Black Metal, **** You!

There’s not much that hasn’t been said about the legendary Norwegian Black Metal group Mayhem. I say legendary because not only has this band influenced countless others but their renowned images of Satanism and Violence is the predominant reason that this legend precedes them. While other metal bands claim to be all about death, destruction and gore Mayhem lives up to their name and makes others seem like thumbsucking pussies in comparison. At first glance there may be no significant connection to the world of modern day metal but in actual fact this group is partially responsible for the negative connotations, unfounded fear and controversy surrounding the genre.

Black metal is perhaps the most “extreme” incarnation of the broad spectrum of metal, well renounced for its satanic imagery, self mutilation, depression and themes of violence, but holy shit this band takes it to new unforseen heights. Formed in 1984 in Norway, originally consisting of Necrobutcher, Euronymous, Varg Vikernes and Hellhammer the band rose to prominence with their first release Deathcrush in 1987. The highlight for the band ends around there. The next few years saw a string of murders, suicides and violence tear the band apart, heightening their popularity but ultimately affecting the metal community on a larger scale.

Mid 1998 saw the replacement of founding member Maniac, who failed to commit suicide and as a result became eternally depressed. The void was filled by a person only known as Dead. It has long been speculated that Dead was in fact mentally ill, having suffered a concussion from slipping into an icy lake and almost drowning when he was a child. As his name suggests he was fascinated with death, and would often bury clothes weeks before a live performance and dig them up on the night, rotting and covered in maggots and worms. Another routine ritual was carrying around a dead raven in a bag so he could inhale the scent of death before performances. In other words he knew he would die. According to another local band member Bård G. "Faust" 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."

The inevitable happened and on the 8th of April 1991, Dead was found Dead (excuse the pun) in his home with self inflicted cuts to his arms and a shotgun wound to the head. A suicide note read “Excuse all the blood.” He was found by fellow band member Euronymous who then later went to the shop to grab a disposable camera and took pictures of Dead’s Corpse. It is long speculated that he also took fragments of his skull and made them into necklaces. Reportedly Swedish band Marduk is in possession of said fragment/s. The death affected Necrobutcher so much that he quit the band.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse another fatal blow saw the band ripped apart from inside. An altercation between Euronymous and Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh occurred on the morning of August 10, 1993 Euronymous was stabbed 23 times by Vikernes at his place of residence due to Vikernes stating that Euronymous had planned to kill him over disputes to financial profits of the records. Later when arrested Vikernes also confessed to 8 counts of arson of local churches which occurred between 1992 and 1993. He was later sentenced to 21 Years imprisonment.

These events define “extreme metal” and the global media sought to capitalise on this controversy by projecting a negative image on the metal community claiming that it was full of Satanists, drug usage and was a labelled a violent cult. Due to the nature of Metal having numerous subgenres, this can only be applied to Black Metal as its origins can be traced back to a strong anti-religion movement, due to the nature of Norway suppressing its inhabitants with religious beliefs contradictory to its Viking forefathers. This can in no way be associated with the likes of Death Metal, Doom Metal or Grindcore as they are vastly differing forms of Metal founded on different and unique ideologies in different time periods. Below is a recent interview (somewhat hilarious) with the remaining members of Mayhem who are strangely still going strong, or are they?