The Darkest Band in History (Mayhem)

form of music they say has disturbing satanic overtones it's called black metal music and encourages devil worship and the desecration of churches [Music] so [Music] [Music] black metal has become one of the most talked about controversial sub-genres over the last few decades its history is so long rich and confusing that even trying to dissect the genre as a whole is a task that many music journalists have failed at but there is one man that has so many ties to the genre and such an influence on the music that merely talking about him and the band he was a part of is a crash course into the history of black metal itself this man was a stein orset otherwise known as euronymous he was the co-founder of the norwegian band known as mayhem a notorious group that had an intense influence on the scene as a whole and he perfectly encapsulated the absolute insanity that some of these black metal icons took part in his extreme antics nihilistic nature and abrasive persona made him stand out like a sore thumb in a genre that was already pretty intense to begin with all of these elements would eventually combine to a shocking conclusion in 1993 when euronymous was killed by his own bandmate but we have about a thousand other crazy things to talk about before we get to that point so strap in and join me as we have a look at the insane life of one of black metal's biggest icons on the 22nd of march 1968 a stein or seth was born in igersund norway a small town in the south that had actually been broken up and divided three years prior meaning that the population of the town he grew up in was only around 3 700 people very little is known about his childhood as is the case with many black metal musicians but what is known is that arseth rebelled from the conventional norms of his small town from an early age and he was inspired by other metal bands like many of his contemporaries one of these bands was an english group known as venom based in newcastle venom was also trying to escape from the conventional norms that they felt trapped in but instead of breaking away from society they were actually trying to break away from metal itself they wanted to take everything up a notch from their sound to their imagery and that's exactly what they did on their sophomore album released in 1982 which was actually called black metal it was an 11-track album that was filled with satanic imagery shocking lyrics and louder more extreme production that were proved to be hugely influential to trash metal extreme metal and of course black metal even lending the name to the genre a 22 year old euronymous desperate to rebel and do something similar would be hugely influenced by this album and would cite it as one of his main inspirations for starting his own band with some friends in 1984. this band was called mayhem which was derived from a venom song titled mayhem with mercy and it was started by drummer shekel manheim who simply called himself by his second name bassist joran stuberwood otherwise known as necrobutcher and aysteen who played the guitar and originally called himself destructor but later changed his name to euronymous these three would have a rocky few years at the beginning with a number of different vocalists that would make some of their earlier releases inconsistent but interesting nonetheless they would attract a small but loyal underground following and perform at some local venues but the most important thing they did was build the foundation for what mayhem were to become it was only a matter of time before everybody in norway was talking about mayhem and black metal in general although this wasn't necessarily a good thing [Music] in the beginning mayhem performed covers of songs by groups that they were inspired by in an interview with necrobutcher he claims that they were essentially learning the instruments as they went and that their sound was closer to punk than to metal they had not yet found their dark sound and this boils down to inexperience and their vocalists on their first demo euronymus was their lead vocalist but after it was released they decided to search for some session vocalists to improve their sound the two that they found were eric billy norheim otherwise known as messiah and sven eric christensen otherwise known as maniac nor noriham practiced with them multiple times but only played one show with them in 1985 before eventually quitting to focus on other musical endeavors maniac on the other hand stayed with the band for a few years and was their lead vocalist when they recorded their first ep in 1987 known as death crush this seven track project definitely had darker undertones than most metal records at the time but it was only a glimpse into the shocking music that mayhem were truly capable of making while some of their lyrics were dark and satanic the instrumentation was a bit less abrasive and the imagery was a bit more low-key and toned down but the ep was still very raw in the book known as black metal evolution of the cult by dale peterson mon haim stated that the sound technician they worked with had never recorded music that was this heavy and basically didn't know how to record it properly this also meant that the music was not mixed and that nothing was overdubbed today this would be a cardinal sin in the world of music but in this case it actually helped the record sound more raw and authentic and it made for a pretty decent death metal ep that sold around a thousand copies in norway still despite their sound being dark and controversial they hadn't pushed the envelope enough and still hadn't developed into the full on black metal band they were to become before that would happen significant changes would be made to mayhem's lineup