One of my favorite films at last year’s Sundance Film Festival was director Jonas Åkerlund’s Lords of Chaos. I walked into the Sundance screening knowing very little about the film, other than it was based on a true story about the Black Metal scene in Oslo, Norway in the 1980s. About two hours later, I came out extremely impressed by the performances, direction, and the film on the whole. Unlike some movies that feel like they are taking liberty with the people involved in the story and creating drama just for the sake of high stakes, Åkerlund’s direction makes you feel like you are in the room watching the events unfold in real time. I actually had to turn away from the screen at times because it felt a bit too real.

Written by Dennis Magnusson & Jonas Åkerlund and based on the book of the same name, Lords of Chaos chronicles the birth of Mayhem, the notorious Norwegian black metal band that wore corpse paint, burned down churches and was involved in brutal murders. Rory Culkin stars as the group’s leader, Euronymous, who meets his match in Varg (Emory Cohen), a disturbed young man with a taste for extreme violence. In addition to Culkin and Cohen, the film stars Jack Kilmer, Valter Skarsgård, Anthony De La Torre, Wilson Gonzalez, Sam Coleman, Jonathan Barnwell and Sky Ferreira.

Check out the first Lords of Chaos poster below. The film, being released by Gunpowder and Sky, is co-produced by VICE Studios, 20th Century Fox, Scott Free Productions and Insurgent Media, opens in theaters February 8th and On Demand February 22nd.