Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in Oslo in 1984. They were one of the pioneers of the Norwegian black metal scene, and their music has profoundly influenced the black metal genre. Mayhem's early career was marked by several controversies, including their notorious live performances, the 1991 suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead"), and the 1993 murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth ("Euronymous") by former bassist Varg Vikernes ("Count Grishnackh").
The group released a demo and an EP, which were highly influential and amassed a devoted following. Their sporadic live performances added to Mayhem's infamy, and the band was also noted for their connections to a series of Norwegian church arsons and other crimes. Mayhem temporarily disbanded following Aarseth's murder, shortly before the release of their debut album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.
In 1995, Mayhem reformed with new guitarist Rune Eriksen ("Blasphemer") and three members from earlier incarnations: drummer Jan Axel Blomberg ("Hellhammer"), bassist Jørn Stubberud ("Necrobutcher"), and vocalist Sven Erik Kristiansen ("Maniac"). Attila Csihar and Morten Iversen ("Teloch") have since replaced Kristiansen and Eriksen, respectively. Their post-Aarseth material is characterized by increased experimentation. The 2007 album Ordo Ad Chao, received the Spellemann Award for Best Heavy Metal Album and later received the Honorary Award in 2021.
History 1984–1988: Early years
Mayhem was founded in 1984 by guitarist Øystein Aarseth (initially known as "Destructor",Jon Kristiansen: Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries. Brooklyn, New York: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 39. later "Euronymous"), bassist and vocalist Jørn Stubberud ("Necrobutcher"), and drummer Kjetil Manheim. The band took their name from the Venom song "Mayhem with Mercy". The lineup began performing cover songs by Black Sabbath, Venom and Motörhead. Once they began to write their own music, their major influences were Venom, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Bathory and Celtic Frost.Pure Fucking Mayhem, dir. Stefan Rydehed, Prophecy Productions, 2008 Other significant influences include Sarcófago, Parabellum, Hellhammer, Amebix, GBH, the Exploited, Discharge, the Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Sodom, Destruction, Tormentor, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd and Marillion. Soon, they recorded the demo Pure Fucking Armageddon. After its release, Aarseth and Stubberud, during the studio rehearsals for the first demo, recruited two session members, Eirik Norheim ("Messiah") and Sven Erik Kristiansen ("Maniac"), in 1986 and 1987. Norheim performed only at one concert, which took place on 20 April 1985 in Ski, and by the end of that year, he had left Mayhem. He later formed the hardcore punk band Within Range and the Oi!/street punk band Cockroach Clan. With Kristiansen, Mayhem recorded their first EP, Deathcrush, in 1987, which was released through Euronymous' newly formed label Posercorpse Music. Manheim and Euronymous only performed at one show on 22 March 1986 at the Ski theater under the name L.E.G.O., which was recorded on video. This was a side project focused on experimental music that challenged mainstream conventions.
The initial release of Deathcrush, limited to 1,000 copies, quickly sold out. It was later reissued in 1993 by the newly renamed Deathlike Silence Productions in collaboration with Euronymous' Oslo specialist record shop Helvete (Norwegian for "Hell"). Manheim and Kristiansen departed the band in 1988.
1988–1991: With Dead After two brief replacements, the roles of vocalist and drummer in Mayhem were filled by Swedish vocalist Pelle Yngve Ohlin ("Dead") and local drummer Jan Axel Blomberg ("Hellhammer"). With Dead, the band's concerts gained notoriety for their extreme theatricality and atmosphere. From the outset of his career, Dead was known for wearing "corpse paint", involving the application of black and white makeup to achieve a ghastly appearance. According to Necrobutcher, "it wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool." Hellhammer asserted that Dead was "the first black-metal musician to use corpse paint." To complete his corpse-like image, Dead would bury his stage clothes and dig them up to wear on concert nights.
During performances, Dead would often cut himself with hunting knives and broken glass. The band frequently featured pig or sheep heads impaled on stakes at the front of the stage.
Stian Johansen ("Occultus"), who shortly took over as vocalist after Dead's suicide, commented on him: "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."
In 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to "an old house in the forest" near Oslo, which they used as a rehearsal space. They began writing songs for their next album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher noted that, after living together for a time, Dead and Euronymous "got on each other's nerves a lot" and "weren't really friends at the end." Hellhammer recalled an incident where Dead once went outside to sleep in the woods because Euronymous was playing synthesizer music that Dead detested. Euronymous then followed him outside, shooting into the air with a shotgun.Lords of Chaos, p. 52. Varg Vikernes alleged that Dead once stabbed Euronymous with a knife.Lords of Chaos, p. 57.
