Friday, May 16, 2008

Dead Slayer #6 (1988)


Interview with Dead (1988)

from Slayer #6

Dead, do you always wear your corpsepaint?

I wear my corpsepaint when I should really concentrate and live into my lyrics and that is on stage!

I think your voice sounds like a possessed, slaughtered goat! Is this maybe because you have fucked so many goats?

Maybe my vocals has something to do with my dark subconcious, but goats without AIDZ is ok.

It seems like you are into the dark side of life, maybe you can tell us about some blasphemous rites you have done?

Dead-I had never been into christianity.

Pedophil-I pissed in an altar for baptizing just five minutes before the ritual of baptizing.

Dr. Schitz-I hate christians cuz theyre fanatics and dont respect others. They are too fuckin good and nice.

Do you think handicapped have a right to live a normal life?

Only one comment: RIDE THE LIGHTNING!

Do you like Svensk surstrømming?

There are limits for how stupid questions we answer, I think it smells like Olof Palme does now...

Tell us about your experience with the unknown...

I hope I cant see, I hope I cant hear. But if I can I must tell you that I had horrible things to do with.

Have you ever thought of making a track with Swedish lyrics?

No we leave that to Mefisto!

What do you think of racists?

To be a racist or not is too political for us. We dont care at all!

Is it true it is less coco nuts in Sweden after Olof Palme died?

The only thing I know is that Olof Palme is dead...But what is coco nuts?

Do you think Morbid will play death metal in say, ten years?

We already played for ten years...HAHAHA! (Puke). No, serious (again). We shall never stop to play as we do now. More technical maybe and never change the image because we do what we really want to do. And we hope to never grow up. Maybe we are a different band. I wanted to start the really black metal band who believed in what we got into. I know it was alot of black metal bands before they got famous. There is so many fucking bands who have done the first record very evil and on the second one they pose out and say: 'Well we have grown up now...' No names. The reason is money and they have never been into Satan, just their early image. Maybe black metal is out and they cant get any money from that anymore but they have to get new fans. And I must tell you the stuff we get into will we never pose out from. And I hate those bands trying to be between good and evil sides and tries to get an occult image. They really dont believe in anything, they just want an image. And there is also bands who really believe in those things the image told, but they really cant play (and that is too bad very too bad i think). If a band can play and have very dark image it is something new.

How does it feel to be members of one of Swedens best black/death bands?

We thought we were playing metal, but it feels nice anyway...

Do you think Morbid will produce high quality death metal in the future?

Of course we will progress, and when we speak of progression we mean that we keep the same speed, but we will get more technical. Not like Destruction who excuses their slow down on the Mad Butcher 12" as progress.

Can you please tell us something about your relationship towards the darkside, satanism etc. How serious do you take it?

Now I have to tell you some history. My mum told me when I was a baby I slept so intensive so I turned white! So she had to check me all the time if I were still alive! This is serious! That is true! Maybe the whole thing started there? And maybe it started before that? My great great grandmother was a sorceror but only white magic. I have never been into fuckin white magic! I have always hated the christianity and all faiths who had anything to do with god, but especially the christianity. And I have always been insanely into horror! And when I discovered satanism I have been insanely interested in that. Seriously I want to get into a cult because it is difficult to understand something from a book with alot of scripts in sumerian, hebrew, etc.And of course it is difficult english. And it is very dangerous to do something wrong...And to really a lot of dark things and to the magic right. So I need a cult. But thats another thing. All cults is different. But I must tell you, no one of us is normal.

Anything fucked up to say at last?

The sense of humans. the feed needs.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Euronymous IV (1991/1992)

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Have you changed during all the years you have been into Death Metal, or has the music changed you?

Well, we’ve always tried to go further and further into darkness and evil and we get inspiration for this by listening to all the ancient Black Metal bands, and to a lot of the new ones. It’s important to get the right atmosphere from the music to become more evil and to power to do satanic actions. During the last year we have tried to become darker by oppressing human feelings, by trying not to laugh or smile, to have no feelings for girls except for exploitation, and to become more manipulating and egoistic. Death to “love, peace and fun”! Hate, War and Sodomy!

How was it to start up a band like MAYHEM? Have you had any problems? MAYHEM has had problems all the time since the beginning in ’84. The most difficult thing has been (the lack of) money. But in the beginning we didn’t have any really serious problems. Of course people didn’t take us very seriously, but who gives a fuck about people.

How are you distributing your releases?

So far we’ve been doing it very underground, but we’ll start getting bigger distribution through labels like SPV from now on and it will all be done more professionally. We need it in order to survive, so do the bands, and it’s just to bad to be sitting there and seeing shit bands like OBITUARY earning all the money and getting all the publicity. They don’t deserve it and we have started a war against bands like that. In the future we’ll start up a lot of actions. You’ll see.

I know you’re interested in communism. Have you been to any communist countries, if yes, what have been your emotions about it?

I’ve been very interested in communism for a while, especially the extreme countries like Albania, Kampuchea, North Korea and so on. I have to say that I have studied so much that I know that real communism would be the best possible system, BUT as I HATE people I don’t want them to have a good time, I’d like to see them rot under communist dictatorship. Ceausescu was great, we need more people like him, Stalin Pol Pot too. I’ve been to Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the (good) old days, and was about to go to Albania, although it didn’t turn out. Poland was quite all right, but it could have been even MORE grey and depressing. I like secret police, cold war and worshipping of dictators. I like bugging and spying on people, torture chambers in police stations and that people suddenly “disappear”.

Is the life you are living OK for you? If you could change something what would it be?

Yeah, it’s quite OK. I’d just like to have extremely much money. Then DSP would be a big company, we would all have the POWER in this part of the music business, and I would live in luxury with a harem and watch the children in Africa starve to death on video.

What is the ultimate goal for you with your band/label?

