A 22-year-old “black metal” musician pleaded guilty Monday to torching three African-American Baptist churches last year to gain notoriety. Holden Matthews, the son of a sheriff’s deputy, was emulating neo-Nazi metal musician Varg Vikernes, who served 15 years in prison for crimes that included burning churches in Norway, prosecutors said. Matthews, who videotaped the arsons and then posted the footage to Facebook, faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and up to 70 when he is sentenced. Matthews was active in pagan groups and black metal, an extreme, brutal, and inaccessible form of heavy metal.
