times, having held regard for him as one of the “ÜBERPOSERS constantly trying to destroy REAL metal”, and stated that he would not consider Darkthrone as black metal anymore “if what King ov Hell is doing is something anyone would call black metal. Let’s just say that we ditched the boat before all the dead meat sank it. Again. We play our own brand of heavy-metal speed punk now.” Fenriz in addition denounced King as exploiting Norwegian taxpayers' money by applying for "sick leave for months and months while touring and recording. That, my friend, is taking both MY money AND Norway's money." Darkthrone’s 2010 album Circle the Wagons was given the category number “ANTI-KING OV HELL 001”. After having interviewed King for Black Metal: A Documentary, Bill Zebub expressed:

here were some characters who bore façades, like King from Gorgoroth. Again, my intention was to be a silent observer, as a documentary film maker, and my hope was that people would be able to detect the character flaws. I regret that now, ha ha - it would have been interesting to see how tough that guy was after getting bitch-slapped. After the interview was done, King made all kinds of silly demands, but they were out of fear that footage of him smiling would be used. King claimed to be part of the black metal scene and to be friends with some of the old schoolers, but when I talked to the old schoolers they did not have nice things to say about King, and he most quite often referred as a "newcomer." Just smells like "poser" to me. You really have to give me credit for biting my tongue in that one.

Scrutiny over the legitimacy of King's claims to being a Satanist have been notably expressed by Blackmoon, who supported Gorgoroth founding member Infernus during the Gorgoroth name dispute. In an interview regarding his new band Ov Hell with Norwegian newspaper Bergensavisen in February 2010, which bore the headline The Church Is More Satanist Than We Are, King himself said he was not a Satanist despite having claimed to be so elsewhere both beforehand and afterwards, instead claiming that “e take seriously what is dark in nature and the human mind”, and that “he music, the images, the lyrics — all this is part of an artistic expression. Many find it provocative and scary, yes, but to us it is only parables.”

During a performance by Sahg at Garage, Bergen in September 2010, a member of the audience threw eggs at King, which was recounted with elation by Fenriz in an interview a few months later as the “Spinal Tap moment of the year”. Fenriz concluded “King ov Hell, apparently, IS Spinal Tap”.