I don’t think we have any real definite goal, we started to play the music that was right for us, and we have done it for 8 years now. If we can spread terror, fright and hate in the world, and if we can manipulate lots of children into Satan's arms, and if we could become rich and have lots of power over others, it would be quite perfect, though as for the label, it was started because all other labels we shit and released mostly idiotic music. So we wanted to see to it that the greatest bands in the world got out on vinyl. And to create a Black Metal cult label with evil music by evil people for evil people released by evil people. I hate to see normal idiots thinking this is FUN and interfering in OUR world. Look at all the HC labels that are releasing “Death” Metal now, it sucks! It’s important that WE are in control, we who belong here, we should kick the punks back to where they came from so they can chew their carrots in the gutter where they belong.

How many records have you sold? What reaction has their been? Do people write back to you after they have bought an LP from you?

We have sold 2000 MERCILESS records and 1000 BURZUM records so far, but this is nothing compared to what we’ll sell now we make good distribution. We get very great reactions on our releases, simply because they ARE very great. We release only the best music that is possible to find.

If a guy listening to POISON, BON JOVI etc. Writes to you and wants to buy MERCILESS LP, will you sell it to him? I mean, can everybody buy records from you?

I won’t be able to know what music people listen to, and even if a guy writes that he’s very true and so on, he might turn out to be a complete idiot. So it’s impossible to discriminate even though we would like to do it. Also we need to sell records for economical reasons. We have been thinking about making a questionnaire for people to answer, and have them to send a photo before they were allowed to by records, but we can just forget about that. Until we become very rich everybody can buy records from us.

You’re totally anti-Earache right? Have you been like this since the first release of Earache? Could you elaborate on this?

No, I’m not anti-Earache at all! You’re obviously thinking of “anti-mosh” number on our records, but this dosen’t have anything to do with Earache. Of course it’s incredibly stupid with “mosh 4” but that’s their problem. Many years ago “mosh” was a very common word in the “underground” , you had to “mosh” to be cool, and these idiots, the “moshers”, with their Bermuda shorts, skateboards and shitty caps on their ugly heads were for us the lowest a human could possibly become. They were the symbol of everything that was trendy and which was destroying Black Metal, and we started a war against it . Now the moshers are more or less gone, but the spirit still lives on in the brains of the hardcore pigs and trendy Mtv audience who think that Death Metal should be a normal and funny thing for everybody. This is why our records this way. As for Earache, I have great respect for Dig, because when he started up he never signed bands BECAUSE they sold. Who had heard about NAPALM DEATH before he released their LP’s who had heard about CARCASS and ENTOMBED? MORBID ANGEL? Except for the “Underground” NONE, Earache isn’t a trendy label, it’s those who buy Earache records that are mostly trendy.

Your life has been pretty hard… How have you managed to survive, to have MAYHEM going and even run a label, though you haven’t got enough money to buy food?

That isn’t a problem anymore, we had a very hard time a couple of years ago, but I have managed to borrow some money which keeps the business going strong. Of course we don’t live in luxury and we don’t have much equipment, but it will be better in the future.

If MAYHEM would reach Norwegian Top 10, would you split up?

It’s a difficult question. I don’t think we would split up, but we would have to do something. If we were in top ten, it would mean that people were thinking we were funny and not dangerous, so we would have to make a couple of actions to make them hate us. On the other hand I would not mind earning idiots money. But this will never happen anyway, as MAYHEM is absolutely NOT a funny band and if someone tries to fuck with us he will discover that he’s messing with the wrong people. The entire concept behind MAYHEM is to dark for normal people to be into.

Have you got a certain place to rehearse with MAYHEM? Are the things with moving quicker now?

Things will go fast from now on, We’ll get a big rehearsal place together with THORNS/ARCTURUS/BURZUM, and it wont take long before the MAYHEM album is out.

What was the reason to sign BURZUM? Did you know the Count before signing BURZUM?

Yes, I’ve known the Count for some time, and I signed BURZUM after listening to the demo. It had a really bad sound and no vocals, but after being into this for ten years I know when a band has something really great to come up with, even if it’s a bad sounding demo or a rehearsal. And with a personality like the Count – it just has to turn out great.

What do you think of SARCOFAGO being shown on Mtv?

I think it sucks, but as they have wimped out totally, they don’t belong into the Black Metal world anyway, so even if they take part in destroying Death Metal, they’re at least not destroying Black Metal. On other hand, even VENOM was shown on Mtv, so I’m a little in doubt if we should be so much against it after all. If VENOM did certain things in the old days, who are we to criticize the originators?

If you could change something in the world, what would it be then?

I would get all things back to what they were during the cold war, then I would mix it with the barbarianism of the Viking ages and middle age. I would make people more religious and fanatic. And I would have taken over the Black/Death metal movement from the beginning and seen to it that only evil bands could have existed. And I would have lots of money while others were starving. I would NOT do anything with starving children in Africa, if you’re thinking about that. They can die.

Euronymous - Beat #2 (1993)

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This file contains an interview with EURONYMOUS of MAYHEM, and is taken from the norwegian mag BEAT no.2 / 1993. The interview is co-edited by LORD SAURON

BEAT has managed to visit the closed store 'HELVETE', which means HELL in english. Black Metal has been very focused on by the medias the last time, since COUNT GRISHNACKH of BURZUM has been arrested, suspected for murder and setting two churches afire. Another central person is EURONYMOUS. He plays in MAYHEM, runs the record-company DEATHLIKE SILENCE PRODUCTIONS and a mailorder-store which is the remains of HELVETE.

A PR-TRICK?

-Black Metal grows because people gets tired of ordinary Death Metal. In Black Metal you will find the really exciting personalitys, and the musical quality is much larger than in the other categorys, says EURONYMOUS.

He doesn't belive in a Black Metal-trend because satanism is an obligatory part of the Black Metal-pack as we call it.

-Black Metal is so extreme that not anyone can get into it. This isn't any funny hobby which stupid kids shall have after they comes home from school.

He and the rest of the band thinks it's very important to get away from the rest of the metal-society.