On April 8, 1991, Dead committed suicide in the house rented by the band. He was found by Euronymous, who discovered him with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note began with "Excuse all the blood" and included an explanation: "nobody will ever understand this, but as a sort of explanation, I am not human, this is only a dream and soon I will awake." The note concluded with the phrase, "I didn't come up with this now but 17 years ago." Attached to the note were the lyrics to the song "Life Eternal." Upon discovering Dead’s body, Euronymous went to a nearby store, purchased a disposable camera, and photographed the corpse after rearranging certain items.
Necrobutcher recounted Euronymous informing him about the suicide: 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."
Euronymous subsequently used Dead's suicide to cultivate Mayhem's 'evil' image, claiming that Dead had taken his life due to the commercialization of black metal.Lords of Chaos, pp. 59–60. In time, rumors circulated that Euronymous had made a stew from bits of Dead's brain and fashioned necklaces from fragments of his skull. The band later denied the former rumor, confirming only the latter. Moreover, Euronymous claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy, a claim supported by several others in the scene, including Bård 'Faust' EithunLords of Chaos, p. 55. and Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen.Kristiansen, p. 219. In 2018, a fragment of Dead's skull went on sale for $3,500, accompanied by a letter from Euronymous stating: "OK! That should be all. I'm enclosing a little piece from Dead's cranium in case you'd like to have it. Hear from you soon!" In a 2019 interview with Loudwire and Consequence of Sound, Necrobutcher stated he had contemplated killing Euronymous due to his treatment of Dead, but that Vikernes "beat [him] to it."
Fans of the band have continued the trend of using blood in artwork. Notably, Hellhammer himself penned the lyrics to "Pagan Fears" in his own blood in October 2019.
1991–1994: Murder of Euronymous, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and breakup Dead's suicide and Euronymous's actions following it profoundly affected Necrobutcher, prompting him to leave Mayhem, which reduced the band to two members. The group rehearsed briefly thereafter with Occultus, who joined with plans to begin recording vocal and bass tracks for Mayhem's debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. However, this arrangement was short-lived; Occultus departed the band after receiving a death threat from Euronymous. In July 1993, Live in Leipzig was released as the band's tribute to Dead.
In late 1992, recording for Mayhem's upcoming album resumed, leading Aarseth to enlist three additional session musicians: Burzum's Varg Vikernes (stage name "Count Grishnackh"), Thorns' Snorre W. Ruch ("Blackthorn"), who handled bass guitar and rhythm guitar respectively, and vocalist Attila Csihar, of the Hungarian black metal band Tormentor. Due to complaints from his parents, Euronymous closed his central record shop, Helvete, citing adverse media and police attention as reasons. Much of the album was recorded during the first half of 1993 at the Grieg Hall in Bergen. To coincide with the album's release, Euronymous and Vikernes conspired to blow up Nidaros Cathedral, which is featured on the album cover. Euronymous's murder in August 1993 brought this plan to a halt and delayed the album's release.Martin Ledang, Pål Aasdal (2008). Once Upon a Time in Norway.
On the 10th of August 1993, Vikernes murdered Euronymous. That night, Vikernes and Ruch traveled 518 km from Bergen to Euronymous's apartment in Oslo. Upon their arrival, a confrontation ensued, culminating in Vikernes fatally stabbing Euronymous. His body was discovered outside the apartment, bearing twenty-three stab wounds—two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back. Vikernes contends that Euronymous had plotted to torture him to death and videotape the event, using a meeting about an unsigned contract as a pretext. On the night of the murder, Vikernes claims he intended to present Euronymous with the signed contract and "tell him to fuck off," but that Euronymous attacked him first. Additionally, Vikernes claimed that most of Euronymous's stab wounds were inflicted by broken glass he fell onto during the struggle. Vikernes was arrested within days, and a few months later, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence in Norway, for both the murder and church arsons; he was released from prison in 2009. Blackthorn, who waited for Vikernes downstairs and played no role in Aarseth's murder, was charged with complicity and sentenced to eight years in prison. With only Attila and Hellhammer remaining, Mayhem effectively ceased to exist.
In a video interview with Consequence of Sound on 15 October 2019, Necrobutcher discussed his lingering bitterness toward Euronymous after being replaced in the band by Varg Vikernes prior to the recording of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. He recounted his thoughts on Euronymous's murder, stating that:
"OK, I can tell it right now, because I've been holding it in for many years, but actually I was on my way down to kill him myself. And when it happened, I saw the morning paper, thinking 'Fuck, I gotta get home to my place and get out all the weapons and drugs and shit I had in my house, because they're coming to my house because I'm probably going to be the No. 1 suspect for this.' But little did I know that the Norwegian police already knew that Count Grishnackh [Varg] was going down also to kill him. Because they bugged his phone, and he actually talked about this killing before he went to Bergen so the cops already knew that he was coming, so they probably were thinking to themselves, 'We didn't nail this guy for the church burnings, so let's nail him for murder, and get rid of this fucking guy in Oslo the same time.' So that's basically what happened."