Mayhem
is a
Norwegian
black metal
band
. It was founded in 1984 by
guitarist
Øystein Aarseth
(aka
Euronymous
),
bass guitarist
Jørn Stubberud (aka Necrobutcher), and
drummer
Kjetil Manheim (aka Manheim). The band name is taken from the
Venom
song
, "Mayhem with Mercy."
During the early years, the band used either
session
vocalists
Messiah or Maniac for live/studio
performances
. During
rehearsals
, they played either without a singer, or either Necrobutcher or
Euronymous
would sing.
By late 1987, both Manheim and Maniac had left the band. Members of the band
Vomit
sang for the band for a short time. In 1988, singer
Dead
, and drummer Hellhammer joined the band.
Dead
killed himself in 1991. He
shot
himself in the mouth with a
shotgun
after cutting his
wrists
with a
knife
. The
shell
he used, was not given to him by
Varg Vikernes
(Count Grishnackh). His body was found in his room. A
suicide
note was also found. It said "Excuse all the
blood
".
Euronymous
took
pictures
of the body and room. One of these pictures was used as the cover of their
Dawn of the Black Hearts
album
. This started people saying many things about the band. It was said that Euronymous had cooked and eaten pieces of Dead's
brain
. It was also said that parts of Dead's
skull
had been used to make
necklaces
that both Euronymous and Hellhammer wore. It is not likely that his brains were eaten, but it is known that necklaces were made, and that pictures were taken.
[
source?
]
With the
media
and
police
attention after Dead's suicide, Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) left the band. Dead was replaced by Occultus (Stian Johansen). He was the ex-singer of
Thyabhorrent
. He sang and played bass in Mayhem for a few months, but soon left. Varg Vikernes (Burzum) joined as bassist.
On August 10th, 1993,
Varg Vikernes
murdered
Euronymous
in his
apartment
. Their
relationship
before the murder had gotten bad. It is thought that there were many reasons why Vikernes killed him. These include that it was over a girl,
jealousy
of Euronymous's position in the band, Euronymous owing him
money
and Euronymous not releasing Burzum's albums on time. Euronymous was found in his
underwear
with knife
wound
. Varg was
rumoured
to try and outdo the murder Faust of the band
Emperor
did. At his
trial
, Vikernes came into
court
with his long hair made into
pigtails
. He said he had nothing to do with Euronymous's death. He
laughed
throughout the trial. Vikernes was found
guilty
the murder. He was sent to
prison
for 21 years. This is the most time a person can be sent to prison in Norway. When police
arrested
Vikernes, he was found with over 150 kilograms (330 lb) of
dynamite
and plans to destroy
Nidarosdomen
on a
religious
holiday
. Nodarosdomen is a large
Christian
church
in
Trondheim
. Varg Vikernes has a different story to the reasons for killing Euronymous. He created many
articles
to tell the reasons.
[1]
After the trial, Euronymous's parents asked Hellhammer to remove the parts of the bands music that Varg had recorded. He told them he would do this. Since he could not play the bass guitar, the changes were not made. The album remained the same, with Varg playing on it.
Their
performances
used heavy
atmospheric
effects. These included things such as
pig
heads put on wooden poles. Dead's
clothes
were buried days or weeks before the show. They were dug up before the performances and would be covered in
decay
, dirt and
insects
. Pieces of rotting
meat
were thrown into the
audience
and given to people to eat or rip on the spot. Dead
ravens
were placed in a bag so Dead could smell decay and death. Members would also cut themselves onstage.
- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
(1994)
- Wolf's Lair Abyss (1997)
- Grand Declaration Of War (2000)
- Chimera (2004)
- Ordo Ad Chao (2007)
- Esoteric Warfare (2014)
- Daemon (2019)
- Live In Leipzig (1993)
- Dawn of the Black Hearts(1995)
- Mediolanum Capta Est (1999)
- Live In Marseille 2000 (2001)
- Live in Zeitz (2016)
- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016)
- Live in Jessheim (2017)
- Live in Sarpsborg (2019)