-It has always been a lot of cliches in metal, and not even the metal- society has taken it seriously. When it then comes someone who is serious about what they are doing, everyone is shocked. Black Metal is meant to be serious, not because other shall take us seriously, but because we are serious. It is talk about religion, and we praise the evil and we belive blindly in a godly creature just like a christian.

What is so solid with evilness?

-What is so solid about goodness then? It's just the way it is. I neither will or can definate it. It is a basicly hate to humankind. I have no friends, just the guys I'm allied with. If my girlfriend dies I won't cry, I will missuse the corpse.

PRAGMATITIONS

-Just because we doesn't sing "Satan come eat dinner with me", it will always be a satanic concept behind it, says the MAYHEM-guys.

But isn't really the satanic thing to deny the logical?

-Yes, in a way, but the human is nothing compared to the great cosmos. Scientists can't disprove the excistense of religion. No matter how hard you try, you can't explain the universe. You can't leave out a religious belief.

All of you in MAYHEM have a good relationship to your parents, how does it harmony with this thing that you shall be evil all the time?

-As long as you can have personal royalties, why not? A christian can't be 100% good all the time either. The thing that is most important to us is to be active with the spreading of evilness. We don't have to prove that we are evil, and we don't care about what people thinks about us. If you will you can look at us as unserious. WE ARE NOT FOR YOU!

Is this interview a part of the spreading of evilness?

-It is publicity for us and the bands, then we sell more records and spread evilness through them. Satanists with wellpaid jobs don't need interviews like this.

WAR AGAINST HUMOUR

-This thing is meant to be dark. Even if I listen to bands like Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd and Marillion, I try to create my own mood out of the music. I'm listening after the dark, says EURONYMOUS.

On the DEATHCRUSH-record the humour-element is absolutely there - it's a picture of a cow on the label.

That was then. Now we mean partying is bad. It's better to sit and cut yourself, than to go out and have fun. Sometimes you have to face some challenges, but they must be fought with a hard hand. It's many years since I managed to feel love. This is just the way it is. This is a main concept.

RUMOURS

One of the members of MAYHEM was found guilty when he mutilated a person badly. The victim's face is disfigured forever.

-I crushed a bottle in the head of a guy which was shaking a lady that was together with me. When his pal came against me it blackened. I don't remember it, but I drove the crushed bottle right in his face.

I've heard rumours about the thing with your old vocalist. I've heard that it was the rest of the band which killed him. Pieces of his skull shall have been used as necklasses. The police is sure about the thing that he commited suicide.

-It was a time when we didn't want to disprove the rumours. It was good publicity for us, but now it has become so heavy, that we thought we should do something about it, says the MAYHEM-guys, and thinks about the 'niceguy' interview in Dagbladet.

- They who got brains to think with will understand it.

The rumours about the thing that a innercircle of ten satanists shall kill other people?

- No comment.

MIDLEAGE-SATANISM

It has been operated with three categorys of satanists :

1. They who call themself satanists after they have practiced occult rituals
2. The followers of The Church of Satan and it's grounder Anton LaVey
3. Often called 'the violent satanists' - Satanworshipers

The guys in MAYHEM are against the people in category 1 and 2.

-Church of Satan call themselves satanists because they think it's funny and provoking. They are really atheists and are against the church because it has caused so much evil upon the time. They predicate that the christians are evil and theirself are good ones. We are against The Churchof Satan because we're against goodness.

A central name for satanists has been Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). His 'Book of Law' has been in use of very many which is interested in the occult. The guys in MAYHEM is against him too.

-Aleister Crowley called himself 'The world's most evil person'. But what the fuck did he do which was so evil? NOTHING! Conclusion: Crowley was nice.

Crowley is most famous for his device 'Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Law'.

-That law is totally wrong. People shall do what WE want them to do. We're against freedom, and forced a band from Rogaland in Norway - Belsebub - to split up. We started the whole thing in Norway and we are in command, it's just the way it is. It's hard to explain why. Both Crowley and The Church of Satan preach the thing that people shall get strong, only the strong ones have the rights to survive and the weak shall be crushed. 'TRUE SATANISTS IS SUPERHUMANS' says the MAYHEM-guys as it was a normal thing to be.

NORWEGIAN SCHOOL

-It is three REAL Black Metal-bands in Norway, says METALION in SLAYER MAG. That is MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE and BURZUM. BURZUM's mainman is COUNT GRISHNACKH, and the most of you surely have noticed that he is arrested, suspected for setting two churches afire. Besides these three we have the 'family' - ENSLAVED, EMPEROR and ARCTURUS - and all the garagebands which only time will show what stands for. Norwegian Black Metal isn't only good to be norwegian, says Metalion. He means that norwegian bands are totally serious both with music and what they stand for.

-The music is really special, it has a mood which you almost never hear anywere else.

EURONYMOUS talks about a norwegian school.

-In foreign countries it's most focused on riffs, but we in Norway does it more intricate. We compose the songs, and do not have the standarized flatt sound that the foreign bands which goes to Florida (Morrysound) or Stockholm (Sunlight) has. Soon Norway will get all the atention, says EURONYMOUS.

GOTHIC

Many of the bands has left the speed behind, and picked up the slower, darker and more gothic moodness.

-BURZUM doesn't exactly sound brutal, but creates the sound of fog and depression, the evil groundmood can be as well as important, explains EURONYMOUS. He is experimating with classical structures in his own band MAYHEM, but puts thundering speedy drums in the background.

'LIFE METAL'

With all the atention around the norwegian Black Metal-scene - nationaly as well as internationaly - the bands maybe will start to sell more records. EURONYMOUS thinks that is a good thing.

-It is better that we in the 'family' earns a lot of bucks, than that all these Life Metal bands does it. They are just an insult to the old VENOM which created the whole thing, and they can thank for their existence. No matter, we will never get commercial. If we can manipulate a lot of stupid kids, that's great.

Dead - Battery #5 (1990)

HAS ANYTHING BEEN RELEASED AFTER "DEATHCRUSH"? IF NOT, WHEN CAN WE EXPECT SOME MORE STUFF FROM MAYHEM AND WHAT (LP/CD)?

