Euronymous Beliefs and personality What were some of Euronymous' beliefs? However, Lords of Chaos claims that many who knew Euronymous say "the extreme Satanic image he projected Was the extreme Satanic image all an act? in fact, just that - a projection which bore little resemblance to his real personality".
What was Euronymous really like behind the image?
What was Euronymous really like behind the Satanic image?
In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes, and between Euronymous and the Swedish black metal scene.  On the night of 10 August 1993, Vikernes and Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch drove from Bergen to Euronymous' apartment at Toyengata in Oslo. Upon their arrival a confrontation began and Vikernes fatally stabbed Euronymous. His body was found on the stairs outside the apartment with 23 stab wounds - two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back. Euronymous' 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, or an attempt at "outdoing" the stabbing in Lillehammer. Vikernes denies all of these, claiming that he attacked 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. Blackthorn stood outside smoking while Vikernes climbed the stairs to Euronymous' apartment on the fourth floor. Vikernes said he met Euronymous at the door and handed him the contract, but when he stepped forward and confronted Euronymous, Euronymous "panicked" and kicked him in the chest. The two got into a struggle and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. Vikernes defends that most of Euronymous' cut 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. The self-defense story is doubted by Faust and other members of the scene.  According to Vikernes, Blackthorn only came along to show Euronymous some new guitar riffs and was "in the wrong place at the wrong time". Blackthorn claims that, in the summer of 1993, he was almost committed to a mental hospital but fled to Bergen and stayed with Vikernes. He said Vikernes planned to murder Euronymous and pressured him into coming along. Blackthorn said of the murder, "I was neither for nor against it. I didn't give a shit about Oystein". Vikernes called Blackthorn's claims a "defense [...] to make sure I couldn't blame him [for the murder]".  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 he, 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.  At Euronymous' funeral, Hellhammer (Mayhem's then-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 re-recording 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 new generation of musicians tried to gain credibility by 'hyping-up' Euronymous, although he was also hailed as "the King" or "Godfather of Black Metal" by bands that had emerged before this new generation. 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 did not affect or at least 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".  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 1993 interview he said "There is NOTHING which is too sick, evil or perverted". Metalion (who knew Euronymous since 1985 and considered him to be his best friend) said that Euronymous "was always telling what he thought, following his own instincts [...] worshipping death and being extreme". Ihsahn, who frequented Helvete, said that "if you were trusted, if they knew you were serious in your views, you were accepted" there, which was important to be a part of the Helvete scene.  However, Lords of Chaos claims that many who knew Euronymous say "the extreme Satanic image he projected was, in fact, just that - a projection which bore little resemblance to his real personality". They include 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 (who was friends with Euronymous from 1983 until his death) described Euronymous as "blond, health oriented, very good at school. He worked-out a lot, didn't smoke, didn't drink ... That was the Oystein we knew. A nice guy, a family guy ... But when we 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 "Oystein's daily life was a total theater" that was based on the black metal "archetype" of 'Euronymous'. CANNOTANSWER
Mayhem drummer Kjetil Manheim (who was friends with Euronymous from 1983 until his death) described Euronymous as "blond, health oriented, very good at school.
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
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 Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in Langhus in 1984. They were one of the founders of the Norwegian black metal scene and their music has strongly influenced the black metal genre. Mayhem's early career was highly controversial, primarily due to their notorious live performances, the 1991 suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead") and the 1993 murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth ("Euronymous") by former member Varg Vikernes ("Count Grishnackh") of Burzum.

The group released a demo and an EP that were highly influential, and amassed a loyal following through sporadic and notorious live performances, attracting further attention through their ties to the string of Norwegian church burnings and the incidents of violence surrounding them. Mayhem disbanded after Aarseth's murder, shortly before the release of their debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, regarded as a classic of the black metal genre. Surviving former members Jan Axel Blomberg ("Hellhammer"), Jørn Stubberud ("Necrobutcher") and Sven Erik Kristiansen ("Maniac") reformed the next year with Rune Eriksen ("Blasphemer") replacing Aarseth. Attila Csihar and Morten Iversen ("Teloch") have since replaced Kristiansen and Eriksen, respectively. Their post-Aarseth material is characterized by increased experimentation. The 2007 album Ordo Ad Chao received the Spellemann Award for best heavy metal album.

