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.

Black Legions...

Black Metal Inner Circle

The Black Metal Inner Circle was a group comprising of members of the first wave of Norwegian black metal . They were influential, both musically and socially on the emerging black metal scene of the early 1990s. The group later was the focus of controversy due to crimes committed an attributed to some of its members.
The group was formed around 1990 by Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous) of Mayhem, in the basement of his record store, Helvete (which translates as "Hell" in Norwegian). Notable members of the inner circle included Mayhem vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead), Varg Vikernes of Burzum, as well as Bård Faust Eithun and Samoth from Emperor.
The group's beliefs were a mixture of isolationism, Norse paganism/Norse Mythology and racial superiority, very much dominated by Aarseth's personal ideas. Although most of the group's members were anti-Christian, few held with the biblical belief of a final battle between God and Satan. The satanic philosophy of Anton LaVey was rejected in view of a vengeful satanism. In music publications, Aarseth was often criticical of metal scenes and bands outside Norway. He ran an independent record label, Deathlike Silence Records, which promoted some of the emerging black metal bands.
In 1991, Dead committed suicide and the group became even more intense in their beliefs. The historic Fantoft Stave church in Fantoft, Norway was destroyed by arsonists on June 6th, 1992, soon followed by attacks on several other Norwegian churches.
Ideological and business disputes arose between Øystein Aarseth Aarseth and Varg Vikernes. On August 10, 1993, Aarseth was murdered by Varg Vikernes at his home in Oslo following an argument. Vikernes was later arrested and convicted of the murder, along with three counts of arson. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison. The police discovered, among Vikernes' belongings, a list of crimes committed by other members of the group. Eithun received a 14 year sentence for murdering a man in 1992 and a church arson in the same year. Samoth received an 18 month prison sentence for arson in March of 1995.
The crimes and convictions of several Black Metal Circle members brought it to public notoriety in Norway. Overall theories of the group's ideologies and why the crimes were committed were published widely in the Scandinavian press and underground music publications of the time.

BLACK METAL

Black metal started in the early 1980´s with bands such as Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, and Hellhammer. The second wave of black metal, an essentially Scandinavian movement, started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, primarily in Norway. Black metal has gathered intense criticism from many sectors of society, for its brutal aesthetic, its misanthropic spirit, and the extreme right wing ideologies displayed by some musicians working in the National Socialist Black Metal subgenre. However, at the same time it experienced a meteoric rise in popularity among metal fans during the 1990s.

Characteristics

Black metal can display, but is not limited to, the following characteristics:

Guitars
> Fast guitars with alternate or tremolo picking
> Standard tuned guitars (In contrast to death metal which is typically tuned down.)
> Relatively thin guitar sound or relatively thick guitar sound—usually not in the middle

Drums
> Double bass, blast beat, and D-beat drumming
> Fast, repetitive, aggressive drums, often with blast beats. At other times, the drums can take a slower role usually accompanied by a very dry and empty tone — especially for the effect of the atmosphere of the music. On occasion, some groups such as Burzum and Xasthur will dispense with drums altogether in certain song segments.

Lyrics and vocals
A distinct "rasped" vocal style, a very guttural rasp, which is reminiscent of a torture. This is basically standard in every black metal, though there are exceptions, such as Primordial, who are still classed black metal without the rasp vocal. Some bands, particularly symphonic black metal bands bands, incorporate clean vocals, usually of a male choir sound, though this is used for atmospheric purposes.
Lyrics that often take the form of Satanic, Pagan, or occult themes which blaspheme Christianity.
Lyrics that celebrate the cold, darkness, forests, and other natural surroundings of northern European countries, reflecting modern black metal's origins in Scandinavia and desolation, sometimes apocalyptic, whose causes are rooted in human nature and actions. However, there are some exceptions (although they usually incorporate these previous themes as well).
Lyrics are commonly inspired by fantasy, in particular the works of Tolkien set in Middle Earth. For example, the Austrian band Summoning focuses almost exclusively on Middle Earth for their themes and content. Other bands create their own fictional realms, for instance the lyrics of Immortal depict an imaginary kingdom called Blashyrkh (Blash-eerk), which is ruled by a raven king named Ravendark.

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