Not really...well, we've recorded a few rehearsalsings (wich we never released). What we've done is doing new material all the time and dropping them for better songs. We have very diffirent ideas of how we shall sound like and it's hard for us to make songs that we are satisfied with. These shall not sound like anything else and not be bounded to the moment of now. What I mean with that is that we first have to forget of how all the other bands sound like and not to bounded to any time to avoid trends and to find orginality. Yeah, it's now a really long time since "Deathcrush" was released and we've got many requests of a new vinyl but it's hard to make new material that doesn't become ordinary or usual after a year. However, in the latest time we have released two songs for a compilation LP that will be released by Chicken Brain Records in this summer. The songs are The Freezing Moon and Carnage. The Freezing Moon is a new one while Carnage is from the first demo Pure Fucking Armageddon that we did the mistake to limit only to 100 copies and it's not avaible now. But we thought the song Carnage was worth to be picked up again. We haven't signed anything (of course) for CBR and we'll not get anything of the profits for the selling records later. I don't think we'll let any other label give out something with us in the future cause there's no reason to do that and we'll never sign any contract neither sell our band to fat multi-labels that don't give a fuck about the music. Fat deals ain't no investement as some believe, only a bad try to get rid of the job behind everything that's neccery to do but not impossible to do by one self. We got idea of that we have to use the so Darkened Black name De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas for something a long time ago. That title comes from a story of a book with that name, wich is Latin for "Lord Satan's secret files" and it's thought to exist in only one copy and I won't give up searching for it...we had a finished lyric for that song and the music to it was almost complete also. By then we had to drop all the new songs we were onto making cause of a festival in Poland that was supposed to be then...if fucked up and we later should pick up those songs, more or less finished, we'd forgot about them but we have to use that song "De Mysteriis..." by all means...it'll be the most complicated thing we ever have been involved in. That is also what the LP, that we hope will come out soon, will be entitled.

TALKING ABOUT LIVE SHOWS, JUDGING BY WHAT YOU HAVE TOLD ME ABOUT YOUR SHOW (IMPALED PIGHEADS AND SUCH STUFF), YOU SEEM TO HAVE A VERY BRUTAL STAGEACTING. AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT PERHAPS SOME MORON TAKES IT TOO SERIOUSLY BEATS UP SOMEONE (OR HURTS HIM SERIOUSLY)?

There's always some fuckheads that do not understand what it's all about and cannot stand others that are there for the music and the problem is at almost every concert not depending of what band is playing I think. If someone's diving or something there's often some asshole who cannot see what that is and then wanna start up a fight of that reason. Idiots that go to concerts only to throw bottles and destroy for both the band the crowd shouldn't be there. We haven't had many liveshows and that one we could have those "effects" there were many into Speedmetla and glam-fag-rock and they left as soon as the pigheads begun to fly around in there...but something I do hate indeed is mosh! I can't accept it exist children that think of themselves as funny and noisy recording demos after demos after a couple of weeks after on more trendy band has formed. A kid of 11 years or so has listened to CARCASS and the day after he finds out he shall form a band along with pals from school. It's like that these bands got created and they never care or know of, they only fuck with the scene by their hundreds of demos that are teeming everywhere and it sounds all the same! I REFUSE to listen to that! And especially never laugh to their fun- pix, fun-lyrics or fun-noise they make...to all those things that are supposed to be childish and non- seriously funny, it's only themselves that manage to laugh but no one else does! I think it was necesary to tell of that, too.

DO YOU USE ANY OTHER EFFECTS THAN PIGHEADS ON STAGE?

pigheads, as well as other heads, is what we try to have at all gigs. But also others are kind of planned at the futureshos. It needs sick ideas and also money as well as it gotta suit to the place we're playing at...for example if we use impaled pigheads in an Islamic country we'll surely get killed then.Another thing is that what's the most dusgusting thing to do right here to fuck with the wimps might not be the same effectful somewhere else and if we ever come to for example India, the most evil thing that we can do there that I have in mind will be to sacrifice a "holy cow" on stage. I wanna have stage equipment at our shows of Transsynvanian landscape, instruments of torture that are from the 1th century real trees from a dead forest, spotlights that are used to "paint" dark colos of dusk and later moonshine...diffirent animalheads and human craniums hanging in meat hooks by chains from the dead trees and the heads have huge screws in their eyes...that's what I think would make the perfect mood. But if we can build such things by ourselves pay for the giant expenses it surely will be include and make it portable also, I can't imagine if we will ever be able to make. But to tell of what else we as the show or effects is when I cut myslef up. Something I study is how people react when my blood is steaming everywhere but that's not why I do it. I like to cut, in others preferably, but ti's mostly in myself. That I can't do too often wich makes me a bit mourning...the nearest thing is three gigs in Sweden wich will probably be in the end of May and I think of if I can take a highly tuned kitchen saw machine that's cutting and sawing faster that it's possible to control it...that would be a nice thing to have there I think. Another band here, that's the one of the guy that'll set this whole thing up by the way, will try to get a goat that they shall sacrifice on stage by a fireman's axe but I just can't remember the band name. Another Blackmetal band that'll play there is Grotesque (from gothenburg) + some other death metals. If it shall be "gore" that it gotta be REAL effects and only snuff is real!

WILL YOU ALWAYS PLAY DEATH/BLACK METAL, OR CAN WE EXPECT A CHANGE OF THE STYLE?

