In loving memory of the Godfathers of Black Metal, Dead and Euronymous.

Mayhem had no idea that their first demo tape Pure Fucking Armageddon, which was released in 1986, would start the second wave of Black Metal. The first wave consisted of three main acts: Celtic Frost, Venom, and Bathory. Despite the shitty sound quality, the tape became an underground classic and hey, at least it was a start against all that is considred good and wholesome. Shortly after that, the band released another demo titled Voice of a Tortured Skull

The orginal line-up of Mayhem was Euronymous (lead guitar), Necrobutcher (bass), Messiah (vocals), and Manheim (drums). Mayhem's first ever line-up change happened when legendary vocalist Dead left his band Morbid and replaced Messiah. The band once again ventured into the studio in 1987 and recorded their 3rd demo, DeathCrush. Manheim left the band and the new drummer, Hellhammer, stepped in to take his place.

Euronymous had opened a record store in 1991 in the town of Olso, Norway named Helvete. (HELL when translated in English). At that time the trend in Norway was Death Metal. As much as Euronymous hated trendy music, he sold it anyway in order to buy more EVIL music to sell to those who dared buy it.

In that same year Euronymous also created a small record label, Deathlike Silence, which would only carry EVIL bands which made EVIL music.

But Euronymous wasn't finshed there. He founded the most notorious gang EVER in music history, THE BLACK CIRCLE. The outter part of The Black Circle was made of up of many Norweigen Black Metal bands including Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor, and the one man band Burzum, which Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh) founded. The outter circle would command the inner circle (mostly made up of Black Metal fans and Black Metal bands who wanted to join) to do various acts including burning down Christian churches and terrorizing bands from England, Sweden, and Finland. The Circle warned the bands from these countries to not dare step one foot into Norway and tour. When they made that mistake they payed full.

After an already busy 1991 the band then embarked on a now legendary tour in Germany. Their stage presence was unmatched as crowds witnessed the band tossing around pigs heads and watching frontman Dead slice himself up with razor blades and various other cutting materials. Some of the live shows were recorded during the tour on both cassette and video.

Shortly after the tour Dead commited suicide inside of Euronymous' record shop with a shotgun. He felt that the trends he hated so much had won the war Mayhem and many other Black Metal bands and fans were fighting. Euronymous found the body and took pictures of it for future album covers. Occultus had replaced the fallen vocalist, but not for long.

In 1992 the band released an official live album titled Live in Leipzig in memory of their vocalist, Dead.

Necrobutcher had left the band and their were only two members of Mayhem left, Euroynmous and Hellhammer. Nonetheless the band decided to carry on and began writing songs for their first official album. They finished writing and went into the studio with two studio 'session stand ins': Count Grishnackh on bass and Attila, who replaced Occultus, on vocals. Those four men began to record De Mysteriis dom Sathanas

Rumours were running mad concerning problems within the Black Circle. The Count, big mouth and all, had been telling friends about the doings of the Circle. Obviously Euronymous did not like these actions and many verbal fights had broken out between them. An enourmous hatred had begun to sprout between the two. The topics of the arguements included The Count's big mouth and the record contract that Burzum had with Deathlike Silence. It would all come to a tragic end though.

On August 9th, 1993 The Count, a man by the name of Snorre (who at one point was a member of Mayhem for a short time), and Andreas Nagelsett drove to Oslo with one intent: Grishnackh would kill Eurnymous in cold blood. On their way Varg dropped off Nagelsett at his place to make a lot of noise such as typing and playing loud music. Varg wanted it to look like he was home the whole time. When the three men arrived at Togen, The Count knew that Euronymous would not answer the door for him, that's why he took Snorre along. Snorre buzzed the intercom at the apartment complex where Euronymous lived. Euronymous answered the call and when the buzzer sounded Grishnackh slipped through the door and walked his way to the apartment. Euronymous had just woken up and he was surprised to see Varg while standing in his underwear. The Count waived a pieve a paper at Euronymous, that piece a paper was the record contract. Varg claimed that he wanted to discuss the contract and Euronymous let him in. An arguement took place about the Circle, the record contract, and also about a young girl named Ilsa. Varg claimed that Euronymous has stolen the sixteen year old girl from him. Euronymous went to the kitchen and Varg pulled out a knife. In an extremely cowardly manner The Count stabbed Euro in the back, and he fell instantly and began to crawl back up to his feet in an attempt to talk Varg out of it. Euro pushed the Count aside after being stabbed for the second time and ran towards the door to get help. Varg followed him as if he was Jason from the Friday thr 13th horror flicks and stabbed him again.

On the morning of August 10th Euronymous' neighbors found him dead in a pool of blood stabbed a total of tweenty-three times; sixteen in the back and seven to the head and neck. When the body was found Varg and Snorre were long gone.

An investigation instantly began and on August 20th Varg Vikernes was arrested for the murder of Euronymous. Varg was founded guilty and was sentenced to twenty-one years in prison, the maximum penalty in Norway.

In 1994 De Mysteriis dom Sathanas was released and became an instant legendary album. Varg's bass lines were re-done by Hellhammer on the album.

In 1997 Mayhem returned! Necrobutcher was back on bass, Hellhammer on drums, Maniac returned to be the vocalist, and Blasphemer had the task of filling the shoes of Euronymous on guitar. The "new" Mayhem played a few shows and released their first album since 1994, Wolf's Lair Abyss.

What does the future hold for this legendary Black Metal band? Time will only tell.....but in my opinion, they will be around for another 10 years.

Discography:

Pure Fucking Armageddon (demo from 1986)

Voice of a Tortured Skull (demo from 1986)

Deathcrush (EP from 1986)

Live in Leipzig (tribute to Dead, recorded in 1990, released 1992)

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (released 1994)

A Tribute to the Black Emperors (released 1994)

Dawn of the Black Hearts (bootleg)

Wolf's Lair Abyss (released 1997)