Euronymous Black metal and death metal What is black metal? black metal can apply to any kind of metal, so long as it is "Satanic" and "heavy". What is death metal? death metal can apply to any kind of metal, so long as the band "cultivates and worships death". What are some of Euronymous' beliefs about black metal? ". He said "If a band cultivates and worships Satan, it's black metal" and What were some of Euronymous' beliefs about death metal? What's important is that it's Satanic; that's what makes it black metal". Did Euronymous have any other ideas about black metal? He rejected bands like Immortal being called black metal, "as they are not Satanists", but What were his feelings for bands if they were not "Satanists"? Euronymous lamented the commercialization and loss of extremity within death metal.
Did Euronymous have any other interesting beliefs about black and death metal?
Along with his ideas that black metal is Satanic, and death metal means a worship of death, did Euronymous have any other interesting beliefs about black and death metal?
Euronymous said that the term black metal can apply to any kind of metal, so long as it is "Satanic" and "heavy". He said "If a band cultivates and worships Satan, it's black metal" and that "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". He rejected bands like Immortal being called black metal, "as they are not Satanists", but supported the band nonetheless. As noted earlier, bands who had LaVeyan beliefs were also rejected. When it was pointed out that Venom (the band who coined the term 'black metal') only used 'Satanism' as a gimmick, Euronymous said that he and the 'Black Circle' "choose to believe otherwise".  Likewise, Euronymous said that the term death metal can apply to any kind of metal, so long as the band "cultivates and worships death". Euronymous lamented the commercialization and loss of extremity within death metal. He said "Real Death Metal should be something normal people are afraid of, not something mothers can listen to" and "Death Metal is for brutal people who are capable of killing, it's not for idiotic children who want to have [a] funny hobby after school".  Like many others in the black metal scene, Euronymous originally believed that black metal should stay underground. However, he later changed his mind and said the idea should be got rid of. He believed that the idea of staying underground came from hardcore punk and said "Those who scream most about being in 'underground' is also often those who make so bad music that they don't have a chance to get big themselves". He added: "I wouldn't mind making DSP big and earn a million, as long as I don't change my ways of thinking and being [...] If there were one million black metal fans in the world, most of them would be jerks, but there would be really many true and brutal people as well. The bigger we get, the more we can manipulate people into thinking like us". CANNOTANSWER
Euronymous originally believed that black metal should stay underground. However,
Øystein Aarseth (; 22 March 1968 – 10 August 1993), better known by his stage name Euronymous, was a Norwegian musician. Euronymous was a founder of and central figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene. He was a co-founder and guitarist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem and was the only constant member from the band's formation in 1984 until his death in 1993. He was also founder and owner of the extreme metal record label Deathlike Silence Productions and record shop Helvete.

Euronymous professed to being a Theistic Satanist and was known for making extreme misanthropic statements. He presented himself as leading a militant cult-like group known as the "Black Metal Inner Circle".

In August 1993, he was killed by fellow musician and former bandmate Varg Vikernes.

Biography

1984–1991
Aarseth formed Mayhem in 1984 along with bassist Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) and drummer Kjetil Manheim. At the time he was going by the stage name Destructor but later changed his name to Euronymous, derived from the demon Eurynomos which inspired the Hellhammer song of the same name.

In summer 1986, Euronymous, Necrobutcher and Jon "Metalion" Kristiansen visited the German thrash metal band Assassin and recorded the Metalion in the Park demo under the name Checker Patrol, Metalion contributing background vocals to the title song "Metalion in the Park".

In 1988, Per "Dead" Ohlin became Mayhem's vocalist and Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg became its drummer. By 1991, Dead, Euronymous and Hellhammer were living in a house in the woods near Kråkstad, which was used as a place for the band to rehearse. Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher said that, after living together for a while, Dead and Euronymous "got on each other's nerves a lot" and "weren't really friends at the end". Hellhammer recalls that Dead once went outside to sleep in the woods because Euronymous was playing synth music that Dead hated. Euronymous then went outside and began shooting into the air with a shotgun. Varg Vikernes claims that Dead once stabbed Euronymous with a knife.

On 8 April 1991, Dead was found deceased by Euronymous at his home with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. His death was considered suicide. Before calling the police, Euronymous went to a shop and bought a disposable camera with which he photographed the body, after rearranging some items. One of these photographs was later used as the cover of a bootleg live album: The Dawn of the Black Hearts. Necrobutcher recalls how Euronymous told him of 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 used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's "evil" image and claimed Dead had killed himself because black metal had become "trendy" and commercialized. In time, rumors spread that Euronymous had made a stew with bits of Dead's brain and had made necklaces with bits of his skull. The band later denied the former rumor but confirmed that the latter was true. Moreover, Euronymous claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy, which was confirmed by several other members of the scene, like Bård "Faust" Eithun, and Metalion. Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson of Marduk also confirmed this and that he also owns a piece of Dead's brain matter as well as lead from the shotgun shot, all which were gifted to him by Euronymous.

Necrobutcher later speculated that taking the photographs and forcing others to see them was a way for Euronymous to cope with the shock of seeing his friend dead. He claimed that Euronymous "went into a fantasy world". Faust of Emperor believes that Dead's suicide "marked the point at which, under Euronymous' direction, the black metal scene began its obsession with all things satanic and evil". Kjetil Manheim said that, after the suicide, Euronymous "tried to be as extreme as he had talked about". The suicide caused a rift between Euronymous and some of his friends, who were disgusted by his attitude towards Dead before the suicide, and his behavior afterwards. Necrobutcher ended his friendship with Euronymous. Thus, after the suicide, Mayhem was left with only two members: guitarist Euronymous and drummer Hellhammer. Stian "Occultus" Johannsen was recruited as Mayhem's new singer and bassist. However, this was short-lived; he left the band after receiving a death threat from Euronymous.

1991–1993

During May–June 1991, Euronymous opened a record shop named "Helvete" (Norwegian for "hell") at Schweigaards gate 56 in Oslo. Norwegian black metal musicians often met in the shop's basement, including the two members of Mayhem, the members of Emperor, Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes of Burzum, and Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch of Thorns. Euronymous also started an independent record label called Deathlike Silence Productions, which was based at Helvete. It released albums by Norwegian bands Mayhem and Burzum, and Swedish bands Merciless and Abruptum. Euronymous, Varg and Emperor guitarist Tomas "Samoth" Haugen all lived at Helvete at various times. Emperor drummer Faust also lived and worked there. The shop's walls were painted black and bedecked with medieval weapons, posters of bands and picture discs, while its window featured a polystyrene tombstone.