Maybe now we have learnded more of our instruments since the start...of the present time the only we have to compare with of a new recording are the two tracks that'll be on the Swedish compilation LP, I have no idea of what responses it'll be from it. But yes, we have changed a bit, but nor more that what can be exspected after almost three years since last recording and two new members. And it is a difference between the first P.F.A. deo (Pure Fucking Armageddon - ed) and Deathcrush. I can't tell much more that my own thoughts of how a band shall sound. That is to keep the sound and spirit that once existed in the time of what now is "old fashioned Blackmetal" of VENOM and the earliest bands that came by then like SODOM, POISON (German of course)!, BATHORY, DEATH and so on before they either vanished or wimped out to get big bucks and groupies. What has happened after that is hard to ignore when one got reminded by tolly unserious and senseless deos of noise with either vegetarian or anti-everything lyrics or no lyrics at all - can they never realize they're all fuckheads and should never form those fun-bands thateach such dude is in 30-50 crap bands with thousands of half-second songs? But they can eat their fucking (polluted) salad believing that they do the scene a bg favour while I stick with what I worship and that so many other seem to be indeed scared of - Once there was something illful that ordinary wimps feared and never understtod. Something none had heard anything like of ever before. There were less numbered bands and the scene was new and not big but there was a friednship, so limited but strong. In leather and spikes.

DO YOU ONLY LISTEN TO DEATH/BLACK METAL, OR ALSO SOMETHING ELSE? IN AMERICA IT SEEMS AS IF MANY PEOPLE LISTEN TO MANY DIFFERENT MUSIC STYLES, NOT ONLY METAL. SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT?

Each place seems to me having an own scene. And mostly it can be noticed if a band is American by their sound. I've never been there, only heard lots of strange comments by friends whi visited it. I I better keep these comments untold...Do you believe me when I say that I don't listen to anything else that Death/black? To me that's what exists and nothing else. I listen to what I find to be evil or black for the evil's sake. That's why I begun listen to it. Satanic sound of pure evil illful brutally that I ouldn't get out of grey matter! I still like it that way and that's why I continue having about the same ideas of it. In lyrichs I try to express various evil thoughts and the same in for example drawings. That's one reason why I think effects on stage show is of much importance.

YOUR VOICE REMINDS ME OF QUORTHON FROM BATHORY AND THAT LEADS ME TO THE NEXT QUESTION. I READ THAT YOU AND QUORTHON AREN'T WHAT ONE COULD CALL FRIENDS, SO COULD YOU TELL ME ABOUT WHAT'S UP WITH THAT OR DON'T YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT?

Why is Quorthon talked of so often? (I don't mean by you but from so many...). I don't think he invented Occultism or the deathway of singing. I an listen to the early stuff by BATHORY only. Like the first LP and the compilation LP's, but later he lost all the abillity to crush and kill. I don't think so many outside of Scandinavia have met him but I can tell you it's not worth the try. Some dudes I know more or less know that guy, but I've met him only once. He is one of the worst motherfucking wimps I've had the misfortune to meet! Do you by the way know it's his DAD who's "the boss" and he runs his record label and Quorthon goes nowhere without his daddy..."Quorthon" has changed his name real name now to Ace and he doesn't have the slightest of any Occultism and especially not of the arts his lyrical stuffs content! I just don't understand WHO makes the lyrics...could it be the Boss? The only interest Quorthon has is to fucking around on's rockclubs and the so-called Vvornth, the drummer, he picked up from a GLAMROCK band!!! How strange how everything he says in interviews is changing completely all the time...in the earliest days of BATHORY he explains how important it is with the darkness in songs and he's writing of the satanic influences he has cos that's his greatest possession. He also explained of a gig that fucked up in the earliest line-up of BATHORY before he became a one-man band for two Lps - the reason why that gig wasn't possible to set up was cos of the extreme stage-show they were suppossed to have then. Things for example sacrifice a lamb...that's NOT how he talking now at all. He became for a while so totally against Satanism, black magic and so on to change AGAIN to "nothing is wrong with Satanism, black art, the evil etc. but what I hate is the Satanists"...more amazing than ever I think! He's a fuckhead and he's too much of a superstar and he can't talk to normal people cos he's far too fucking famous for that! Haven't seen any likely case of wimpism before! WOE! And he didn't like the the sacrificed quineapighead impaled on an upside-down cross with nailed eyes that I thought smelled so nice...

AND NOW ON SOME QUOTES BY DEAD WHICH HE MADE IN NYAR'S PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE. READ THIS DUDES...

"What I prefer in movies is when they're underground produced (like Evil Dead I and Bad Taste...) or the classical HORROR sort-not "gore" but ESPECIALLY snuff, thought I haven't seen many snuff movies. It's hard to know what is snuff in those movies cos usually not the whole movie is snuff...have you seen Cannibal Ferox (it's got about 20 other titles and it was banned in 32 countries!), it's got 20 minutes of snuff in it. One of the most STUPID things I've seen on TV, it was a movie review on a Swedish TV (a long time ago), and they talked about how horrible and awful some movies can be to see and later they show the movies they suggested everybody not to see, like for example Canniba Ferox... It's hard to imagine such brainless dudes having something like that, but anyway the movie clips they showed there were great, hehe. I like to research in how one reacts when watching real deaths, or preferably real corpses (not on video but for real). A friend of mine who works in a morgue has told me that those who use to work with preparing autopsies, after a long day's or night's work have to "return to reality" before they just can walk out from there to go home or anywhere...the smell of rotting bodies uses the affect really different on people really. I've heard that of when there are new nurses to a hospital they got checked out in if they can stand the smell and the sight of dead humans by calling them down to the morgue floor (but not yet in there) where it's always that smell, even if it's not so strong, just can be noticed. And those who get pale and look like they'll vomit at any minute are told to leave that, the others may be "qualified" for working in there"

"There was one thing about censorship that I liked, I was at a friends place, when he actually should be in school (that dude was by the way the bassist in early MORBID and this was more than 4 years ago), when some teacher from school rang him and told him they needed pupils to watch some gory censored clips cos there was only one guy from that school and we joined that thing, we were 3 guys and 10 girls...what was great was the really gory clips with the most perverted and sadistic things. Sadistic murders, sadistic porno, kinky shit and lesbian stuff, the chicks in there really looked funny..."

Dead I - Slayer Mag #10

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Interview with Dead taken from Slayer Mag #10, Interview conducted by Evil (Marduk, Abruptum etc)

How come you left MORBID and moved to Norway to join Mayhem?

