Everyone Knows the deceased Dead and Euronymous; either by name, reputation or activities.

These people are by many claimed to be the originators of what has turned into

a vivid and extensive Black Metal Underground Movement;

an honor they serve through the fact that their lives and also post-existence ensured to gather the complexities 

of the once so weak and tiny scene, elaborating the basic principles and put it to practice.

      These two persons are by many also claimed to be the real Mayhem, what constituted Mayhem in effect. Euronymous had from the beginning engendered and ensured Mayhem's music and riffing, from the chaotic and crushing music that could be found in their Deathcrush-era to the atmospheric yet intensely brutal sonic metal towards their De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas-era.

Dead, with his haunting vocals, made the listener imagine an audio-trip to the lost castles of Transylvania while at the same time giving the impression of just having risen from the grave. Dead lived up to his pseudonym - and he should live even more up to it than anyone would like to imagine.

The last time I ever met Euronymous was in his flat in Toyen, Oslo, in early June 1993. I was at that time playing in Emperor and we were heading towards a mini-tour in England with Cradle of Filth. Euronymous had just closed down his shop, Helvete, as a result from massive media-pressure because of the criminal activities that rose to unexpected heights in the Norwegian Black Metal scene. The plan was to open the shop again in a more visited area of the city and therefore to ensure a bigger economical income. This night I visited Euronymous one last time before going to England and discussed a few matters with him. That was the last time I ever saw him alive.



Emperor returned from England about two weeks later; exhausted and sleepy but with a little broader horizon and richer experiences. I never met up with Euronymous again since I shortly lived at my father's in the north-east of Norway, but I went to Oslo the 10th of August to visit him. The shock was enormous when I was in the middle of the police-investigation and was brought in for interrogation. I couldn't imagine that anyone had killed Euronymous. I wont dwell with the details concerning his death, the people behind it or anything. It has nothing to do with this article. But it's clear that from that point the scene had lost one of his main participants, and in my eyes, the scene would never be the same again. Unfortunately. 



Dead died in April 1991, then fully completing and realizing his long-time band pseudonym. I appreciate very much that I got to get known with Dead the time he spent in Norway. He was indeed a strange personality. Posterior to his death; all kinds of myths have been made about him; he was really the personification of an evil madman, according to many. Well then let myths be myths and focus rather on reality as it appear in broad daylight. Dead was a nice man and Dead was a good man (a description many might find "blasphemous" but it still doesn't hide the fact that Dead was a good man). He had his own little view of life, which was constituted by Transylvania, vultures, bats, grim trees (he often went into the woods to paint "grim trees"), graves and non-synthized Black Metal. In despite of his obsession, he was harmless and wanted to leave alone and be left alone 

There's no need to speculate about his death. Sure I have heard the rumors like everyone else, but forget them, Dead died by his own hands. There's neither no need to speculate in why he did it. He is gone and I think his death was the first massive setback for the scene, which was in its early, juvenile stage. This seriously showed us that life is hard and that things might happen independent of what we want


Nowadays, there is a discussion on various Black Metal chat-rooms, letter-section in Metal-magazines and through the regular forums for dialogues if Mayhem should continue or not. As for me, having known all but one of all the members of Mayhem through history, I choose not to view it that way, but rather look on Mayhem as a complex entity - a driving force - that is inevitable and inexorable, a force that is here to still push the limits that exists in music. This way, Mayhem will never die, a fact that both Euronymous and Dead lived and died in their own days.

    

Bard "Faust" Eithun, October 2000 -



published with permission