YMMV / Watain

• Awesome Moments: In 2019, when their guitarist, Pelle, was arrested at the border because a guard looked through his phone and found suspicious pictures, the band took to social media to write a long Take That! to the U.S. border policy, also, for all intents and purposes, exonerating themselves of the Nazi accusations that were hurled at them the year prior.
• Broken Base: The Wild Hunt. Many people — including some of the band's (supposedly) most hardcore fans — despise it for the change in sound, while others see it as progressive.
• Creepy Awesome: Disturbing as they may be, their music and their rituals are truly something amazing to behold.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Alvaro "A" Lillo, the live bass player, is quite popular.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Much of the fandom hates when people accuse Watain of being Nazis. Erik has vehemently denied it in interviews.
• Friendly Fandoms: With The Devil's Blood, whose name was taken from a Watain song. Guitarist and founder Selim Lemouchi joined the band's live lineup in 2010, and stayed in until his suicide in 2014. In 2022, singer and sister of Selim Farida Lemouchi did guest vocals on "We Remain". Additionally, Erik wrote the lyrics for "The Yonder Beckons".
• Funny Moments:
  • While humor and Watain seldom go together, there is this awkward interview where Erik is trolling hard.
  WULF: (laughs) OK, so I was wondering, since you guys are always covered in blood when you play live, I was wondering is that dangerous or anything to your health?
  ERIK: (a pause) Of course. What do you mean?
  WULF: I mean, have any of you ever gotten really sick or had to go to the hospital because of it?
  ERIK: No. The people that are not of the Devil get sick and go to the hospital all the time. That’s fine, and how it should be.
  WULF: I see.
  ERIK: We like it when people go to the hospital…a lot.
  • Later in the same interview:
  ERIK: We succeed in everything, (Wulf). I’m just answering your questions, so you can give yourself a big fat clap on the shoulder.
  WULF: Well thanks. That’s pretty much all the questions I had, just right there.
  ERIK: Mmm. There you have it. Now you can die a peaceful death, seeing that you’ve got the answer to every question in your life that you ever needed answered.
  • The caption of this photo. The photo itself could also be seen as Narm.
  FREAKING OUT THE SQUARES SINCE 1998
  • Erik playing Dr Mikkanibal's sax.
• Genius Bonus: There are many obscure references to Gnosticism, the Bible, the Kabbalah, and Quimbanda in their lyrics.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The title track on The Wild Hunt contains the lyric, "And to our fellow hunters/In whose hearts gleamed the spark that later became our destiny/(And tomb for some)". While it might be referring to Jon Nödtveidt, it becomes this when Watain's live guitarist and frequent collaborator Selim Lemouchi killed himself year following the album's release.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Erik hugging it out with Wildness Perversion on stage at Mortuary Drape's 30th anniversary concert, then announcing the band's name as he leaves the stage in the same way WP did with the other guest vocalists.
  • Erik's relationship with his girlfriend is surprisingly wholesome, especially given his world-hating tendencies.
  • Their 2019 Singapore gig was cancelled due to security concerns, much to the anger of both the band and their fans. But when a fan apologized for the situation, Erik's touching response was, "Don't be sorry. Never be sorry."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the interview mentioned above, when asked if the band plans to release a DVD, Erik denies it, saying "fuck DVDs. Two years later, they released Opus Diaboli, a 13th anniversary live show DVD.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Managing to reach some level of mainstream success has not resonated well with some of the more hardcore Black Metal fans who value obscurity in bands.
• Narm: Some of the lyrics on Trident Wolf Eclipse are just downright goofy compared to their earlier works.
  Predatory pilgrim fiends
  Stalwart leather rebels stamp
  Triumphant Satanist march
• Nightmare Fuel: Pretty much everything about them. Most notably, their religious stances and their live shows.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Besides being Satanists, Watain (particularly Erik) have a long rap sheet of audacious behavior. They have often been mistaken as anti-Semitic due to the name of their first demo being Go Fuck Your Jewish "God" and one of their live guitarists giving a Hitler salute^note However, Erik has repeatedly and sincerely condemned Nazism in interviews, which is something that many PC culture critics tend to overlook. According to Erik, the leader cult and extreme conformity of Nazism is completely antithetical to Satanism. He's openly mocked nazis as being nerds who want to live in a globe-spanning white picket fence suburbia., have openly advocated violence, and used dead animals and pig's blood at their rituals.
• Signature Song: They used to close their rituals with "Waters of Ain", but have supposedly never played it live since the death of Selim. More often, they end it with "The Serpent's Chalice", which serves a sort of spiritual predecessor.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In a documentary on Selim Lemouchi, E is interviewed, and he — of all people — is visibly near tears.
  • "Waters of Ain". It's a 14 and a half minute-long song that Erik has stated is intended for his funeral. And it shows. While it isn't a lamentation, it is still a heartrending track about death and liberation from the flesh. The spoken outro by Carl McCoy just gives it that much greater depth and tragic beauty. On a similar note, "The Serpent's Chalice" covers the same ground, and is a bit of a tearjerker, as well.
  • "They Rode On". A highly atypical song for Watain, it does not follow in the abrasive footsteps of their early material, or even in that of the heavy metal influence of Lawless Darkness. Instead, it is an 8-minute, melancholic ballad in the vein of Fields of the Nephilim and later Bathory that takes its title from the Arc Words of Blood Meridian. While it remains a highly divisive track for fans and critics alike, there's no denying that the band has put just as much passion into this song as they did into "Waters of Ain".
  • "The Child Must Die". Despite the disturbing title and its gruesome accompanying image in the lyrics booklet, it's all about the hardship of offering up something precious as a sacrifice.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Generally why a lot of people hated The Wild Hunt.