Mayhem within Mayhem
Black Metal, a sub-genre of Heavy Metal focusing on Satanism, the Occult, and almost anything else that seems inhumane, has spawned some artists that have gone to extremes to make themselves seem more “real” to the fans who enjoyed the dark life, especially within the Norwegian Black Metal scene. Most fans of the genre
wanting to stand up for their roots against Christianity would probably never go to the extremes of actually performing sacrifices, arson, and murder that had been seen in Norway, but these few had goals to be the most powerful beings man has ever seen.
With the rise of very prominent Black Metal bands in Norway came one band, called Mayhem, involved with some of the biggest incidents, such as over fifty supposed church burnings, that have come out of the Black Metal industry. Euronymous, one of the founding members of Mayhem, started Deathlike Silence Productions, the first record label to only support Black Metal, and also opened up his own record shop called “Helvete”, which became a big outlet when it came to Black Metal records. The band was dead center in the middle of the scene and often would come up with ways to exaggerate the ideas people who took the whole Satanist thing seriously.
One member of the band, nicknamed “Dead”, has gained publicity through self mutilation and was heard saying things like “I Like the way people react when they see my blood spewing everywhere.” Dead shot himself with a shotgun Euronymous owned leaving a letter that only said, “Excuse all the Blood” which began one of the biggest stories in Mayhem’s history. Upon finding the body, the band members were said to have taken pictures and pieces of his skull to make into a necklace. The pictures were stolen and used as a cover for a bootleg Mayhem album. People have also heard that parts of his brain were used for a stew but that was denied by the band but admitted they had in fact made necklaces from his skull.
Another member, Varg Vikerness, bassist at the time, is one of the most extreme people of almost anybody known in the genre. Euronymous and Varg, although band mates, had somewhat of a rivalry. Varg openly claims he thought Euronymous was weak and pitiful, speaking as if he was unfit to be such a big name in Black Metal and that he himself was somehow better than everybody else. The murder of Euronymous was committed by Varg in what he claims was an act of self-defense, but when explaining the situation on his website, it doesn’t seem like he was that bothered by killing him at all, in fact you could even say he had fun. Varg’s story explains that Euronymous was unhappy with Varg and actually plotted to kill him; Varg overheard this from a friend and began to play along with Euronymous’ set up. Making a trip to meet Euronymous he arrived at the building and as he walked in Euronymous’ door Varg made him jump causing him to kick Varg in the chest, starting the fight, it ended with Euronymous running from Varg who had a pocket knife and stabbed him in the forehead when he caught him, killing him.
There are still some bands today that claim to support insane acts such as this, most of this can probably be brought down to a publicity stunt, and the only band with any real controversy right now is Gorgoroth. When one of their shows in Poland had sheep heads, pentagrams, crucified nude models, a an 80 liter bloodbath, which was seen as a religious offense, it was prosecutable under Polish law. Many Black Metal bands today actually support their folk roots, and will glorify the aspects of their religion and acts involved in folk mythology usually fueled by the wave of Christianity that took over their countries in the old days. Black metal, having lost most of the serious evil that swarmed about it is more enjoyed for its sound and influence rather than finding the ultimate life of evil to claim power over everybody else.
Black Metal, a sub-genre of Heavy Metal focusing on Satanism, the Occult, and almost anything else that seems inhumane, has spawned some artists that have gone to extremes to make themselves seem more “real” to the fans who enjoyed the dark life, especially within the Norwegian Black Metal scene. Most fans of the genre
wanting to stand up for their roots against Christianity would probably never go to the extremes of actually performing sacrifices, arson, and murder that had been seen in Norway, but these few had goals to be the most powerful beings man has ever seen.With the rise of very prominent Black Metal bands in Norway came one band, called Mayhem, involved with some of the biggest incidents, such as over fifty supposed church burnings, that have come out of the Black Metal industry. Euronymous, one of the founding members of Mayhem, started Deathlike Silence Productions, the first record label to only support Black Metal, and also opened up his own record shop called “Helvete”, which became a big outlet when it came to Black Metal records. The band was dead center in the middle of the scene and often would come up with ways to exaggerate the ideas people who took the whole Satanist thing seriously.
One member of the band, nicknamed “Dead”, has gained publicity through self mutilation and was heard saying things like “I Like the way people react when they see my blood spewing everywhere.” Dead shot himself with a shotgun Euronymous owned leaving a letter that only said, “Excuse all the Blood” which began one of the biggest stories in Mayhem’s history. Upon finding the body, the band members were said to have taken pictures and pieces of his skull to make into a necklace. The pictures were stolen and used as a cover for a bootleg Mayhem album. People have also heard that parts of his brain were used for a stew but that was denied by the band but admitted they had in fact made necklaces from his skull.
Another member, Varg Vikerness, bassist at the time, is one of the most extreme people of almost anybody known in the genre. Euronymous and Varg, although band mates, had somewhat of a rivalry. Varg openly claims he thought Euronymous was weak and pitiful, speaking as if he was unfit to be such a big name in Black Metal and that he himself was somehow better than everybody else. The murder of Euronymous was committed by Varg in what he claims was an act of self-defense, but when explaining the situation on his website, it doesn’t seem like he was that bothered by killing him at all, in fact you could even say he had fun. Varg’s story explains that Euronymous was unhappy with Varg and actually plotted to kill him; Varg overheard this from a friend and began to play along with Euronymous’ set up. Making a trip to meet Euronymous he arrived at the building and as he walked in Euronymous’ door Varg made him jump causing him to kick Varg in the chest, starting the fight, it ended with Euronymous running from Varg who had a pocket knife and stabbed him in the forehead when he caught him, killing him.
There are still some bands today that claim to support insane acts such as this, most of this can probably be brought down to a publicity stunt, and the only band with any real controversy right now is Gorgoroth. When one of their shows in Poland had sheep heads, pentagrams, crucified nude models, a an 80 liter bloodbath, which was seen as a religious offense, it was prosecutable under Polish law. Many Black Metal bands today actually support their folk roots, and will glorify the aspects of their religion and acts involved in folk mythology usually fueled by the wave of Christianity that took over their countries in the old days. Black metal, having lost most of the serious evil that swarmed about it is more enjoyed for its sound and influence rather than finding the ultimate life of evil to claim power over everybody else.
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