Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

1994

What can be said that has not been said? An utterly monstrous beast of an album. Unsurpassed in its pure one-dimensional deployment of chilling aural devastation. The band was led by guitar player Euronymous (R.I.H)

Euronymous Murder

On August 9th, 1993 The Count, a man by the name of Snorre (who at one point was a member of Mayhem for a short time), and Andreas Nagelsett drove to Oslo with one intent: Grishnackh would kill Eurnymous in cold blood. On their way Varg dropped off Nagelsett at his place to make a lot of noise such as typing and playing loud music. Varg wanted it to look like he was home the whole time. When the three men arrived at Togen, The Count knew that Euronymous would not answer the door for him, that's why he took Snorre along. Snorre buzzed the intercom at the apartment complex where Euronymous lived. Euronymous answered the call and when the buzzer sounded Grishnackh slipped through the door and walked his way to the apartment. Euronymous had just woken up and he was surprised to see Varg while standing in his underwear. The Count waived a pieve a paper at Euronymous, that piece a paper was the record contract. Varg claimed that he wanted to discuss the contract and Euronymous let him in. An arguement took place about the Circle, the record contract, and also about a young girl named Ilsa. Varg claimed that Euronymous has stolen the sixteen year old girl from him. Euronymous went to the kitchen and Varg pulled out a knife. In an extremely cowardly manner The Count stabbed Euro in the back, and he fell instantly and began to crawl back up to his feet in an attempt to talk Varg out of it. Euro pushed the Count aside after being stabbed for the second time and ran towards the door to get help. Varg followed him as if he was Jason from the Friday thr 13th horror flicks and stabbed him again.

On the morning of August 10th Euronymous' neighbors found him dead in a pool of blood stabbed a total of tweenty-three times; sixteen in the back and seven to the head and neck. When the body was found Varg and Snorre were long gone.

An investigation instantly began and on August 20th Varg Vikernes was arrested for the murder of Euronymous. Varg was founded guilty and was sentenced to twenty-one years in prison, the maximum penalty in Norway.

Euronymous Last Interview

Dawn of the Black Hearts

Dawn of the Black Hearts is a bootleg album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. It is infamous for bearing a real photo of late singer Dead's corpse after his suicide with a shotgun and a knife. Tracks 1 through 8 were recorded live in Sarpsborg 1990, and tracks 9 through 12 in Lillehammer 1986.

Track listing
"Deathcrush" – 3:36
"Necrolust" – 4:19
"Funeral Fog" – 6:38
"Freezing Moon" – 6:06
"Carnage" – 4:18
"Buried by Time and Dust" – 5:46
"Chainsaw Gutsfuck" – 3:59
"Pure Fucking Armaggedon" – 3:15
"Dance Macabre" – 1:10
"Black Metal" – 3:00
"Procreation of the Wicked" – 2:40
"Welcome to Hell" – 3:46

Dead Suicide 1991

By April 1991, Dead was dead, aged 22, having suffered a self-administered shotgun wound to the head and several lacerations to the wrists, inflicted by a hunting knife he had bought that day. He killed himself in a house he shared with the other members of the band in Kråkstad. Apparently he left a note saying "Excuse all the blood." Euronymous took photos of Dead's corpse upon discovering him.

According to Stian Johannsen, who briefly took position as vocalist after Dead's suicide:

"He (Dead) didn't see himself as human; he saw himself as a creature from another world. He said he had many visions that his blood has frozen in his veins, that he was dead. That is the reason he took that name. He knew he would die..."

The ammo used had been sent to him by Bergen, Norway musician Kristian Vikernes (aka Varg Vikernes, Count Grishnackh; ex Old Funeral, sole member of black metal band Burzum, later convicted murderer of Euronymous). Euronymous took a number of polaroids at the scene, some of which later appeared in the booklet of the subsequent Mayhem bootleg Dawn of the Black Hearts. Euronymous was particularly cold and opportunistic about Dead's suicide; in interviews he claimed, speciously, that Dead had killed himself due to the rising popularity of death metal, the American movement Black Metal had risen against. According to Hellhammer, Euronymous took pieces of Dead's brain and made a stew, in which he put ham, frozen vegetables, and paprika. "He'd always said he wanted to eat flesh, so he figured this was an easy way." Euronymous also claimed to have collected and forged fragments of Dead's skull into necklaces, sending pieces to those he felt 'worthy'. Hellhammer has said he made a necklace from Dead's skull fragments as well.

In 1993 Live in Leipzig was released as the band's tribute to Dead. The release was followed by the acclaimed bootleg Dawn Of The Black Hearts, though against Euronymous's wishes, the release having being driven by the bands label. Following police and media attention Necrobutcher left Mayhem, thinning the band's ranks down to two.
Later that year, the recording of Mayhem's upcoming album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas resumed. In Dead's and Necrobutcher's absences, Attila Csihar handled vocals, with Vikernes on bass.

Due to adverse media and police attention, Euronymous was forced around this time to close his scene focal point record shop Helvete. By this stage he owed Vikernes 30.000 NOK (for album sales and related costs), which he was refusing to pay back, a fact argued over publicly on several occasions.