History

Early years (1984–1988)

Mayhem was founded in 1984 by guitarist Øystein Aarseth (known initially as "Destructor", later "Euronymous"), bassist Jørn Stubberud ("Necrobutcher") and drummer Kjetil Manheim, taking their band name from the Venom song "Mayhem with Mercy". The band members were mainly influenced by groups such as Venom, Death, Kreator, Motörhead, Necrodeath, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Bathory, Sarcófago,  Sodom,  Destruction, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer and Parabellum. The lineup began playing cover songs by Black Sabbath, Venom, Motörhead and later recorded the demo Pure Fucking Armageddon. After its release, Aarseth, who used to sing lead vocals, along with Stubberud, during first demo's studio rehearsals, recruited two session vocalists, Eirik Norheim ("Messiah") and Sven Erik Kristiansen ("Maniac"), in 1986 and 1987. Norheim performed vocals only for a concert, which took place on 20 April 1985 in Ski, and by the end of that year he had quit Mayhem. He later formed hardcore punk band Within Range and Oi!/street punk band Cockroach Clan. Whereas, with Kristiansen, Mayhem recorded its first EP, Deathcrush, in 1987, and released it through Euronymous' newly formed label Posercorpse Music. Manheim and Euronymous only played at one show on 22 March 1986 at the Ski theater as L.E.G.O. and the show was recorded on video. This was a side project about experimental music against mainstream.

The initial 1,000 copy release of Deathcrush quickly sold out. It was later reissued in 1993 by the newly renamed Deathlike Silence Productions as a joint venture with Euronymous' Oslo specialist record shop Helvete (Norwegian for "Hell"). Manheim and Maniac left the band in 1988.

With Dead (1988–1991)
After two brief replacements, Maniac and Manheim's positions were filled by Swedish vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead") and local drummer Jan Axel Blomberg ("Hellhammer"). With Dead, the band's concerts became notorious. For concerts, Dead went to great lengths to achieve the image and atmosphere he wished. From the beginning of his career, he was known to wear "corpse paint", which involved covering his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, "[i]t wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool". Hellhammer claimed that Dead "was the first black metal musician to use corpse paint". To complete his corpse-like image, Dead would bury his stage clothes and dig them up again to wear on the night of a concert.

While performing, Dead would often cut himself with hunting knives and broken glass. Additionally, the band often had pig or sheep heads impaled on stakes and planted at the front of their stage.

Stian Johannsen ("Occultus"), who briefly took over as vocalist after Dead's suicide, made this statement about him:

"He [Dead] didn't see himself as human; he saw himself as a creature from another world. He said he had many visions that his blood has frozen in his veins, that he was dead. That is the reason he took that name. He knew he would die."

In 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to "an old house in the forest" near Oslo, which was used as a place for the band to rehearse. They began writing songs for their next album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. 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 committed suicide in the house owned by the band. He was found by Euronymous with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note started with the sentence "Excuse all the blood" and included a brief explanation "nobody will ever understand this, but as a sort of explanation, I am not human, this is only a dream and soon I will awake". The full text has become public and it ended by saying "I didn't come up with this now but 17 years ago". Attached to the note, Dead left the lyrics of the song Life Eternal. When Euronymous found all this, he went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse, after re-arranging some items.

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 Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen. In 2018, a fragment of Dead's skull also went on sale for $3,500, along with the letter from Euronymous that it was posted with. The letter finishes with: "OK! That should be all. I’m enclosing a little piece from Dead’s cranium in case you’d like to have it. Hear from you soon!" On a 2019 interview with Loudwire and Consequence of Sound, Necrobutcher claimed to have had plans to kill Euronymous since he was disgusted by his treatment of Dead, but that Vikernes "beat [him] to it". 
It remains a trend for fans to produce artwork using blood. One such example is actually by drummer Hellhammer himself, who wrote lyrics to Pagan Fears in his own blood as can be seen on the Instagram page for thetruemayhemcollection in a post from October 2019. Artist Maxime André Taccardi has also produced a painting of Dead using his own blood.

