I think they all took Venom pretty seriously at the time. I guess what I meant was that Varg's offstage antics have made him, for better or worse, the face of not only the band but the face of Norwegian Death Metal of that era.

It amazes me tho, that he's managed to rehabilitate his image of a murderer, arsonist, Pagan/ Nazi to that of almost a philosopher. It's like how Manson, with much less success, has tried to turn himself into this environmental activist.