He was described by Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, the drummer for Mayhem, as being "a very strange personality ... depressed, melancholic, and dark" and guitarist Øystein 'Euronymous' Aarseth said "I honestly think Dead is mentally insane. Which other way can you describe a guy who does not eat, in order to get starving wounds? Or who has a T-shirt with funeral announcements on it?"