According to Occultus, the space that Euronymous rented "was far too big and the rent was too high. That's the reason why it never did well". Only a small part of the building was used for the shop itself. Nevertheless, it became the focal point of the Norwegian black metal scene. Metalion, writer of the fanzine Slayer, said that the opening of Helvete was "the creation of the whole Norwegian Black Metal scene". Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008,
Within just a few months [of Helvete opening], many young musicians had become obsessed with Euronymous and his ideas, and soon a lot of Norwegian death metal bands transformed into black metal bands. Amputation became Immortal, Thou Shalt Suffer turned into Emperor, and Darkthrone swapped their Swedish-inspired death metal for primitive black metal. Most notoriously, Old Funeral's guitar player Kristian (later renamed as Varg) Vikernes had already left the band to form his own creation, Burzum.

Euronymous helped many younger bands in the scene, especially Emperor and Enslaved, both of whom he recommended to Candlelight Records. Ihsahn of Emperor said that "if you were trusted, if they knew you were serious in your views, you were accepted" by the Helvete scene. Euronymous took Vikernes, who was five years younger than him, under his wing: inviting him to play bass with Mayhem and offering to release his music as Burzum. However, it has been claimed that their friendship turned to rivalry. Looking back, Faust said: "It sounds really silly, but I think there was a little bit of a contest between them to see who could be more evil. It created a very difficult situation, especially for Euronymous, who wanted the glamour and the showbiz. With him, there was a lot of smoke but not so much fire".

On 6 June 1992, the Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen was destroyed by arson. Vikernes was strongly suspected as the culprit but was never convicted. There followed a wave of church burnings across Norway perpetrated by musicians and fans of the Norwegian black metal scene. Euronymous was present at the burning of Holmenkollen Chapel together with Vikernes and Faust, who were convicted for the arson after Euronymous was dead. Faust says he believes that Euronymous got involved because he "felt he had to prove that he could be a part of it and not just in the background". To coincide with the release of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Vikernes and Euronymous had allegedly plotted to bomb Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. Euronymous' death in August 1993 put an end to this plan and stalled the album's release. In a 1993 interview on a Swedish radio show, Euronymous said of the church burnings:They [Christians] must feel that there is a dark, evil power present that they have to fight, which…will make them more extreme. We also believe that when a church burns it's not only Christians who suffer, but people in general. Imagine a beautiful old stave church...what happens when it burns? The Christians feel despair, God's house is destroyed and ordinary people will suffer from grief because something beautiful was destroyed. So you end up spreading grief and despair, which is a good thing.

In January 1993, an article in one of Norway's biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende, brought the black metal scene into the media spotlight. Varg Vikernes (using his pseudonym Count Grishnackh) gave an anonymous interview to a journalist from the newspaper, in which he claimed to have burnt the churches and killed a man in Lillehammer. According to Vikernes, the anonymous interview was planned by himself and Euronymous. The goal, he says, was to scare people, promote black metal and get more customers for Helvete. He added that the interview revealed nothing that could prove his involvement in any crime. However, by the time the article was printed, Vikernes had already been arrested. Some of the other scene members were also arrested and questioned, but all were released for lack of evidence. Vikernes himself was released in March 1993, also for lack of evidence. That month, Kerrang! published an article about the Norwegian black metal scene. In it, Euronymous and Vikernes presented themselves as leaders of a militant, cult-like group of "Satanic terrorists". Euronymous claimed that Helvete helps fund its activities, but said that he is not directly involved in its crimes, because if he were caught the organization would fall apart.

After the Bergens Tidende episode, Euronymous decided to shut Helvete as it began to draw the attention of the police and media. Vikernes and the authors of Lords of Chaos claim that Euronymous' parents pressured him into shutting Helvete.

Murder

In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes, as well as between Euronymous and some members of the Swedish black metal scene.

On the night of 10 August 1993, Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death at his apartment in Oslo. The murder was initially blamed on Swedish black metallers by the media. It has been speculated that the murder was the result of a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records (Euronymous owed Vikernes a large sum of royalty payments), or an attempt at "outdoing" the stabbing in Lillehammer. Vikernes claims that he killed Euronymous in self-defense. He says that Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up, and torture him to death while videotaping the event. Vikernes explains: "If he was talking about it to everybody and anybody I wouldn't have taken it seriously. But he just told a select group of friends, and one of them told me". He said Euronymous planned to use a meeting about an unsigned contract to ambush him.

On the night of the murder, Vikernes and Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch drove from Bergen to Euronymous' apartment at Tøyengata in Oslo. Blackthorn stood outside smoking while Vikernes climbed the stairs to Euronymous' apartment on the fourth floor. Vikernes said he met Euronymous at the door to hand him the signed contract, but when he stepped forward and confronted Euronymous, Euronymous "panicked" and kicked him in the chest. Vikernes claims Euronymous ran into the kitchen to fetch a knife. The two got into a struggle and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found in the stairwell on the first floor with 23 stab wounds—two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back. Vikernes contends that most of Euronymous' wounds were caused by broken glass he had fallen on during the struggle. After the murder, Vikernes and Blackthorn drove back to Bergen. On the way, they stopped at a lake where Vikernes disposed of his bloodstained clothes. This claim of self-defense is doubted by Faust, while Necrobutcher believes Vikernes killed Euronymous due to the death threats he received from him. Necrobutcher also intended to murder Euronymous himself due to him tastelessly capitalizing on Dead's suicide.

Blackthorn claims Vikernes planned to murder Euronymous and pressured him into coming along. He claims that, in the summer of 1993, he was almost committed to a mental hospital but fled to Bergen and stayed with Vikernes. Blackthorn said of the murder, "I was neither for nor against it. I didn't give a shit about Øystein". Vikernes, however, claims that he had not planned the killing and that Blackthorn came along to show Euronymous some new guitar riffs.