As everyone know .. or should now is that MORBID never was a real band. However after the "December Moon" demo the band kinda split up. I don't know the reason why, but we were all very different and couldn't compromise on how MORBID should be or sound like. What't most mysterious to me is how everybody could change so much. When I and John formed the band the band was looking for some members for the band and asked them about the thought of having a Black Metal band as Black Metal should be, but it never turned out that way. They all seemed to be totally into the idea at first, but ... well .. I must say that I don't think the 2nd MORBID demo is in the same vein as the first. But why the hell do I talk about MORBID in an interview when the band never should have been featured???? I talked to EURONYMOUS on the phone and he explained how his view of how the most brutal stage show would be and we discussed the problem that everybody wants everything to be so normal, boring and wimpy. And we totally agreed on that, I should come over and try out some rehearsals, to find out how I would fit in the band. And I guess I do fit 'cos I've been singing here ever since. But the problems was that short after I joined the band we were out of rehearsal places...

You have said that the "Deathcrush" mLP will be released again, what about it?

We want to release it again, but we just don‘t know how the hell we can afford it. It was wrong to limit it and now the copies are being sold for far too much money and that wasn't the idea at all. Those who want it can't get it unless they are millionaires. We will never release anything limited with MAYHEM again.

Tell me about your new LP "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". When will it be out? Any old MAYHEM songs on it?

Good question... I wish I knew when! It's planned to contain 8 tracks and to be released on D.S.P. as anti Mosh 003. When the 2nd edition of the MERCILESS LP has sold out and paid, the next band will go into studio (IMPERATOR from POLAND). When their 1st edition has paid we'll go into a studio and record our LP. After the tour we have planned, if it doesn't fuck up, we will have a session of concentrated work on the material that is missing for the LP. I can't say much more about the release.

How would you describe a gig with MAYHEM, with all your effects?

We haven‘t had a real gig yet, 3 shows in Norway, but only one with parts of our stage show. We had some impaled pig heads, and I cut my arms with a weird knife and a crushed coke bottle. We meant to have a chainsaw, but the guy who owned it, had left when we came go get it. That wasn't brutal enough1 Most of the people in there were wimps and I don‘t want them to watch our gigs! Before we began to play there was a crowd of abut 300 in there, but in the second song "Necro Lust" we began to throw around those pig heads. Only 50 were left, I liked that! The non evil wimps shall listen to our music. We had a great time throwing the heads on each other. I got angry at some idiots who had their heads up in the air, so I wiped the blood on my arms all over again, We wanna scare those shouldn't be at our concerts, and they will have to escape through the emergency exit with parts of their body missing, so we can have something to throw around. Some imagine for some weird reason that Death Metal is something normal and available for everyone. Unfortunately they are right... If you have seen pictures of bands like DEFECTION, BENEDICTION or RIGHTEOUS PIGS etc. you know what I mean. If you go into an ordinary school, you will surly see half of them wearing MORBID ANGEL, AUTOPSY and ENTOMBED shirts, and once again i will vomit! Death Black Metal is something all ordinary mortals should fear, not make into a trend! Some years ago ut dud not exist at all. When MORBID had it's first gigs almost no one had heard had heard that kind of music before. METALLICA or VNA... But hopefully those who jumped on to Death Metal will leave it soon to the real people who have always listened to it. It took some years or so till the trendy HC bands jumped over to Grind. It took shorter time till Grind was out, and I hope it won't take long before they leave Death Metal to us who do not choose music after fashion. That's one reason for having a stage show. The wimps will not ever understand it, and I won't explain it to them either. But they got pissed off at our shows and that is what we want. If someone doesn't like blood and rotten flesh thrown in their face they can FUCK OFF, and that's exactly what they do. We are trying to turn the scene back to what it once was, when no Death Metallers were wearing Adidas shit and looked totally normal. The hassle is of course to bring stuff from the slaughterhouse to gigs abroad.

What is your opinion on Satanism and Occultism?That's a great possession of mine! But to learn about Magic takes time. It‘s necessary to know a lot about it before trying some curse on the neighbors or something like that. It needs a lot of time. I don‘t have much time, especially right now. But I'm more into legends of Eastern Europe. They are not known of here, but people still believe in them. Each castle has got it's own history with a bloody past... that‘s what obsesses me most. The Balkan countries is where I want to live.

Do you relate to their bands?

Yes, some...

What are your main influences?

I think we now have captured an own style, but from the start it was only VENOM that existed. That can be heard in the "Pure Fucking Armageddon" demo, the one I like the best. As for me I'm influenced by the Carpathian castles and Pophyrians."

Tell me something about your lyrics... What does the contents explain?

So far, I've written the lyrics to all the songs after "Deathcrush": "Funeral Fog", "Freezing Moon", "Buried by Time and Dust" and "Pagan Fears". Mostly they deal with how I feel when I wrote them. It's hard to explain, and they are very different too. I can explain "Funeral Fog", it‘'s about a legendary place in the middle of the Carpathian horse shoe. A swampland called Shurlock Basin which is surrounded by fearful superstition and the weirdest beings are thought to haunt the place. That I thought about when I write that song and started to imagine a heavy fog lit up by the full moon. This fog oozed up from that place. Drifting woefully in silence to extinguish the lives of the local people. And bring their souls to Lord Satan. "Pagan Fears" is the newest song made by us, and it‘s a bit strange. It reminds me of "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" but it is not as brutal. Anyway, the lyrics talk of some people living in an ancient and barbaric society, (Fucking Hell how I hate the word society, when it is used as a topic in lyrics, but of course I don't mention that word in "Pagan Fears"!) and the idea, that the past isn't dying, but remains in some faded reality, and that they'll not die out, but remain in the past which is actually not dying, to haunt people in the future, pup up in their minds. The time itself exists and is eternal, so is it vanishing? They realize they remain forever. That was a strange idea I've walked around with till I had to write it down. We don't have any concept in particular in the lyrics and not only I am writing them. Before it was mainly Necro Butcher who wrote most of the stuff and he has explained to me what it was like. He was almost asleep, then he suddenly thought of a song title. He had to write it down quickly. And after some minutes it happened again and again. The day after he tried to read what he had written down that night and he found out he couldn't read the handwriting he had written in no light and the pen had been fucked up. But some lines were readable and they became "Deathcrush". the most difficult one so far is the one that will be the title track on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". The ›yric is about an extraordinary Evil Coven that are the book. But I must change a lot of the lyric. That satisfied with the music so we dropped all the music. Then I found out the lyrics weren't evil enough and it didn't describe the enormous force enough. Anyway, we will involve ourselves very much in this particular song.