BURZUM

Burzum began in 1987 as a prominent Norwegian black metal solo project of Varg Vikernes (born Kristian Vikernes). Originally, he used the pseudonym Count Grishnackh. Burzum's early music shows a moderate Tolkien influence; for example, the name Count Grishnackh is taken from an orc character called Grishnákh in Tolkien's works. The choice of the name for the project reflects both this influence and the desire for anonymity: "Burzum" is a word of the Black Speech of Mordor meaning "darkness" (though Vikernes believes that Pagans consider it to mean "light" as opposed to how Christians consider it to mean "darkness"), and is one of those found on the Ring-inscription of the One Ring (the final part of the Ring inscription being "...agh burzum-ishi krimpatul", "...and in the darkness bind them"). Some of Burzum's early songs featured titles like "En Ring Til Å Herske" ("One Ring To Rule"); however, Vikernes later explained this to be a reference to the Rheingold of Norse mythology rather than to Tolkien's works, which themselves owe some debt to Norse mythology. As he continued to release albums, Vikernes' attraction to Norse mythology and Pagan beliefs became more and more apparent.

Much of Burzum's later music focuses on Norse legends, especially his two ambient albums: Dauði Baldrs, which deals exclusively with the legend of the death of Baldr, and Hliðskjálf, which recounts the death of Wotan and the approach of Ragnarok.

Musically, Burzum has progressed from primitive, raw black metal to classical-influenced ambient music characterised by minimalist tendencies and dark atmospheres. Vikernes' music is generally considered to be characterised by hypnotic repetition and simple yet profound song structures; this trademark sound has been present on Burzum's black metal and synthieval albums alike. Vikernes has described Burzum as a kind of "spell" or recreation of an imaginary world tied in with Pagan history. Each album, he claims, was designed as a kind of "spell" in itself, with each beginning song intending to make the listener more susceptible to "magic", the following songs to inspire a "trance-like state of mind", and the last song to carry the listener into a "world of fantasy" (dreams, for the listener would fall asleep - Burzum was supposed to have been evening music). Vikernes claims that the intent to create this fantasy world came from dissatisfaction with the real world.

MAYHEM

Early Years (1981-1990)

Mayhem was founded in 1981 (1979-Garage days) by guitarist / vocalist Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth - then 'Destructor'), bassist Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) and drummer Manheim (Kjetil Manheim). Euronymous concentrated solely on guitar following the hiring of vocalist Messiah (Eirik Nordheim) in 1986. After a short period, Maniac (Sven Erik Kristiansen) replaced Messiah and the band went on to make, following two previous demos, their third recording and first EP Deathcrush, with Euronymous's newly formed label 'Posercorpse Music'.
By this time, Mayhem's sound had developed from their initial death / speed metal influences to arrive at a sound more distinctive, dark and unique. Though maintaining the usual death metal obsessions in gore and violence, a more sinister, nihilistic preoccupation with both religion and paganism had emerged, taking influence from Norse mythology and Satanism (Euronymous opposed the Crowleyan and LaVeyan brands of Satanism, in favour of Christian perceptions).

An initial release of 1,000 copies of 3rd demo Deathcrush quickly sold out and was later successfully repressed in 1993 by the Posercorpse Music label, since having been renamed Deathlike Silence Productions as a joint venture with Øystein's Oslo specialist record shop Helvete. Øystein's plans for this new outlet included that it was to be "...like a black church in the future. We've thought about having total darkness inside, so that people would have to carry torches to be able to see the records."


Mayhem's Classic Line-up: l-r: Jørn Stubberud (Necrobutcher), Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous), Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead) and Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer)By the summer of 1988 both Manheim and Maniac had left the band; Manheim, tired of 'the life', to get a 'real' job, Maniac, following a failed suicide attempt and confinement in a mental institution. After two brief replacements, their positions were filled by Swede Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin, previously of Morbid), and scene drummer Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg).

Dead, as suggested by his stage name, was melancholic by nature and fascinated by death, decay, and darkness. He left even Euronymous (who by all accounts despised him) expressing concern for his mental stability. Despite this he was well liked on the scene, though regarded as a little naïve.

According to Bard Eithun "He (Dead) wasn't a guy you could know very well. I think even the other guys in Mayhem didn't know him very well. He was hard to get close to. I met him two weeks before he died. I'd met him maybe six to eight times, all in all. He had lots of weird ideas. I remember Aarseth was talking about him and said he did not have any humour. He did, but it was very obscure. Honestly, I don't think he was enjoying living in this world." [1]
Dead had, over time, carefully cultivated a notoriety for strange behavior; once burying a set of clothes underground for weeks so that he could later wear the decaying rags onstage. He had kept a rotting raven in a plastic bag so better to "inhale the scent of death" before going on stage. Such morbid fascinations and antics further developed Mayhem's progressing musical atmosphere, and by this point the band's lyrics had moved increasingly toward Satanism, darkness, depression and evil. A focal point of gigs at this time was the planting of pigs heads on stakes, center stage.
The new lineup with Dead and Euronymous was quickly to become the band's most notorious. After some live gigs in Norway and Germany (where Live in Leipzig was recorded), Mayhem started working on their first full length album: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Lord Satan's Secret Rites), though by the time of its eventual release the two cornerstone members would be dead.