Aftermath
Vikernes was arrested on 19 August 1993 in Bergen. Many other members of the scene, including Blackthorn and Faust, were also taken in for questioning. The trial began on 2 May 1994. At the trial it was claimed that Vikernes, Blackthorn, and another friend had planned the murder. The third person stayed at the apartment in Bergen as an alibi. To make it look like they never left Bergen, he was to rent films, play them in the apartment, and withdraw money from Vikernes' credit card. On 16 May 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway's maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the arson of three churches, the attempted arson of a fourth church, and for the theft and storage of 150 kg of explosives. However, he only confessed to the latter. Two churches were burnt the day he was sentenced, "presumably as a statement of symbolic support". Blackthorn was sentenced to 8 years in prison for being an accomplice. Vikernes was released from prison on parole in 2009.

At Euronymous' funeral, Hellhammer (Mayhem's drummer) and Necrobutcher (Mayhem's former bassist) decided to continue with the band and worked on releasing the De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album. Before the release, Euronymous' family asked Hellhammer to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes. Hellhammer said: "I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record. I put word out that I was rerecording the bass parts, but I never did". The album, which has Euronymous on electric guitar and Vikernes on bass guitar, was finally released in May 1994.

A part of the Norwegian scene considered Vikernes a traitor for murdering Euronymous and turning his back on Satanism in favor of nationalism and Odinism, although Vikernes claims he was never a Satanist and had only used Satan to provoke. They saw Euronymous' death as a significant loss to the scene, and some black metallers "have sworn to avenge Aarseth's death". A few years after the murder, Ihsahn of Emperor said, "There's no discipline in the scene anymore, like earlier on around the shop". After his death, a "cult developed around the memory of Euronymous," and he was hailed by some as "the King" or "Godfather of Black Metal".

A new generation of musicians also tried to gain credibility by riding on the back of his legacy. However, many of Euronymous' friends and bandmates "speak of the killing with a tone of indifference". Lords of Chaos remarks: "what is striking [...] is how little they care about the lives or deaths of one another". In the book, Hellhammer, Ihsahn and Samoth claim that Euronymous' death either did not affect them or did not shock them. Anders Odden (a friend of Euronymous at the time) said of the murder: "It wasn't odd that he ended up getting killed. He thought he could threaten to kill people without it having any consequences". He added: "I think many people felt relief once he was gone". Writer and musician Erlend Erichsen agreed, saying, "Nobody was there to boss them about. The 'black metal police' were gone".

Beliefs and personality
The book Lords of Chaos says of Euronymous:He was always dressed in black from head to foot, his hair dyed black for added effect. He sported long, aristocratic mustaches and wore knee-high boots. His black leather biker jacket was decorated with badges [...] When talking, he seemed stern and serious, sometimes with pomposity verging on the theatrical".

In interviews, Euronymous claimed to be against individualism, compassion, peace, happiness and fun. He claimed he wanted to spread hatred, sorrow and evil. In a 1992 interview, he said "The hardcore [punk] pigs have correctly made themselves guardians of morality, but we must kick them in the face and become guardians of anti-morality". The following year, he told Kill Yourself zine, "There is NOTHING which is too sick, evil or perverted" and claimed "I have no problem with killing someone in cold blood". Metalion (who knew Euronymous since 1985 and considered him his best friend) said Euronymous "was always telling what he thought, following his own instincts [...] worshipping death and being extreme". Euronymous' shop attracted a lot of new young fans, many of whom looked up to and even idolized him.

However, some who knew Euronymous claim that "the extreme Satanic image he projected was, in fact, just that—a projection which bore little resemblance to his real personality". They include Necrobutcher, Kjetil Manheim, Vikernes and Blackthorn. Faust said that with Euronymous, "there was a lot of smoke but not so much fire". When asked why Euronymous made such extreme statements to the press, Ihsahn said: "I think that was very much to create fear among people". He added that the scene "wanted to be in opposition to society" and "tried to concentrate more on just being 'evil' than having a real Satanic philosophy". Mayhem drummer Kjetil Manheim (Euronymous' friend from 1983 until his death) described him as "health oriented ... A nice guy, a family guy," but said that when his older friends weren't around, "he could play out his role". Manheim claimed that Euronymous became "extreme" towards the end of his life: "He liked telling people that they were worthless; that he was the best. He was all 'I define black metal. Black metal is me!' … I think he was trapped in the image of Mayhem. He became a megalomaniac". In the documentary Pure Fucking Mayhem, he said "Øystein's daily life was a total theater" that was based on the black metal "archetype" of Euronymous.

Religion
In interviews, Euronymous said he was a theistic Satanist.
In an interview by Esa Lahdenperä conducted in August 1993, Euronymous stated:
I believe in a horned devil, a personified Satan. In my opinion all the other forms of Satanism are bullshit. [...] Satanism comes from religious Christianity, and there it shall stay. I'm a religious person and I will fight those who misuse His name. People are not supposed to believe in themselves and be individualists. They are supposed to OBEY, to be the SLAVES of religion.

The theistic Satanism espoused by Euronymous was an inversion of Roman Catholic dogma, and he claimed "We praise the evil and we believe blindly in a godly creature just like a Christian". On the relationship between religion and science, he said: "Scientists can't disprove [...] religion. No matter how hard you try, you can't explain the universe. You can't leave out a religious belief."

He opposed the Satanic and occultist teachings of Anton LaVey and Aleister Crowley, for unlike Euronymous, they promoted what he saw as "peace" and commercial frivolity, as well as individualism in contrast to dogma. He said he would "never accept any band which preaches Church of Satan ideas, as they are just a bunch of freedom and life-loving atheists, and they stand exactly the opposite of me". When asked what he thought of Crowley's code of "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law", he answered, "People shall do what WE want them to do. We're against freedom, and forced a band from Rogaland in Norway—Belsebub—to split up."

