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Mayhem: the most disturbing period in metal
Warnings: this story contains mentions of SH, Suicide, murder, arson, and delusions.
Before I begin this video, it is worth saying that everything that is to be said about Mayhem has been said before, I have no new input. I just wanted to cover this topic for a school project because of my love for black metal and because I was given the opportunity.
How black metal began/first wave
Venom coined the term black metal in their album. First wave black metal was inspired by thrash and heavy metal, its themes were of the occult and satanic, darker imagery than ever before in the genre. The sound of early black metal emerged from death metal and thrash. First wave bands were Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, and Mercyful Fate.
The goal of the image these bands were trying to achieve was evil, but for fun, not for real, and they knew that.
The legacy of Mayhem/second wave
This story contains 3 relevant people:
Euronymous / the beginning of Mayhem
Øystein, who also went by Euronymous, was an interesting person. He was a founder of the Norwegian black metal scene, and many respected him. He was known for being a very extreme person who had extreme ideologies, one being rooted in metal elitism, that metal isnt for everyone, and that you need to be a cold hearted killer to truly be metal. He was notably a theistic satanist and had a deep hatred for anything mainstream.
He was into authoritarian communism, and wanted maximum suffering for everyone politically. On the contrary, he hated the church, which to his dismay, made people uplifted. But also stripped paganism from Norway and made many people miserable, like him. I’m surprised he was so against the church when it was another oppressive organization. But thats just my opinion.
The band Mayhem, named after Venom’s song “mayhem with mercy”. Øystein would take great inspiration for everything he did from Venom. The band Mayhem originally had three members:
Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous), who was the guitarist.
Jørn Stubberud (aka Necrobutcher), who was the bass and vocals.
Manheim, who was the drums.
On August 16, 1987, the band released Deathcrush, their first EP. Despite having only an EP and a dream, they somehow had a small cult following. One of the main band members, Manheim, left the band.
Dead / tragedy
Pelle Ohlin had his own band, Morbid, but felt it wasn’t extreme enough of a project. He moved onto mayhem, sending mayhem a dead rat on a cross and a tape. This was exactly what Øystein was looking for in terms of extremity. In black metal, the competition was who could one up the other on being disturbing, and Pelle was the real deal. Pelle immediately moved from Sweden at just 19 to live with the band. Pelle was the vocalist in Mayhem from 1988-1991. He wrote lyrics for Funeral Fog, Freezing Moon, Buried by, Time and Dust, Pagan Fears, and Life Eternal. Pelle went by the name Dead, because he believed that he was dead. He also created a makeup style that still is popular today, called corpse paint. Other bands did it in the past, but in a mocking, silly way. Pelle used corpse paint because it made him feel like he looked really dead.
Pelle Ohlin was a deeply disturbed individual, with an obsession with death and dying. He was known for his obsession with death and his extreme behaviours, which included a lot of self harm and unstable psychological issues. He most likely had Cotards syndrome, a rare but very real delusion where one believes that they are dead, dying, nonexistent, or missing a limb or organ. This was very clear based on the little information we have on him. He would say that he died from an ice skating incident, but that was not the truth. His brother confirmed that his spleen ruptured when he was beaten by bullies in middle school. He was hospitalized and dead for a short amount of time, and was never the same after. His fascination with death started.
He was known for being a morbid guy (no pun intended). He barely ate, and slept with dead birds under his bed to smell like death. Before concerts, he would huff bags of dead animals to be immersed in death. During performances, he would self harm on stage, once by cutting his wrists and breaking a botte, then digging it in his arm, then making it bleed on the front row.
There were more normal things about him that aren’t as extreme as his other behaviours, such as his distain for technology, which is why he hand wrote every letter, and how he was a bit of an artist. He would also wander in the forest, as the forest was probably his favourite desolate place.
The band rented a cabin in the woods, basically in the middle of nowhere, the band members lived together, and te two, Øystein and Pelle were anything but peaceful. During the later days, he would be more closed off and isolated himself. This was likely due to the Psychological torture Øystein would make him endure by being an awful person and allegedly telling Pelle to end his life. He would also allegedly blast Synth music to piss Pelle off for no reason but to put him on edge, then when Pelle would display extreme behaviour, then would be rewarded since Øystein chose edginess over empathy. Øystein was practically obsessed with Pelle, fascinated by his morbidities and built dark mythos around pelle to make the band seem cooler and darker.
But this didn’t last too long, as of April 1991, Pelle ended his life. He allegedly, and correctly me if I’m wrong, He slit his wrists in his room, but that took too long, so he used a shotgun to blow his brains out. He was alone at the cabin at the time. Øystein was the first person to find him. Instead of calling the police like a normal person, he drove out to the corner store to buy a disposable camera. Øystein then had a photoshoot with Pelle’s dead body, propping him and the other objects involved in his suicide. It is worth noting that to make matters more disturbing, Øystein collected bone fragments of Pelle’s skull and made necklaces out of them, giving them to his favourite friends. This was a rumor that was confirmed to be true I hear.