Murder of Euronymous, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and breakup (1991–1994)

Dead's suicide and Euronymous’s actions following it affected Necrobutcher so much that he left Mayhem, thinning the band's ranks down to two. The group performed for a short time thereafter with Occultus, joining the band to begin recording vocal and bass tracks in Mayhem's debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. However, this was short-lived; he left the band after receiving a death threat from Euronymous. In July 1993, Live in Leipzig was released as the band's tribute to Dead.

In late 1992, the recording of Mayhem's upcoming album resumed; thus Aarseth engaged three more session musicians: Burzum's Varg Vikernes (stage name "Count Grishnackh"), Thorns' Snorre W. Ruch ("Blackthorn"), who handled bass guitar and rhythm guitar respectively, and singer Attila Csihar, of Hungarian black metal band Tormentor. Due to complaints by his parents, Euronymous closed his scene focal point record shop Helvete, claiming as reasons adverse media and police attention. Much of the album was recorded during the first half of 1993 at the Grieg Hall in Bergen. To coincide with the release of the album, Euronymous and Vikernes had conspired to blow up Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. Euronymous's murder in August 1993 put an end to this plan and delayed the album's release.

On 10 August 1993, Vikernes murdered Euronymous. On that night, Vikernes and Ruch travelled 518 km from Bergen to Euronymous' apartment in Oslo. Upon their arrival, a confrontation ensued, which ended when Vikernes fatally stabbed Euronymous. His body was found outside the apartment with twenty-three cut wounds — two to the head, five to the neck and sixteen to the back. Vikernes claims that Euronymous had plotted to torture him to death and videotape the event, using a meeting about an unsigned contract as a pretext. On the night of the murder, Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract and "tell him to fuck off", but that Euronymous attacked him first. Additionally, Vikernes also claimed that most of Euronymous' cut wounds were caused by broken glass he had fallen on during the struggle. Vikernes was arrested within days, and a few months later he was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence administered in Norway, for both the murder and church arsons; he was released from prison in 2009. Blackthorn, who waited for Vikernes downstairs and took no part in Aarseth's murder, was charged with complicity in murder and sentenced to serve 8 years in prison. With only Attila and Hellhammer remaining, Mayhem ceased to exist.

In a video interview with Consequence of Sound on 15 October 2019, Necrobutcher discussed his bitterness toward Euronymous after being replaced in the band with Varg Vikernes before the recording of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Then he turned to the murder of Euronymous, offering an eye-opening revelation:

"OK, I can tell it right now, because I’ve been holding it in for many years, but actually I was on my way down to kill him myself. And when it happened, I saw the morning paper, thinking ‘Fuck, I gotta get home to my place and get out all the weapons and drugs and shit I had in my house, because they’re coming to my house because I’m probably going to be the No. 1 suspect for this.' But little did I know that the Norwegian police already knew that Count Grishnackh [Varg] was going down also to kill him. Because they bugged his phone, and he actually talked about this killing before he went to Bergen so the cops already knew that he was coming, so they probably were thinking to themselves, ‘We didn’t nail this guy for the church burnings, so let’s nail him for murder, and get rid of this fucking guy in Oslo the same time.’ So that's basically what happened."

In May 1994, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was released and dedicated to Euronymous. Its release had been delayed due to complaints filed by Euronymous' parents, who had objected to the presence of bass guitar parts played by Vikernes. According to Vikernes himself, Hellhammer assured Aarseth's parents that he would re-record the bass tracks himself; being unable to play bass guitar, Hellhammer left the bass tracks unchanged, and so the album features Vikernes as bassist.

Reunion with Maniac and Necrobutcher and introduction of Blasphemer (1995–2004)

In 1995, a bootleg live recording of a 1990 Mayhem concert was released, titled Dawn of the Black Hearts. Despite being a bootleg, the album is sometimes listed as one of the band's main albums, mainly due to the notoriety regarding the cover art, which is one of the aforementioned photographs of Dead shortly after he died from suicide.

Around that time, Hellhammer, Maniac, and Necrobutcher had reformed the band with new guitarist Rune Eriksen ("Blasphemer") in place of Euronymous. Despite arousing some controversy and scepticism for reforming without founding member Euronymous, the group returned with the 1997 Wolf's Lair Abyss EP.