As noted earlier, some of those who knew Euronymous claim that his "extreme Satanic image" was an act. While Mortiis said that Euronymous "was such a devil worshipper you wouldn't believe it," in the black metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us, Varg Vikernes claimed that Euronymous was not a Satanist. He said: "To Aarseth everything was about image and he wanted to appear extreme. He wanted people to think of him as being extreme; the most extreme of them all. But he didn't want to be extreme and he wasn't really extreme". While Metalion, who was friends with both Vikernes and Euronymous when the latter died, and called Euronymous his best friend, wrote that "some people in our scene read a few books and considered themselves Satanists," he made no such statements about Euronymous. Tenebris (allegedly Jon Nödtveidt) from the Misanthropic Luciferian Order, a Swedish Satanic order formed in 1995, wrote that "back then, in 1991, things mainly concerned black metal and ideological Satanism […] and kind of stood and fell with Euronymous and his shop. Therefore, it vanished with his death in '93".

Over time, some members of the Norwegian scene began to follow Paganism. Vikernes later claimed that Euronymous—"obsessed with this 'Satanist' thing"—disapproved of Vikernes promoting paganism. Euronymous showed no explicit disapproval of paganism though, and released the pagan band Enslaved's first album, Vikingligr Veldi, on Deathlike Silence Productions.

Black metal and death metal
Euronymous said that the term "black metal" can apply to any kind of metal so long as it is "Satanic" and "heavy". He said, "If a band cultivates and worships Satan, it's black metal," and that "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". He rejected bands like Immortal being called black metal, "as they are not Satanists," but supported the band nonetheless. As noted earlier, bands who had LaVeyan beliefs were also rejected. When it was pointed out that Venom (the band that coined the term "black metal") only used Satanism as a gimmick, Euronymous said that he and the Black Circle "choose to believe otherwise".

Likewise, Euronymous said that the term death metal can apply to any kind of metal, so long as the band "cultivates and worships death". Euronymous lamented the commercialization and loss of extremity within death metal. He said "Real Death Metal should be something normal people are afraid of, not something mothers can listen to," and "Death Metal is for brutal people who are capable of killing, it's not for idiotic children who want to have [a] funny hobby after school".

Like many others in the black metal scene, Euronymous originally believed that black metal should stay underground. However, he later changed his mind. He believed that the idea of staying underground came from hardcore punk, and said, "Those who scream most about being in 'underground' is also often those who make so bad music that they don't have a chance to get big themselves". He added: "I wouldn't mind making DSP big and earn a million, as long as I don't change my ways of thinking and being. […] If there were one million black metal fans in the world, most of them would be jerks, but there would be really many true and brutal people as well. The bigger we get, the more we can manipulate people into thinking like us".

Politics
Euronymous was interested in totalitarian communist states such as the Soviet Union under Stalin and Romania under Ceaușescu. He collected Eastern Bloc memorabilia, and in the '80s, he was a member of the Norwegian communist youth group Rød Ungdom, which was Marxist–Leninist at the time. He left Rød Ungdom, allegedly because he came to realise that they were "just a bunch of humanists". He said "as I hate people I don't want them to have a good time, I'd like to see them rot under communist dictatorship". He had a fascination with the idea of mass surveillance, secret police and forced disappearance. Mayhem's Attila Csihar said Euronymous was not a communist "in the political sense" but was fascinated by the power communist dictators had over their people.

Hellhammer said "Euronymous wanted to be the most extreme person, and he thought that communism was very extreme", but that he later claimed to be a fascist. In a private letter written in the early '90s, Euronymous claimed that "almost all" Norwegian black metal bands at the time were "more or less Nazis", including Mayhem. He did not, however, use the music of Mayhem to promote any kind of politics.

Instruments
Euronymous' main guitar was a sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar, which he can be seen playing in many pictures. He stated in various interviews that his and Mayhem's main influences were Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom and Destruction, whilst he also liked Iron Maiden, Kiss, Celtic Frost and Metallica. He played through a slightly modified 1981 Marshall Super Lead tube amp and used a Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal, as well as a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal.

Legacy
Euronymous was ranked No. 51 out of The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World.

In March 2012, low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle set up a public poll asking customers to pick a famous Norwegian historic figure whose picture would decorate the aircraft's tail fin. Largely on the strength of international fans, Aarseth was leading the poll, but his name was removed from the campaign at his family's request.

The 2018 film Lords of Chaos, based on the eponymous book, is a semi-fictionalised account of the early 1990s Norwegian black metal scene told from the perspective of Euronymous. In the film Euronymous is played by Rory Culkin.

Discography
Euronymous played guitar on the following albums except where noted, any additional instruments or credits in notes.

References

Bibliography

External links

 
 
 
 
 
 
 Russian Euronymous fan site

1968 births
1990s murders in Norway
1993 crimes in Norway
1993 deaths
1993 murders in Europe
20th-century guitarists
20th-century Norwegian businesspeople
Black metal guitarists
Crimes involving Satanism or the occult
Deaths by stabbing in Norway
Mayhem (band) members
Male murder victims
Norwegian black metal musicians
Norwegian communists
Norwegian murder victims
Norwegian rock guitarists
Norwegian Sámi people
Norwegian Satanists
People from Egersund
People from Surnadal
People murdered in Norway
The early Norwegian black metal scene of the 1990s is credited with creating the modern black metal genre and produced some of the most acclaimed and influential artists in extreme metal. It attracted massive media attention when it was revealed that its members had been responsible for two murders and a wave of church burnings in Norway.

The scene had an ethos and the core members referred to themselves as "The Black Circle" or "Black Metal Inner Circle". It consisted primarily of young men, many of whom gathered at the record shop Helvete ("Hell") in Oslo. In interviews, they voiced extreme anti-Christian and misanthropic views, presenting themselves as a cult-like group of militant Satanists who wanted to spread terror, hatred and evil. They adopted pseudonyms and appeared in photographs wearing "corpse paint" and wielding medieval weaponry. The scene was exclusive and created boundaries around itself, incorporating only those it deemed to be "trve" or committed. Musical integrity was highly important and artists wanted black metal to remain underground and uncorrupted.

In August 1993, several of its members were arrested and in May 1994 were convicted variously for arson, murder, assault and possession of explosives. Most showed no remorse for their actions at the time. The Norwegian media covered events closely, but the reporting was often sensationalist. Some referred to them as "Satanic terrorists" and one Norwegian TV channel interviewed a woman who claimed Satanists had sacrificed her child and killed her dog. The early Norwegian black metal scene has since been the subject of books and documentaries.