in 1988 manheim left the band and was replaced by john axel bloomberg otherwise known as hellhammer maniac who had established himself as a competent vocalist on death crush would also leave the band and his replacement would help change the direction of mayhem and black metal forever in 1986 an introverted 17 year old from the south of stockholm sweden started a band known as morbid this man was per pele olean otherwise known by his pseudonym dead morbid only released one demo with dead known as december moon released in 1987 but this was more than enough to showcase the potential that dead had as a vocalist his voice was dark and menacing even at 18 years old and even though this four track project was basically a raw experiment as opposed to a polished piece of work it was more than enough to show what dad was capable of doing [Music] after this demo was released olean felt as if morbid weren't going anywhere and he wanted to be a part of something bigger and more established his answer was mayhem according to necrobutcher dead sent him a package that contained the morbid demo a letter containing his plans for the future and a decomposing rat obviously this was bizarre but the demo was definitely good enough they invited him to join the group and in 1988 dead moved to norway and replaced maniac as the lead vocalist of mayhem it didn't take long for the band members to realize how strange dead truly was they would reflect on this years later in interviews i'm not sure i knew pella the other pillar deadpool we knew very well and i guess the whole world which are interested in mayhem or in black metal in general they know uh the image of dead in mayhem and his lyrics and and what he stood for but uh the private peddler was a strange guy the first time i met him i got angry because i'm a kind of light minded i i'm i'm enjoying life he did not really did not he was kind of depressed i do think that the real pillar was a great part of dead the figure dead i do think that but not in the extreme way but but he that's that was something he just dressed up and and became but he was also that on a regular daily basis he's left with dead birds under his bed because he wanted to smell death and it was an image he was depressed he was looking for death regardless of how morbid and strange he was his talent and intensity as a vocalist was undeniable and his dark image played a big part in transforming or at the very least emphasizing mayhem's aesthetic and sound by the time mayhem entered the stage with dead for the first time in 1990 their image had become darker and more intense a lot of this boiled down to who dead was as a person as stated previously he was obsessed with the idea of death and because of this he would harm himself on stage and around his friends his bandmates and friends did not like this and were understandably concerned but euronymus was fascinated by dead and his antics and encouraged this kind of behavior to continue according to the people who knew both dead and euronymous they got on each other's nerves quite a bit there were stories that they would torment each other fight with each other and there was even a bizarre claim that dead had stabbed euronymous while they lived together a lot of these claims are difficult to prove but the rumors and stories tell us that these two did not get along and that euronymous was usually the main aggressor in their disputes it got to the stage where euronymous was egging dead on to take his own life an idea that he would unfortunately follow through with in 1991 dead euronymous and hellhammer were living near the small village of krakstod in a rural house that was in the woods as previously mentioned euronymous and dead were getting on each other's nerves and this home was becoming a difficult environment to live in hellhammer stated that dead just sat in his room and became more and more depressed on the 8th of april 1991 dead was left alone in the house and decided to take his own life leaving behind a bizarre note that said excuse the blood the note also contains some bizarre statements from a man who is clearly in need of some help these included statements like i belong in the woods and i've always done so no one will understand the reason for this anyway to give some semblance of an explanation i'm not a human this is just a dream and soon i will awake he was only 22 years of age euronymus was the first one to come home and find him and his reaction was bizarre as stated earlier he was obsessed with how dark and morbid dead was and to come home and find out that he had taken his own life was actually a pleasant surprise for euronymous so much so that before calling the authorities he went to a local shop and purchased a disposable camera that he used to take pictures of dead's body he also allegedly took some of his bones and made necklaces out of them a story that the band has since confirmed to be true the next day euronymus called necrobutcher and informed him of pele's death in an interview with the guardian in 2005 he explained what it was like to get the news ace dean 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 okay don't even call me before you destroyed those pictures euronymus claimed that he would get rid of the pictures but he never did and necrobutcher ended up leaving mayhem because of this this meant that half of mayhem were now gone and it seemed as if the band would naturally fade away but euronymus had other plans and if anything he was only getting started in his eyes the death of pele was a positive turning point for both mayhem and black metal he started to go on a crusade to preach the importance of black metal and what it meant to be a part of this genre using the death of his former band mate to his advantage