In this new phase, statements by Hellhammer (who spoke out against race mixing and foreigners in Norway) and the use of Nazi imagery such as swastika flags in the rehearsal room, the Totenkopf emblem and band merchandise featuring the symbol of the military branch of Nasjonal Samling led to controversy and accusations of neo-Nazism.

Additionally, Hellhammer stated that no member of the new line-up was a Satanist, and that the "Satanic stuff […] isn't what I feel Mayhem is about today. […] Mayhem's music is still dark, but I wouldn't say that it's Satanic."

The band's second full-length album, Grand Declaration of War, was released in 2000. Strongly influenced by progressive and avant-garde metal, the album was concept-based, dealing with themes of war and post-apocalyptic destruction. Maniac largely abandoned the traditional black metal rasp for dramatic spoken-word monologue, with most of the songs sequencing seamlessly into one another. Because of this conceptual straying, however, the album received harsh criticism.

Mayhem made headlines in 2003 when fan Per Kristian Hagen landed in the hospital with a fractured skull after being hit by a severed sheep's head that had been thrown into the audience from the stage. Assault charges were filed, but the band considered it to have been entirely accidental.

The band released Chimera in 2004, showing a return to their initial raw sound, but with higher production value and a progressive edge.

Later that year, Maniac left the band. According to Necrobutcher, this was due to his alcoholism induced by stage fright. Necrobutcher explained that because of this tendency, a violent encounter between the singer and Blasphemer lead to the guitarist kicking Maniac down a flight of stairs, resulting in injury. Csihar was reinstated as his replacement.

Return of Csihar; Ordo Ad Chao (2004–2008)

The band's fourth full-length album, Ordo ad Chao (Latin for "Order to Chaos"), was released in April 2007. Ordo ad Chao contained a much rawer sound than the rest of the band's recent work; the drums were not equalized and the mix was notably bass-heavy against black metal convention. The album continued the band's experiments with unorthodox song structures, with "Illuminate Eliminate," at 9:40, the band's second longest track (behind Grand Declaration of War’s "Completion in Science of Agony (Part I)" at 9:44). The album received strong reviews and was the band's highest-charting album, peaking at No. 12 on the Norwegian charts. In early 2008 Ordo Ad Chao won a Spellemannprisen, an award from the largest and oldest of Norway's music awards shows, for Best Metal Album of 2007.

In April 2008, Blasphemer announced his plans to leave the band, expressing a lack of desire to continue despite satisfaction with their accomplishments. He played European festival dates over the following months, with his last performance in the group coming in August. He thereafter continued work with the Portuguese band Ava Inferi. This marked the departure of the musician credited with the bulk of the musical composition of the band's three most recent studio albums.

After Blasphemer's departure and Esoteric Warfare (2008–2015)
Statements of imminent touring plans were announced on the band's web page a few weeks after their final dates with Blasphemer. In October 2008, Krister Dreyer ("Morfeus") of Dimension F3H and Limbonic Art joined the group as touring guitarist for their upcoming South America Fucking Armageddon tour.

The band toured through late 2008 and 2009 with this lineup, prior to announcing Summer 2009 dates with Silmaeth, a French musician, as a second touring guitar. In November 2009, the band was arrested in Tilburg, Netherlands, after destroying a hotel room while on tour. Norwegian guitarist Teloch of Nidingr replaced Silmaeth, and British guitarist Charles Hedger (aka Ghul) of Imperial Vengeance replaced Morfeus, in 2011 and 2012.

In an interview in 2012, Necrobutcher revealed that Mayhem had begun work on their fifth studio album. As of November 2013, the new album was being mixed, with an early 2014 release date expected. Several months later, on 18 February 2014, it was announced that Mayhem would release a new album in May 2014, with a new song "Psywar" made available for streaming.

On 20 February 2014, the band's record label, Season of Mist, announced that the new album Esoteric Warfare would be released worldwide on 27 May 2014. This marked the first Mayhem studio effort since Blasphemer's departure and Teloch's permanent status in the band.

In January 2015, Mayhem, Watain, and Revenge played together as part of the "Black Metal Warfare" tour in the United States. Mayhem and Watain toured again in the United States in November 2015 with Rotting Christ as "Part II" of the previous tour.

Live album, Lords of Chaos film and Daemon (2016–2020)

A live recording of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (DMDS Alive) was released in 2016. The same year rapper Ghostemane released the song Euronymous, a reference to the band.