Musical innovations 

During the 1980s, black metal was a loose grouping of a handful of heavy metal bands who shared Satanic lyrics, although most of the "first wave" bands referred to Satanism only for shock value. During 1990–1992, a number of Norwegian artists, who were strongly influenced by those bands, began performing and releasing a new kind of black metal music. The surge of interest and popularity that followed is often referred to as the "second wave of black metal". The Norwegian bands developed the style of their 1980s forebears as a distinct genre of heavy metal music. This was partly thanks to a new style of guitar playing developed by Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch of Stigma Diabolicum/Thorns and Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth of Mayhem, in which guitarists played full chords using all the strings of the guitar in place of power chords using only two or three strings. Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell of Darkthrone has credited them with this innovation in a number of interviews. He described it as being "derived from Bathory" and noted that "those kinds of riffs became the new order for a lot of bands in the '90s". Black metal music also became much more satanic and the term 'TRVE KVLT Black Metal' has since become the term for satanic-leaning black metal.

Visually, the dark themes of their music were complemented with corpse paint, which became a way for black metal artists to distinguish themselves from other metal bands of the time, yet some bands such as Emperor and Satyricon ceased wearing corpse paint, often citing its loss of meaning or trendiness due to use by so many bands.

Dead's suicide 
On 8 April 1991, Mayhem vocalist and lyricist Per Yngve Ohlin (who called himself "Dead") committed suicide via shotgun blast while alone in a house shared by the band. Fellow musicians described Dead as odd, introverted and depressed. For performances, he made himself look like a corpse and would self-harm while performing.

Dead was found with his wrists and throat slit and a gunshot wound to his forehead by Mayhem guitarist Euronymous. Before calling the police, he got a camera and photographed the body after re-arranging some items. One of these photographs was later used as the cover of a bootleg live album: Dawn of the Black Hearts.

Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's "evil" image and claimed Dead had killed himself because black metal had become "trendy" and commercialized. He made necklaces which he claimed as being made with bits of Dead's skull and gave them to musicians he deemed worthy. There was also a false rumor that he had made a stew with bits of Dead's brain.

Mayhem bassist Jørn 'Necrobutcher' Stubberud noted that "people became more aware of the black metal scene after Dead had shot himself [...]; I think it was Dead's suicide that really changed the scene". The suicide caused a rift between Euronymous and some of his friends, especially Necrobutcher, who were disgusted by his attitude towards Dead. Some claimed Euronymous "went into a fantasy world" and "tried to be as extreme as he had talked about".

Two other members of the scene would later commit suicide: Erik 'Grim' Brødreskift (of Immortal, Borknagar, Gorgoroth) in 1999 and Espen 'Storm' Andersen (of Strid) in 2001.

Helvete, ideology, and the "Black Circle" 

Mayhem guitarist Euronymous was "the central figure involved in the formation of the Norwegian black metal scene", which he "almost single-handedly founded". During May–June 1991, he opened a record shop called Helvete (Norwegian for "Hell"). The shop was at Schweigaards gate 56 in Oslo. Norwegian black metal musicians often met at the shop and in its basement. They included the members of Mayhem, the members of Emperor, Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes of Burzum, and Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch of Thorns. Euronymous also founded an independent record label called Deathlike Silence Productions, which was based at Helvete. It released albums by Norwegian bands Mayhem and Burzum, Swedish bands Merciless and Abruptum, and a Japanese band Sigh. Euronymous, Varg, and Emperor guitarist Tomas "Samoth" Haugen lived in the shop at various times. Emperor drummer Bård "Faust" Eithun also lived and worked there. The shop's walls were painted black and bedecked with medieval weapons, posters of bands, and picture discs, while its window featured a polystyrene tombstone.

During the time it was open, Helvete was the focal point of the Norwegian black metal scene. Jon "Metalion" Kristiansen, writer of the fanzine Slayer, said that the opening of Helvete was "the creation of the whole Norwegian Black Metal scene". Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008,
Within just a few months [of Helvete opening], many young musicians had become obsessed with Euronymous and his ideas, and soon a lot of Norwegian death metal bands transformed into black metal bands. Amputation became Immortal, Thou Shalt Suffer turned into Emperor, and Darkthrone swapped their Swedish-inspired death metal for primitive black metal. Most notoriously, Old Funeral's guitar player Varg Vikernes had already left the band to form his own creation, Burzum.

Those who gathered at Helvete have been referred to as the "Black Circle" or "Black Metal Inner Circle", a name allegedly invented by Euronymous. Euronymous presented the "Black Circle" as an organized, cult-like group of militant Satanists whose activities were funded by his record shop, and a 1993 Kerrang! article referred to them as "Satanic terrorists". Faust later said that it was "just a name that was invented for the people who hung around the shop ... there wasn't anything like members and membership cards and official meetings". Likewise, in his review of Lucifer Rising, Varg Vikernes said, "The so-called 'Black Circle' was something Euronymous made up because he wanted to make people believe there was such a thing, but it was nonsense and never existed. The media on the other hand believed it existed for a while, but quickly stopped talking about it when they understood it was a fake rumor".

According to Stian "Occultus" Johannsen, the space that Euronymous rented "was far too big and the rent was too high. That's the reason why it never did well". Only a small part of the building was used for the shop itself. Euronymous shut Helvete in early 1993 when it began to draw the attention of the police and media. The store has since been reopened under the name Neseblod Records, in the same location but with much less floor space. Many of the original artifacts still remain, and the store also identifies as a "black metal museum".

The Norwegian black metal scene was bitterly opposed to Christianity and organized religion as a whole. In interviews during the early 1990s, Euronymous and other members of the scene presented themselves as militant misanthropic Devil worshippers who wanted to spread hatred, sorrow and evil. They attacked the Church of Satan for being too "humane". The theistic Satanism they espoused was an inversion of Christianity. Euronymous was the key figure behind this ideology. He professed to be in favor of totalitarianism and against compassion, peace, happiness and fun. When asked why such statements were made to the press, Ihsahn of Emperor said, "I think that was very much to create fear among people". He added that the scene "wanted to be in opposition to society" and "tried to concentrate more on just being 'evil' than having a real Satanic philosophy". Vikernes said that the reason they claimed to advocate "evil" was to provoke.