Jørn’s recollection of what happened after are in his words:
“Øystein called me up the next day ... and says, "Dead has done something really cool! He killed himself." I thought, have you lost it? What do you mean cool? He says, "Relax, I have photos of everything." I was in shock and grief. He was just thinking how to exploit it. So I told him, "OK. Don't even fucking call me before you destroy those pictures."
Jørn left the band out of disgust for Øystein and how much of a messed up person he was. To make matters worse, Øystein would claim that Pelle took his life because mayhem was becoming mainstream. He turned Pelle into dark lore, some legend of metal, rather than a deeply troubled human being.
Varg Vikernes / Helvete
A year after Pelle’s tragic death, Øystein obtained three new members in the band, Varg Vikernes of Burzum, Snorre of Thorns, and Attila Csihar of Tormenter. Varg replaced Jørn, who was the bassist. Around the time Helvete, a shop filled with black metal record, and a hangout for the Norwegian black metal scene, Øystein’s own record label Deathlike Silence was created. Another relevant thing that was created around Helvete, was the black circle, Øystein’s edge lord friend group.
Varg would start a trend of arson. On 6 June 1992, the fantoft stave church was lit ablaze. By none other than Varg Vikernes himself. He practically changed the game. before, people in the black metal scene spoke a lot of being evil and wanting to commit crimes, he took his hatred of the church into action, one upping everyone who considered themselves to be an evil satanist.
After a few more church burnings, Faust of Emperor, killed a man named Magne Andreassen. Bård followed Magne into the forest and stabbed him 37 times. When Bård told the black circle, they celebrated by burning down another church.
Varg later went on to tell a reporter that he knew who burned the churches, but didn’t say names. When the reporters published the story in January 1993, Varg was arrested and interrogated. At this point, all eyes were on the Norwegian black metal scene. Black metal was being talked about by not hundreds but thousands.
Rock Furore, a Norwegian magazine, published an interview with Vikernes in February 1993. In it, he said of the prison system: "It's much too nice here. It's not hell at all. In this country prisoners get a bed, toilet and shower. It's completely ridiculous. I asked the police to throw me in a real dungeon, and also encouraged them to use violence".
He didn’t cooperate with the police, and they ultimately was let go. The people of the black circle were angry with him, he could have gotten them all arrested with his snitching. Because of the pressure of the law enforcers, Øystein shut down Helvete, to Varg’s disgust.
Øystein allegedly told one of his friends that he would kill Varg, but never did. Varg somehow heard from a friend, but he wouldn’t let the seemingly empty threat slide. Varg and Snorre drove allegedly 7 hours from Bergen to Øystein’s apartment in Oslo. Varg asked Øystein to let him in his house, and somehow he let him in, despite their bad blood. Varg entered the apartment, and allegedly by Varg’s words, Øystein kicked him in the chest. Varg claims that Øystein went to fetch a knife, so Varg chased him out of the apartment and into the stairwell, then stabbing him 23 times, two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back. Varg mentions that Øystein was killed instantly when he was stabbed in the head. It is unsure if Varg’s self defence claims are true or not, but Jørn believes that the murder was fuelled by Øystein’s earlier death threats.
Varg was arrested in the 19th of August, 1993. Around this time, Bård confessed his murder. On May 1994, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was finally released. Jørn and Jan Axel came together, keeping Mayhem from dying, the band is currently active today.
NSBM/The filth that came after
While the events of Helvete, and after Varg was imprisoned, there was a surge of black metal bands that looked up to Varg, especially his ideals. Sadly, this meant there were a lot of nazi bands. The term national socialist black metal became a thing, and was popular in the black metal scene. Bands like:
Absurd,
Burzum,
Clandestine Blaze,
Der Stürmer,
Graveland,
What was once a fun genre, became filled with white supremacist and nazis. There has been the argument that nsbm is okay because black metal was always evil, but pretending to be evil for the aesthetic, and having prejudice for minorities are two very different things. People only pretend not to know the difference.
A hope for a better future/third wave
But all hope is not lost. There are bands that have little to no controversies. Hard to believe due to much of the information I had said before, all black metal bands must have one nazi, one murderer, and one arsonist right, not at all. There are black metal bands that use their gift of music for good, instead of for real evil. Good black metal bands are:
Wolves in the throne room,
Blackbraid,
(Personal favourite) Werwulf
As a black metal enjoyer myself, I tend to be very conscious of the bands I listen to, and do background checks for almost all of them. This may in other people’s opinions, “take the fun out of it”, but I just have morals, and that shouldn’t be an issue. Black metal to me is one of, if not, my favourite subgenre of metal. I love the screeches and heavy distorted guitars. I love the dark poetic lyrics, and the dark fashion that goes with the image. In my opinion, it is a beautiful subculture, and I have hope that past events don’t ruin it for everyone who may be looking into the genre for the first time.
Mayhem and how it changed black metal forever
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I think it's important to note that Euronymous was only into the types of communism brought on by people like Stalin because of the suffering that Stalin and similar dictators inflicted. He didn't actually like Communism as a concept because "communism is fucking good for the people..."
He was into dictatorships, communist or otherwise. And communism happened to be the one most fresh in people's minds at the time. He wasn't really in belief of communists values and ideologies.
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