and claiming that dead took his own life because black metal had become too trendy and commercial now it should be noted that dead was definitely critical of certain artists and he believed that bandwagoners were a very real thing in the metal community but while he opposed trends he didn't necessarily oppose the idea of mayhem or other black metal bands becoming commercially successful in 2016 a former pen pal of dead who had direct correspondence with him released a collection of letters that he had sent to him while he was alive these letters were pretty revealing and we learn a lot about dead by reading them but one thing is for sure he was very focused on the sales and success of mayhem like any passionate musician he wanted his music to do well and he constantly referenced his distribution plans the sales figures that mayhem were achieving and other black metal bands that were doing well at the time the reason i'm making this point is that euronymous wanted people to believe that dead took his own life because black metal was becoming too successful and that simply wasn't true it pretty much goes without saying but euronymous used dead's passing to further his own agenda and emphasize his own elitism he was able to convince people that black metal was something worth dying for and he now had an actual martyr to go along with his story and it worked with his newfound notoriety euronymous opened up a record store in the summer of 1991 known as helveta or hell in english he also used this store as the headquarters for his record label death-like silence productions which was relatively inactive before hilvetta opened up but it was now ready to fully embrace and support the black metal revival the store also served as a location where like-minded musicians could meet which helped euronymous revive mayhem from the ashes by finding suitable replacements by 1992 they had a full lineup again and they were ready to resume recording snore rush otherwise known as blackthorne joined as a guitarist and attila chihara became their new lead vocalist they still needed a bassist however and unfortunately for euronymous and for mayhem the person they chose for that spot would not only play for the band but would also help set off a chain of events that would destroy the band [Music] in 1991 an 18 year old known as varg vikerness created the one man group known as burzum a year later in 1992 he released a self-titled project under that name and it was clear from the gecko that varg was an exceptionally talented well-rounded musician who at 19 years of age was crafting some of the best atmospheric black metal of his time at this stage ronamus had created what was described as a black metal inner circle and he was the de facto leader of it it was a small click of musicians and in euronymus's case it was a great way to source potential talent for mayhem and varg being one of the most talented young musicians in the scene was a perfect fit for the band he joined as a bassist in 1992. euronymus was more powerful than ever his band his label his store and his inner circle were all working in his favor he had essentially created a well-oiled machine that was especially designed for him and because of this he started to make a list of rules and regulations that you had to follow in order to be a real member of the scene the main rule was that you had to be a satanist he didn't even care about what kind of medal you were making as long as you practiced actual satanism he considered you a part of the black metal scene he said if a band cultivates and worships satan it's black metal in a way it can be ordinary heavy metal or just noise what's important is that it's satanic that's what makes it black metal another strange rule he had was that his listeners had to be deemed worthy to listen to mayhem's music in multiple interviews he talked about listeners who were unworthy and therefore should not listen to black this kind of elitism gave the genre an alluring but exclusive energy that added to the already insane image that black metal had but probably did more harm than good and stop potential fans from enjoying these artists work however a lot of people were willing to follow these guidelines and it did nothing but add to the cult leader-like status that euronymous had created he was on top of the totem pole and his ego was at an all-time high understandably tension started to rise and uranus's image became a confusing one with some people thinking that he was a god while others believed that he was an egomaniac on a power trip many members of the black metal community started to criticize his way of thinking one of these critics was varg who still worked and associated with euronymous but that did not stop a power struggle from brewing it's widely believed and reported that varg wanted the power that euronymous had but with him owning the store the band and the label the cards were all in his hands whether this power struggle theory is true or not it was fueled by an insane chain of events that would ultimately lead to a murder [Music] it's not surprising that black metal wasn't the most commercially successful genre of music in the early 90s the exclusive nature and the abrasive sound made it a difficult genre to be a part of and in the eyes of some of the musicians the only way to really promote it was to embrace this stereotype further and generate enough controversy so that journalists would write about black metal according to a blog that varg wrote in 2004 while he was in prison he hatched a plan with euronymous to promote the helvetta store and attract more fans to the genre under his pseudonym var gave an interview to a norwegian newspaper and in it he claimed that he was responsible for the burning of a