Mayhem: a new beginning and an ending?

 

Mayhem's masterpiece

The years following Dead's suicide in 1991 were tumultuous ones for MAYHEM. By this time, black metal was beginning to emerge from the underground and establish itself as a legitimate genre. However, Mayhem had some issues they needed to work through. 

The first issue in these times was whether or not the band even still existed. Did Dead's suicide mean the end of Mayhem? Euronymous had begun exploiting Dead's suicide for publicity's sake, including crafting the narrative that it was the posers and trendwhores in the metal underground that drove him to take his own life. Between this and Euronymous's stated intention to use a photo of Dead's corpse as the cover to a future Mayhem release, Necrobutcher had had enough. He quit the band out of frustration. 

Dead without corpsepaint

The second issue Mayhem faced was that Mayhem still had no full-length studio albums to their name. 1987's Deathcrush was technically an EP, and Live in Leipzig had not been released yet. Numerous bootlegs were circulating in the underground, and some of those eventually saw the light of day as officially sanctioned releases. What was to become of Mayhem, and would their music ever see the light of day in a proper release? 

Euronymous took this time as an opportunity to champion the burgeoning Norwegian black metal scene. In a series of interviews in various zines, he (and to a lesser degree, Burzum's Varg Vikernes) laid down what he thought black metal should be and what it could be. He also decided to move forward with Mayhem.

Euronymous in corpsepaint

With no bassist and no vocalist, Mayhem first recruited Occultus (of Perdition Hearse) to fill both roles. While Occultus did contribute, he soon left the band because of personality clashes with Euronymous. Then, Varg was recruited to fill the role of bassist. Some recordings of rehearsals from this time period eventually saw the light of day as the From the Darkest Past bootleg.

This was also around the time that Snorre Ruch and Attila Csihar were recruited. Snorre came on board as a second guitarist and helped write lyrics for a few songs. Attila was recruited as vocalist. At this point, Mayhem's first full-length studio album was almost complete. 

This rough mix of "Funeral Fog" comes from the Life Eternal EP

The resulting album was to be titled "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", and this was a title that had been up Mayhem's sleeve since before Dead's suicide. Unfortunately, Euronymous would never see the album's release. As is widely known, he was murdered by Varg Vikernes shortly after the completion of the album's recording.

The album was released in 1994. It was hailed as a milestone in black metal, and the album itself has (for better or worse) influenced scores of young musicians to try their hand at this diabolical genre of music. I think that this album is a true masterpiece, and it marvelously captures the essence of early second-wave black metal.

The title track of the album in question

Alas, with Euronymous dead and Snorre and Varg in jail for their criminal activity, Mayhem's roster was once again decimated. Was the band gone for good? Only time would tell..... 

Select discography of this era:

From the Darkest Past (1992 bootleg rehearsal of DMDS)

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (full-length) (1994)

Life Eternal (rough mix of DMDS) (2009)

Next time:  ABORYM