How is the Norwegian Death Black Metal scene?

Scandinavia hasn't got any scene. Only wimps and trendies are here. Too many ordinary people and fuckheads! Don't come to Scandinavia! I wanna move from here!

What would you think of people talking shit about you and MAYHEM? Saying that you are posers because you have such a great live show!

I'm not interested in what they used to listen to or what they are trying to tell me. We do what we like and that is enough for us.

What are your plans for the near future?

That once and for all nothing will screw up and rip offs shall shut up so we can go away on our first abroad tour, which has been delayed for more than two fucking years now. We were very close many times, but in the last minute we found out that no gigs were planned. Now it's been a while since I last cut myself (and others) so I need to a live show. We really need to play live soon. We also hope our delayed LP can be recorded soon. I hope that the scene will be better and that people will realize that rip offs, trends and wimps are ruining it!

Last words...What would that be??

- Wipe your ass folks!

MAYHEM - Close-Up (1992)

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You guys seem not to come in so good with the Death-metal trend going on. So why stand up and do this interview for close up (isn't it against your principles)?

Well, we dont count Close-up as some fucking trend-zine.But of course it would be fucking irretating if we came in the same place as THERION or any other of those idiot bands. But our economy doesnt primit us to isolate ourself completly from the outer-world even if it would of been wonderful! Its incredible irretating to see all this shity trendbands that exists we hate them so much so words cant describe.In Sweden there area only 5 good bands: MERCILESS , ABRUPTUM , DISSECTION , MARDUK and BATHORY. DEATH to all the trendy "DEATH" metal-bands with jogging paint and society texts, they have nothing to do with death-metal. We call bands such as THERION and AFFLICTED(and about 340 other swedish bands) for LIFE METAL 'coz they dont worship death but life instead. What the fuck has Hardcore lyrics to do with evil music? The fools(idiots) have jumped on a wave and we are sure that 90% of the swedish LIFE METAL bands played Heavy Metal or some commercial Trash before the they discoverd 'MORBID ANGEL '89 or '90.The ones who are doing this are a insult towards what death-metal from the beginning stod for and its a insult towards us. MAYHEM is the only band from the beginning of the 80ties whom still exsists without wimping out.Its a shame(hell) to see all these new idiot who jump on the wind without knowing anything of what Death-metal really from the beginning was. We are nearly sure that none of these trend bands have heard VENOM, whom they can thank there existence for. And the matter of THERION, who is the worst of all swedish bands, we have a special message to them. If they dare to came to Norway and play LIFE METAL, we are going to kill them. The whole of Norways Black metal population is going to be there with knifes .

When can we await a new record from Mayhem?

We are going to play 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' about the same time that this mag cames out. Its going to be EVIL!! Normal idiots should stay the fuck away from this record. DON'T BUY IT!. It's not for you, but for the evil. However it's going to be a big fucking diffrence from all the trendmusic. Normal people will not understand the music as we will put it so high standard over all MORRISOUND SUNLIGHT shit and the typical song which sounds like a dog with cold VOFF VOFF . MAYHEM record is going to very fucking fast and will be filled with evil and mood.

How come you haven't found a new singer and are instead using yourself of the Hungarian Tormentor's vocalist Attila Csihar?

Because his so damn good! He is one of the utmost best singers that exsists and that he also comes from one of the most evil bands ever exsisting. Its now manny who deserv to play on a MAYHEM record but he is one of does. There are thousands of vocalists who sound like standard ENTOMBED/GRAVE/ CARNAGE/DISMEMBER-copies it would never fall in us to take in such a singer in MAYHEM.Its the same as if VENOM would have Michael Jackson. Its by the way good that 'Drutten Blames' started in ENTOMBED again, 'coz the idiot that sang with them here in NORWAY(we were for the worse at the concert)was the worst we ever heard. Fuck its so fucking lousy. Absolutly anyone can bludder "BJFFA".The problem is that every does it also.

For a year ago your singer Dead took his life. As it was you who found the body maybe you can tell us why he shoot himself?

When it comes to DEAD than he was a very EVIL MAN (GOAT). He hated all that lived. The only thing which keept him from shooting himself earlier was the BLACK METAL/DEATH METAL way of lifestyle, with evil bands that worshipped death and wore black clothes, nitar(dont know how to translate/NECRO), leather, bullet-belts and everything else which hade to do with the real lifestyle. It was so the old bands lived, like BATHORY, SODOM,HELLHAMMER, while bands such as THERION where still sucking milk from there mothers breasts. DEAD lived only for this and all the old bands died and LIFE METAL bands in there softpants and baseball shoes took over, then he had nothing more to live for. The scene was destroyed. Another reason was that he meant that he didnt belong on this world. He thought it was cold and his blood froze to ice all the time. We support what he did and we respect his never sinning hate. After GOATS death there have been actually alot better , there have came alot of fucking good bands which live according to the old true identities. Norway is the bossland, bands such as IMMORTAL, BURZUM, DARKTHRONE, THORNS , MALFEITOR, INCARNATOR and so on are undescribebly good and incredible EVIL.

Was his death awaited, I mean had he spoke of comitting suicide?

Yes, it was awaited. We hade spoken a great deal about that one day we would find him hanging from the ceiling, but fortunatly he was more evil and he had even cut himself something so terrible before he shoot himself.

