Twisted Tales: Norwegian Black Metalers Mayhem Take a Literal Stab at Notoriety

Posted on Oct 23rd 2009 5:00PM by James Sullivan
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When the singer known as Dead departed the Norwegian black metal band known as Mayhem in April 1991, he had four wry words for the bandmates he left behind: "Excuse all the blood." True to the alias the 21-year-old singer had adopted, his method of quitting the band involved a self-inflicted kitchen knife and, when that proved inefficient, a shotgun to the head.

With ghouls and bloody corpses making their annual rounds during the Halloween season, it's hard to beat the wildly twisted tale of the aptly named Mayhem. Dead's suicide is just the tip of the Nordic iceberg for this real-life horror show, which pioneered the so-called "second wave" of black metal.

On the strength of the underground demo 'Pure F---ing Armageddon,' Mayhem emerged in the mid-1980s as the premier successor to such dark-minded thrash bands as Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost, who have been credited with the origins of the black metal style. Founded by the guitarist Euronymous, the band went through vocalists called Maniac and Messiah before welcoming into the fold the notably disturbed Dead, formerly of the band Morbid.

At the time, the black metal scene was centered around Euronymous' Oslo record store, called Helvete -- "hell" in Norwegian. Mayhem played shows with pigs' heads impaled on stakes; Dead performed in putrid clothes that had been buried for weeks and dreamed of hanging human skulls from meat hooks and sacrificing goats and cows onstage. All this bleak imagery might be amusing if not for the very real violence the black metal bands fell into, particularly the widely publicized arson attacks on dozens of Christian churches around Norway.

When Dead's body was discovered, Euronymous grabbed a camera and took pictures, one of which later appeared on the cover of a Mayhem bootleg. Members of the band's "Black Circle" claimed that a stew was made from bits of Dead's brain matter. Euronymous eventually discounted that claim, though he did admit to making necklaces from pieces of the skull.

But Mayhem's founder got no protection from his dead singer's cranial keepsakes. On Aug. 10, 1993, Euronymous was confronted at his apartment by a fellow musician, Varg Vikernes, a short-term member of Mayhem who took the alter ego Count Grishnackh after recording as a one-man metal band called Burzum. In a dispute that remains mysterious -- differing accounts blame a girl and a record contract -- Vikernes stabbed Euronymous more than 20 times. When he was sentenced for the murder, he smiled.

After serving 16 of the maximum 21-year sentence for murder, Vikernes was released from a Norwegian prison earlier this year. Meanwhile, Mayhem continues to exist after several more lineup changes, having reunited in 1997 with early members Necrobutcher, Hellhammer and Maniac. The band's 1994 album, 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas,' was dedicated to Euronymous, whose family protested the fact that the bass parts had been recorded by Vikernes, his killer. How's that for a stab in the back?