According to Lords of Chaos, many who knew Euronymous say that "the extreme Satanic image he projected was, in fact, just that – a projection which bore little resemblance to his real personality". They include Necrobutcher, Kjetil Manheim, Vikernes and Blackthorn (the latter two were convicted for his murder). Faust said that with Euronymous, "there was a lot of smoke but not so much fire". Mortiis, however, said that Euronymous "was such a devil worshipper you wouldn't believe it", and Metalion (who knew Euronymous since 1985 and considered him to be his best friend) said Euronymous "was always telling what he thought ... worshipping death and being extreme". As for the other scene members, Samuel Fridh says there is no evidence to support their early claims of being Devil worshippers, and Leif A. Lier, who led the police investigation after Euronymous's death, said he and his men had not met one Satanist. Faust said that "For some people it [Satanism] was bloody serious, but to a lot of them it was all a big hype".

In retrospect, Metalion wrote, "In the past, people just wrote about Satan, but now people meant it. I believe it was serious—maybe not all the Satanism, but definitely the approach to the music and the lifestyle. It was certainly more destructive than metal had been in the past". Tenebris from the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (a Swedish Satanic order) wrote that the Norwegian scene "meant a lot as long as it lasted. Back then, in 1991, things mainly concerned black metal and ideological Satanism (not so much practical Satanism, but anyway ...) ... It grew quickly to become a sort of black metal army ... and kind of stood and fell with Euronymous and his shop. Therefore, it vanished with his death in '93 ... Sadly enough, many people involved at the time betrayed their ideals and lost their interest when things fell apart. Like it was nothing more than a hype of temporary nature".

Regarding the term "black metal", Euronymous said that it applies to any heavy metal band who are theistic Satanists and write Satanic lyrics. Such ideas were repeated by other scene members, such as Faust. At the time, bands with a style similar to Norwegian black metal, but without Satanic lyrics, tended to use other terms for their music.

Some bands in the scene were interested in pre-Christian Norway and its traditions, and there was an undercurrent of romantic nationalism in the scene. Some scene members also flirted with Nazi imagery, but this was largely an attempt to provoke. In a private letter written in the early 1990s, Euronymous claimed that "almost all" Norwegian black metal bands at the time were "more or less Nazis". He was interested in totalitarian communist states and said he wished to see people "rot under communist dictatorship". However, apart from Varg Vikernes, the scene was largely non-political.

Church arsons and attempts 

In 1992, members of the Norwegian black metal scene began a wave of arson attacks on Christian churches. By 1996, there had been at least 50 attacks in Norway; in every case that was solved, those responsible were black metal fans. Some of the buildings were hundreds of years old and seen as important historical landmarks. The first was Norway's Fantoft Stave Church, which was burnt to the ground in June 1992. Police believe Varg Vikernes of Burzum was responsible. The cover of Burzum's EP Aske ("ashes") is a photograph of the destroyed church. On 16 May 1994, Vikernes was found guilty for burning down Holmenkollen Chapel, Skjold Church and Åsane Church. In addition, he was found guilty for an attempted arson of a fourth church, and for the theft and storage of 150 kg of explosives.

To coincide with the release of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Vikernes and Euronymous had allegedly plotted to bomb Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. The musicians Samoth, Faust and Jørn Inge Tunsberg were also convicted for church arsons. Those convicted for church burnings showed no remorse and described their actions as a symbolic "retaliation" against Christianity in Norway. Mayhem drummer Hellhammer said he had called for attacks on mosques and Hindu temples, on the basis that they were more foreign. Today, opinions on the church burnings differ within the black metal community. Many, such as Infernus and Gaahl of Gorgoroth have praised the church burnings, with the latter saying "there should have been more of them, and there will be more of them". Others, such as Necrobutcher and Kjetil Manheim of Mayhem, see the church burnings as having been futile, with the latter claiming that many arsons were "just people trying to gain acceptance" within the black metal scene.

The following is a partial list of the church arsons:

1992
23 May: attempted burning of Storetveit Church in Bergen.
6 June: burning of Fantoft stave church in Bergen – Varg Vikernes is strongly suspected as the culprit, but was not convicted.
1 Aug: burning of Revheim Church in Stavanger.
21 Aug: burning of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo – Varg Vikernes and Faust were convicted for this; Euronymous also participated, but was murdered in August 1993.
1 Sep: burning of Ormøya Church in Oslo.
13 Sep: burning of Skjold Church in Vindafjord – Varg Vikernes and Samoth were convicted for this.
3 Oct: burning of Hauketo Church in Oslo.
24 Dec: burning of Åsane Church in Bergen – Varg Vikernes and Jørn Inge Tunsberg were convicted for this.
25 Dec: burning of a Methodist church in Sarpsborg – a firefighter was killed while fighting this fire.
1993
7 Feb: burning of Lundby New Church in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1994
13 Mar: burning of a church in Sund.
27 Mar: burning of Seegård Church in Snertingdal.
16 May: attempted burning of Gol stave church in Buskerud.
17 May: attempted burning of Åmodt Chapel in Buskerud.
4 Jun: burning of Frogn Church in Drøbak.
19 Jun: attempted burning of Heni Church in Gjerdrum.
7 Jul: burning of a church in Jeløy.
21 Jul: attempted burning of Odda's Church.
13 Aug: attempted burning of Loop Chapel in Meldal.
10 Dec: attempted burning of Åkra Church.
22 Dec: attempted burning of Askim Church.
26 Dec: attempted burning of Klemestrud Church.
1995
13 May: burning of Lord Church in Telemark.
25 May: burning of Såner Church in Vestby.
14 Jun: burning of Moe Church in Sandefjord.
21 Jul: attempted burning of a church college in Eidanger.
3 Sep: attempted burning of Vågsbygd church college in Kristiansand.
3 Nob: burning of Innset Church in Rennebu.

Murder of Magne Andreassen 
On 21 August 1992, Bård "Faust" Eithun killed Magne Andreassen, a gay man, in Lillehammer. According to Faust, while walking home at night, a man sexually proposed to him and Faust agreed to walk with him to the Olympic park. Once in the woods, Faust stabbed Andreassen 37 times, and then kicked him in the head repeatedly as he lay on the ground.