Later the same year, a film about the band Lords of Chaos (based on the book of the same name) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, again propelling the group into the media spotlight. While the film received mixed reviews from both critics and fans, band members Necrobutcher and Csihar strongly objected to the movie, despite initially granting the rights to use the band's songs. In several interviews, the two argued that the film gave a one-sided perspective of the story, with particular complaints given to the failure to showcase the deteriorating relationship between Euronymous and Dead in the year before the latters suicide in April 1991. In 2018, the band released a remixed and remastered version of A Grand Declaration of War.
 
Mayhem's sixth studio album, Daemon, was released on 25 October 2019 through Century Media Records. Three singles: Worthless Abominations Destroyed, Of Worms and Ruins and Falsified and Hated were released ahead of the album. The album is characterised by a return to the more traditional style of black metal like in De Mysteriis and contains 10 new songs with a further two bonus tracks and several covers [including of Dead's old band Morbid] in the extended album. A music video for Falsified And Hated was released on 7 November and shows what appears to be a shaking tent ritual; it also shows a heart being cut open as part of this. Ziggy Jonas Rasmusson, a graffiti artist, was involved in the design.

In 2020, it was announced that drummer Tony Laureano would temporarily be filling-in for Hellhammer on the Decibel Magazine Tour due to Hellhammer suffering from a shoulder injury. The tour was, however, ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando (2021–present)

In 2021, Mayhem was inducted into the Rockheim Hall of Fame, after being nominated for the third time earlier the same year. As of 2021, they are the only black metal group to be inducted.

Mayhem announced a new EP Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando that was released on 9 July 2021. The track listing consists of 3 outtakes from the Daemon sessions, two of which were used as bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of the album along with 4 cover songs from punk rock bands who the band cite as "laying the foundation of what was to come". The EP features guest appearances by former vocalists Messiah and Maniac on one cover track each. This marks Messiah and Maniac's first studio recordings with the band since 1987's Deathcrush and 2004's Chimera respectively. Necrobutcher stated the two former vocalists were brought in "because of their obvious connection with punk".

Members

Current members
 Necrobutcher – bass guitar (1984–1991, 1995–present)
 Hellhammer – drums, percussion (1987–1993, 1995–present)
 Attila Csihar – vocals (1992–1993, 2004–present)
 Teloch – guitar (2011–present)
 Ghul – guitar (2012–present)

Notable former members
 Euronymous – guitar (1984–1993)
 Manheim – drums, percussions (1984–1987)
 Maniac – vocals (1986–1988, 1995–2004)
 Dead – vocals (1988–1991)
 Count Grishnackh – bass guitar (1992–1993)
 Blackthorn – guitar (1992–1993)
 Blasphemer – guitar (1995–2008)

Discography

Studio albums
 De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
 Grand Declaration of War (2000)
 Chimera (2004)
 Ordo ad Chao (2007)
 Esoteric Warfare (2014)
 Daemon (2019)

Videography
 Live in Ski (1986)
 Home-made rehearsal with Dead (1988)
 Live in Sarpsborg (1990)
 Live in Jessheim (1990)
 Live in Bischofswerda (1998)
 European Legions: Live in Marseille 2000 (2001)
 Mayhem – Cult of Aggression (Norwegian/Swedish documentary by Stefan Rydehed) (2002)
Live at Wacken (2004) 
 Appearance in Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005)
 Appearance in BBC One World episode Death Metal Murders (2005)
 Once Upon a Time in Norway – The History of Mayhem and the Rise of Norwegian Black Metal (2008)
 Pure Fucking Mayhem (English documentary by Stefan Rydehed) (2008)
 Until the Light Takes Us (American documentary by Aaron Aites/Audrey Ewell) (2008)
 De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016)

See also
Lords of Chaos (film), 2018

References

Bibliography

External links

 

 
Norwegian black metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 1984
1984 establishments in Norway
Musical groups disestablished in 1993
1993 disestablishments in Norway
Musical groups reestablished in 1994
Spellemannprisen winners
Musical quintets
Musical groups from Akershus
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Obscenity controversies in music
Season of Mist artists
Scandals in Norway
Controversies in Norway