church and that he had killed a man in the town of lillihammer in 1992 almost a dozen churches were burned down in norway and in many cases the culprit was still a mystery on top of this a man actually was murdered in 1992 in lillihammer but this was done by another black metal musician known as bard fost that did not stop varg from taking credit for these crimes at least anonymously this interview served as a confession that members of the black metal community were responsible for these church burnings and the intention was to make the interview as provocative as possible so that it would promote black metal to the masses well it essentially worked a media spotlight was now on the genre but there was also a target on their heads varg was quickly arrested under suspicion of committing these crimes along with other members of the black metal community and allegedly uranus's parents told him to shut down the shop as to avoid any unnecessary attention meaning their misguided attempt at some free promotion was essentially an utter failure varg was eventually released in march of 1993 and at this stage he was essentially done with euronymous they had already had a dispute about money a year prior and this was the tip of the iceberg he explains his growing dislike for euronymous in the same blog post that he wrote about the interview euronymous had made a complete fool of himself by closing down the shop and most of us agreed that he was a damn wimp and an idiot i was angry at him for not taking advantage of the situation which was why i had done that silly interview in the first place and i didn't want anything more to do with him as far as i was concerned he didn't exist anymore for some months this dislike for euronymous spread in the metal scene as more and more people understood what a [ __ ] he was and he blamed me for all of this and started to hate me he believed it was my fault that people lost their respect for him in a sense he was right as i certainly didn't keep my opinions a secret but i think he brought that upon himself he was simply disclosed by the way he reacted to the heat he had made a fool of himself further when the media wrote all that crap about me it made him feel less important suddenly he was no longer the main character in the hardcore metal scene as he thought that too was my fault according to varg euronymus was so angry that he hatched a plan to kill him and when var caught wind of this he wanted to confront euronymous and put this behind him they had a contract that varg needed to sign and euronymous invited him to meet him in person instead of setting a time and a place varg just drove to oslo unannounced with snorer the guitarist from mayhem at the time when they arrived at the apartment an insane series of events unfolded and there are multiple different accounts of what happened so for the sake of being fair and thorough will run through the different possible scenarios first there is varg's retelling of the night which he wrote about in this blog post but he also did an interview where he essentially recounts a similar scenario the only reason he had to contact me was a contract between bursum and his labor so he sent me the contracts and wanted me to sign him and he wanted to meet when we were signing him okay i know it's no reason to wait let's just go to oslo and get done with it so i drove to oslo but of course it takes some time to get to oslo you know it's uh 500 kilometers of bad roads and mountains you know so it took some time to reach i think we were there in three o'clock or maybe four o'clock so he was sleeping i told him well i don't care if he's sleeping he opened the door and he opened the door which is rather strange really you know he just opened the door and even though he had plans to kill me and when he had this beeper you know and when i got up in the apartment he uh he panicked because you know he probably you know he had plans to kill me he uh i was aggressive you know so he panicked he attacked me he kicked me in the chest i just threw him to the ground uh a bit stunned really because you know he attacked me you know i didn't expect it at the po at the time and uh i was stunned for a while he was just sitting on the floor and suddenly he got up trying to ge to get his knife in the kitchen and i thought well if he's gonna have a knife i'm gonna have a knife i had a pocket knife this small pocket knife i got it up and uh prevented him from getting into the kitchen and i was just in so he didn't manage to get his knife and then he started off against um started to run off towards his bedroom where he kept the shotgun the dead shot himself with as well as electro shock pistol it's turned out later on that he didn't have any of these things in the bedroom but i believed it at the time and that is the reason i followed him and instead of going into the bedroom he just left the whole the building really he just started to run down the stairs and i followed him and managed to stop him and of course i had a friend with me actually the guitarist of mayhem and of course he was rather shocked and i waited because i didn't know how he was going to write you know he was the guitarist in mayhem so for all i knew he could attack me as well maybe they planned it you know get a bit paranoid in situations like that so i just waited for for for on what's going to happen i just waited also was on the floor he broke a lamp on the wall so he was swimming in glass fragments and with with all his underwear so it was rather bloody and this other guy just ran past me and of course i understood that he did okay he's not a part of it so after my okay and he just ran off and then i remember that he had my car keys and i had blow blood all over my myself and all sets