Faust claimed he felt no remorse at the time. In the late 1990s, he said of the murder, "I was outside, just waiting to get out some aggression. It's not easy to describe why it happened. It was meant to happen, and if it was this man or another man, that's not really important". Ihsahn, his bandmate in Emperor, said Faust "had been very fascinated by serial killers for a long time, and I guess he wanted to know what it's like to kill a person". The media linked the murder to black metal, Satanism and fascism. In a 2008 interview, Faust said, "I was never a Satanist or fascist in any way, but I put behind me the hatred and negativity. Those feelings just eat you up from inside".

Police initially had no suspects, and Faust remained free for about a year. However, he told Euronymous, Vikernes and a few others what he had done. The day after the stabbing, he returned to Oslo and allegedly burnt down Holmenkollen Chapel with Vikernes and Euronymous. After Euronymous' murder in August 1993, Faust was arrested and confessed to Andreassen's murder. In 1994, he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, but was released in 2003.

Bergens Tidende article 
In January 1993, an article in one of Norway's biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende (BT), brought the black metal scene into the media spotlight. Two friends of Vikernes interviewed him and brought the interview to the newspaper, hoping they would print it. In the anonymous interview, "Count Grishnackh" (Vikernes) claimed to have burnt the churches and killed a man in Lillehammer. BT journalist Finn Bjørn Tønder set up a meeting with "Count Grishnackh". The journalists were summoned to an apartment and, allegedly, warned they would be shot if the police were called. There, Vikernes and his companions told the journalists that they had burnt the churches, or knew who had done it, and warned the attacks would continue. They claimed to be Devil worshippers and said, "Our intention is to spread fear and evil".

They told the journalists details about the arsons that had not been released to the press and so BT spoke with the police before publishing it, who confirmed these details. The article was published on 20 January as the front page of the BT. It was headlined "Vi tente på kirkene" ("we set the churches on fire") and included a photo of Vikernes, his face mostly hidden, holding two large knives. However, by the time the article was printed, Vikernes had already been arrested. The police allegedly found him by going to an address printed on a Burzum flyer, although Vikernes believes that Tønder betrayed him.

According to Vikernes, the anonymous interview was planned by him and Euronymous with the goal of spreading fear, promoting black metal and getting more customers for Helvete. Vikernes said of the interview, "I exaggerated a lot and when the journalist left we ... had a good laugh, because he didn't seem to understand that I was pulling his leg". He added that the interview revealed nothing that could prove his involvement in any crime. Vikernes claims that, after he was arrested, "the journalist edited the interview and ... published an insane version of it the following day, without even letting me read through it". Some of the other scene members were also arrested and questioned, but all were released for lack of evidence.

Euronymous decided to shut Helvete as it began to draw the attention of the police and media. Vikernes condemned Euronymous for shutting the shop rather than taking advantage of the publicity, stating, "by doing so he also made all my efforts more or less pointless. I spent six weeks in custody because of that". Norwegian magazine Rock Furore published an interview with Vikernes in February 1993. In it, he said of the prison system, "It's much too nice here. It's not hell at all. In this country prisoners get a bed, toilet and shower. It's completely ridiculous. I asked the police to throw me in a real dungeon, and also encouraged them to use violence". He was released in March for lack of evidence.

Shortly after this episode, the Oslo police dispatched its Church Fire Group to Bergen, where they set up a makeshift headquarters in the Hotel Norge. According to Lords of Chaos, citing a police report, Vikernes knocked on their door and "virtually forced his way into the suite". He was "dressed in chain mail, carrying two large knives in his belt, and flanked by the two young men who apparently behaved as if they were his bodyguards or henchmen". Vikernes "stated that he was fed up with being harassed by the authorities, and that the police investigation into the Black Metal scene should be stopped". When police told him he had no right to issue orders, Vikernes "took one step back and raised his right arm in a Roman salute".

Murder of Euronymous 

In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of 10 August 1993, Vikernes and Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch drove from Bergen to Euronymous's apartment in Oslo. When they arrived there was a confrontation and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds – two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back.

It has been speculated that the murder was the result of a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records, or an attempt at "outdoing" the stabbing in Lillehammer. Vikernes denies this and claims he killed Euronymous in self-defense. He says Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up and torture him to death while filming the event, using a meeting about an unsigned contract to ambush him. Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract that night and "tell him to fuck off", but that Euronymous panicked and attacked him first. The self-defense story is doubted by Faust, while Necrobutcher believes Vikernes killed Euronymous due to the death threats he received from him. Necrobutcher later alleged that he also intended to murder Euronymous himself due to him tastelessly capitalizing on Dead's suicide.

Vikernes was arrested on 19 August 1993, and many other members of the scene were taken in for questioning around the same time. Some confessed to their crimes and implicated others. In May 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway's maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the arson of four churches, and for possession of 150 kg of explosives. Two churches were burnt the day he was sentenced, "presumably as a statement of symbolic support". Blackthorn was sentenced to eight years in prison for being an accomplice to the murder. That month saw the release of the Mayhem album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which features Euronymous on guitar and Vikernes on bass guitar. Euronymous's family had asked Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes, but Hellhammer said, "I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record". Vikernes was released from prison in 2009.

Conflict with other music scenes 
There was a strong rivalry between Norwegian black metal and Swedish death metal scenes. Fenriz and Tchort have noted that Norwegian black metal musicians had become "fed up with the whole death metal scene" and that "death metal was very uncool in Oslo" at the time. A number of times, Euronymous sent death threats to some of the more 'mainstream' death metal groups in Europe. Allegedly, a group of Norwegian black metal fans even plotted to kidnap and murder certain Swedish death metal musicians.

There was also rivalry between Norwegian and Finnish black metal bands. Impaled Nazarene printed "No orders from Norway accepted" and "" ('Death to the arseholes of Norway!') on early pressings of their first album and innuendo and snarky comments were made in fanzines. Beherit's mainman 'Nuclear Holocausto' used the rivalry to play a series of telephone pranks on Mika Luttinen (of Impaled Nazarene) in which he would call him in the dead of the night playing nursery rhymes at high speed on a cassette recorder. At the time, Luttinen maintained that the messages were threats from Norwegian black metallers. The Finnish band Black Crucifixion criticized the Norwegian band Darkthrone as "trendies" due to Darkthrone originally being a death metal band who later played black metal.

List of music releases 
The following is a list of black metal recordings and releases by the aforesaid bands released during 1987–1993. Releases in bold are albums, while the rest are demos and extended plays.

Documentaries and films 
 Det svarte alvor (1994).
 Satan rir Media (English: Satan Rides the Media) (1999).
 Norsk Black Metal (2003), aired on Norwegian TV by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
 Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005) touches on black metal in the early 1990s, and includes an extensive 25-minute feature on the DVD release.
 Black Metal: A Documentary (2006), produced by Bill Zebub.
 Murder Music: A History of Black Metal (2007).
 Once Upon a Time in Norway (2007).
 Pure Fucking Mayhem (2008).
 Black Metal: The Norwegian Legacy (2008), produced by Bill Zebub.
 Until the Light Takes Us (2009).
 Black Metal: The Music of Satan (2010), produced by Bill Zebub.
 Lords of Chaos (2018), film directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
 Helvete – historien om norsk black metal (2020).

See also 

 List of musicians in the early Norwegian black metal scene

References

Bibliography

External links 

 "In the Face of Death" – article about the early Norwegian black metal scene, focusing on Mayhem (2005)

Black metal
Music scenes
Social history of Norway
Cultural history of Norway
Anti-Christian sentiment in Europe
Heavy metal by location
Mayhem (band) Abruptum is a Swedish black metal and dark ambient solo side-project band. It is run by Evil (Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson) of Marduk, but the band was formed in 1989 by IT (a.k.a. Tony Särkkä). All (a.k.a. Jim Berger), Ext and Evil joined the band later.  IT was one of the leaders of the True Satanist Horde, part of the Swedish Black metal scene. Euronymous, co-founder of Mayhem and founder of Deathlike Silence Productions, described Abruptum as "the audial essence of pure black evil".

History
IT had already planned to create the band in 1987, but it was not until 1990 that he found the right members to do it.  The same year, they recorded their first two demos.  After the release of the first demo, they fired their bass player, Ext.  After the release of a 7-inch EP  Evil in 1991 (later re-released by Psychoslaughter), All began to drink heavily and was forced to leave the band. IT then found a new member in "Evil".  Around this time, IT reunited with All to form the side project, Vondur.

Abruptum was signed to Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions, on which they released two albums. Euronymous described them as "the audial essence of pure black evil", and IT considered Euronymous to be "a true ally". After Euronymous's murder, Abruptum contributed the opening track to the compilation album Nordic Metal: A Tribute to Euronymous. Controversy surrounded Abruptum's close relationship with Euronymous, with Varg Vikernes specifically referencing Abruptum when recalling his version of the events and motives leading to the death of Euronymous.  Vikernes, claiming that he killed Euronymous in self-defense, recalled in a 2006 interview:

It has been wrongly rumored IT left the band and the black metal scene altogether in 1996, following numerous threats made to him and to his family. According to IT himself and his sister/manager, that was not at all the reason for his departure from the scene, as he had simply been wanting to leave for some time until he ultimately did. Evil kept Abruptum going and released material on his own record label, Blooddawn Productions, until 2005 when he announced that he had ended Abruptum.

Since Abruptum's disbanding, IT joined an industrial band called 8th Sin, and was briefly involved with the band (Total) War along with All. All worked with IT again in Ophthalamia, but they too eventually disbanded. IT eventually died on 8 February 2017, aged 44. Evil continues his work with Marduk and Death Wolf (formerly known as Devil's Whorehouse), yet brought Abruptum back in 2008, recording and releasing an EP ("Malediction") that same year and a full-length ("Potestates Apocalypsis") in 2011 under his Blooddawn Productions label.

Music themes and style 
While Abruptum is classified as a black metal/dark ambient band, the band took a different approach to their music.  They did not focus on creating any structured songs, and mostly just made noise.  Earlier material had shorter songs but their later releases typically included one or two tracks with more than forty minutes of music.  They primarily used standard drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and other various instruments, but what stood out even more was the screaming, as the band supposedly tortured and cut each other during their recordings.  Whether this is true or not has never really been verified.  This led to Euronymous' now (in)famous distinction of Abruptum as "The Audial Essence of Pure Black Evil".  After IT left the band, Evil changed the band's musical style to more dark ambient/noise and dropped most of the metal sound.

Members

Current member
Evil (Patrik Niclas Morgan Håkansson), Piano, Vocals, Programming (1993–1995, 2000–2005, 2008–present)

Former members
IT – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Violin (1989–1997)
All – Vocals (1990–1991)
Ext – Bass (1990)

Discography 
Abruptum (Demo, 1990)
The Satanist Tunes (Demo, 1990)
Evil (7" EP, 1991)
Orchestra of Dark (Same as 'The Satanist Tunes' with additional 'Outro' added, 1991)
Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me (Deathlike Silence Productions, March 15, 1993)
Translation: "I call on obscurity to embrace me."
In Umbra Malitae Ambulabo, in Aeternum in Triumpho Tenebraum (Deathlike Silence Productions, April 1, 1994)
Translation: "Walk in the shadow of evil, in the triumph of darkness forever."
Evil Genius [First Two Demos and 7" EP on one CD; Hellspawn Records, 1995; remastered and re-reissued by Black Lodge Records and Southern Lord Records with a bonus track ('De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet' from the Nordic Metal compilation) in 2007]
Nordic Metal: A Tribute to Euronymous (Track Contribution: 'De Profundis Mors Vas Consumet', 1995)
Vi Sonas Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (Full Moon Productions, 1997)
De Profundis mors vas Consumet ('Nordic Metal' track + 2 Unreleased Tracks); Blooddawn Productions, 2000)
Translation: "Death from the deep vessel consumes"
Casus Luciferi (Blooddawn Productions, March 15, 2004)
(Rough) Translation: "Lucifer's downfall"
Maledictum (EP) (Blooddawn Productions, 2008)
Translation: "Curse"
Potestates Apocalypsis (Blooddawn Productions, June 2011)
Translation: "Powers of the Apocalypse"

References

External links
Tartarean Desire entry on Abruptum
FMP Entry on Abruptum
Old IT interview from Petrified eZine, 1994

Dark ambient music groups
Musical groups established in 1989
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups reestablished in 2008
Musical quartets
Noise musical groups
Swedish musical groups
Swedish black metal musical groups