got up and attacked me again so i finished also i just you know when you say stab shop stab him in the skull so he died immediately immediately and i followed the other guy but he ran to the car so i managed to calm him down you know he gave me the car keys to open the car you know when we drove back so in this situation varg is essentially pleading a form of self-defense but it's important to note that in the blog post he admits that euronymous attempted to run away multiple times and that he was angry at his cowardly behavior i gave chase stabbed him and was a bit surprised when he ran out of the apartment instead it made no sense to flee and it made me angry to know that he had started the fight but the moment it didn't go his way he decided to flee instead instead of fighting like a man such is always something i have disliked strongly he had showed his intention to kill me and even though he was no longer a direct threat to me there and then i did not feel any bad for killing him his cowardice had made me angry and i saw no reason to let him live not when he had showed his intent to kill me had i let him live i would only let him have another attempt at my life later on this blog post made the self-defense theory more difficult to justify and it's important to remember that this is coming from the man who actually committed the murder which is obviously a very biased source what's important about this blog post and varg's confession in general is that he claims that he was the only person responsible for the death of euronymous and that he had no original intention to kill him this is a vital piece of information because the other account of this night is wildly different both varg and snore were eventually arrested for the murder of euronymous and the police wanted a confession from both of them at first store denied having any involvement in the crime but eventually he changed his story and he admitted that varg had planned to kill him all along and that he persuaded snore into being an accomplice this is the story that the jury bought and snore was sentenced to eight years in prison while varg was sentenced to 21 years in prison a sentence that included charges for arson as he was also convicted of multiple church burnings that happened a year prior the answer probably lies in between both of these stories and it wouldn't be surprising if there was indiscrepancies and inconsistencies in both of these accounts by the sounds of it snore was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time but varg's self-defense claim is also quite flimsy when you zoom out but the result was the same euronymous was dead and the black metal community and mayhem would never be the same again it was a sad tale of ego power and what it all ultimately leads to death at this stage i'm sure you're asking yourself why we haven't talked about actual music for almost 20 minutes and the answer to that is there was barely any mayhem music to talk about throughout all of this carnage and all of this bloodshed mayhem hadn't released an official studio album they had some demos recorded rehearsals and live shows but it wouldn't be until 1994 a year after euronymous was buried that necrobutcher and hellhammer came together to finally release their first album the mysteries dom satanos a latin phrase that means about the mysteries of the lord satan a strangely fitting name given the circumstances this may have been the best thing that mayhem ever made and it was one of the most culturally significant and important black metal albums of all time it was dark fast-paced well-crafted and thought-provoking it was the culmination of seven years of absolute insanity and it had a baffling lineup almost everybody we talked about had a part to play on this album hell hammer supplied the drums attila chihara was the vocalist dead and necrobutcher were credited writers varg was the bassist and euronymus was the guitarist after everything that had happened after all of the fights the insults the suicide and the murder they were all together for a final time mayhem are still active today with nekro butcher being their only original member left but nothing would top this album it was truly a phenomenon and it's one that i highly recommend you listen to a group of men in their early 20s had changed the landscape of metal forever but lives were ruined and destroyed in the process a sacrifice that i'm sure most of them were unhappy with but some of them probably didn't mind and that is it for this episode of morbid musicians thank you very much for watching i hope you enjoyed what a wild ride that was as always i'll be leaving a document linked down below entitled the mayhem document where i have sources and footage and music and everything that i use to make this video possible so make sure to check it out on top of that i will be leaving another playlist linked down below titled the black metal playlist i am not well versed in the genre at all i can tell you that for sure but these are the songs that i listened to while making the video and they were definitely very interesting obviously these videos take a lot longer to make as i'm always saying but over on my second channel dberk i'm posting list based videos pretty much every week so if you want to go check that out you can also my twitter and my instagram are the best places to follow me for updates about the channel specifically my instagram story where i post updates and behind the scenes and things of that nature but like i said that is all for now as always until next time

Channel: Deburke321

Views: 3,619,659

Keywords: Mayhem, Black Metal, Morbid Musicians, Music, Metal

Id: hv2P1uxvlLs

Length: 31min 20sec (1880 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2020