The talk has went around that you took a picture of his corpse to use in your new record cover, and also send pieces of his head to the most loyal Mayhem fanatics. Isn't that a quiete sick?

WE ARE FOR FUCK'S SAKE NOT A HUMANITARIAN JOKEBAND! When we say that we are into death-metal then it means we worship the dead. There is nothing that is to raw, disgusting or sick(morbid). People who dont understand this can GO TO HELL!.

Where have you thought to record your new LP "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"?

Its not completly sure where yet.... We are right now looking for a good pair of studios. The most evil would be if we could record it in TRANSILVANIA, but that is of course impossible.

You have also begun to put alot of in your "Deathlike Silence" record Co. and also opened a record store here in Oslo by the name Helvete (Hell). How is it going?

We are working like hell with DSP nowadays and we have a few evil record on the way.We have just released a record with the norwegien black-metal band BURZUM. Its really good, incredibly moody, hysterical and melodic.It reminds a bit of a mixture beetwen old BATHORY,HELLHAMMER and actually MAYHEM. After that a new pressing of 'DEATHCRUSH' and ABRUPTUM's LP "OBSCURITATEM ADVOCO AMPLECTERE ME", That record is the most fucked thing ever recorded, its not normal music but instead 50 minutes of evil.They had tortured each other during the recording in the studio and you can hear that they are suffering. DAMN GOOD! Normal people should fear this record. After ABRUPTUM they new MAYHEM and later a record with TORMENTOR. The band is now dissolved, but will be a monument over one of the world most brutal bands. We also have other plans, like MONUMENTUM's LP and a new BURZUM rec. We will also do a new pressing(volume) of MERCILESS 'The Awakening'.We have hade alot of economical problems the last year and MERCILESS deserve better sypport than what they have been getting so far.'The Awakening' is the 1st swedish record that came out(execpt BATHORY), it came way before ENTOMBED hade released anything. People hade not even discoverd how good MERCILESS actually are.It's brutal like hell without being trendy. Within a near future the record will be in every record store in Sweden, also on CD. We are working on to get a real good distribution, but its not completly sure what going to happen yet, but its possible that we fix a distrobution thru SPV. HELVETE is a very evil record store. We wish we only could sell Black metal and real Death metal, but we are forced to sell trend to trendy people to get cash. Its cool to suck out money from them and put it on evil bands such as ABRUPTUM instead. Its also better than that we sell the records that are indemand then that som HC-swin/Punk-idiots make money on the music they shall keep far away from.If we dont sell these records then someone else will do it and its nearly fool prof that some idiot that has nothing whatsoever to do with the music is selling them.And we have also been into this form of music since the beginning in the 80'ties so we know what where doing.

You are known to succed to live way under existence minimum for years. Where does then all this money came from that you are using to start and support on your company and shop?

We have been able to borrow abit of money from inc. BURZUM and then there comes a bit from the pre-post ordered stuff. Its not alot of money we have to live on, but we survive. So far everything has been going well.Were going to make a little money on the BURZUM rec. that we later on can continue to invest in MAYHEM, ABRUPTUM and TORMENTOR. Hopefully things will turn better as time continues. But during manny times we have been without food for a week and DEAD lived even for 2 months in the woods and lived on everything he found there. MAYHEM have had HELL, but the worse things get the harder it will take to knock us down and we can stand back against more . WE NEVER GIVE UP. It has even happened that we had periods were we just didnt have food but also shelter(place to stay) or to rehearse plus our instruments fuck up. AT THE SAME TIME! but our time is coming.

You are going to release a new press of "Deathcrush", why? According to your interviews you have done then only the real fans of Black/death metal should buy your records and they ought to already have "Deathcrush"?
The problem is simply that it wasnt just the evil that got there hands on 'DEATHCRUSH' but also a hell of alot of trend idiots. There are alot of raw dudes today who doesnt have this rec. and thats fucking irretating. And we also hade a limited release press, '87 we thought we werent going to sell more than 1000 rec. We needed money to survive, i dont see no reason that we shouldnt release 'DEATHCRUSH' again. It will thou be a diffrence on it from the original, so the ones who have 1st press can fill that they have something. Besides everything the record was sold in the black-market in Singapore for 700kr for a few years ago, and then without a cover . But its true that we only want given people to own the MAYHEM rec. If we had the economy we would ask people to send a picture of themselves and answer a question form for approval for buying a MAYHEM records.

It was a long time ago since you released anything, aren't you afraid that people have forgotten about you?

NO! The ones who are really raw are still continuing to be so as there havent came out so manny brutal records, so they have instead waited for the new MAYHEM for 5 yrs. They see that we also live to the true lifestyle and then you dont become forgotten. And there is also a bunch of evil rumours about MAYHEM 'coz we are a big diffrence from Life metalbands and that only creates more depend(intresse). And another thing that is good is that we havent released any rec. before now, As its only around now we are getting really satisfied with our music.

Why this extreme pull to both music and politics (Stalinism)?

People know we are sick, and we give a fuck. Thats what we live(die) for... stalinismen. We hate does 'PEACE,LOVE and DEMOCRAZY'-ideas. WAR, SODOMY and DICTATION! We support all extreme and opressed states like the old ALBANIEN , IRAN , KAMPUCHEA under the RED KHMEERS and so on. People who are dying and suffering!

Do you sill believe in communism after the fall of it nearly all over the world?

We have studied so much politics/teori/economy (Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin , Mao, Hoxha) that we know that the world will sooner or later become communistic. Its the marketing economy and capitalisms ideas that will be forced forward sooner or later. Maybe in 30yrs, maybe in 300yrs. The problem is that communism is fucking good for the people, its total freedom. Thats why we never wish that it happens. The world can go to hell. We want back the old stalinist-dictatorship, there its was grey, misery and evil. THE BERLIN WALL SHALL RISE AGAIN!!

Are you yourself politicly active?

We were member of a parti who was very extreme, they supported the old Albanien and there former leader who even was in Kampuchea under the Red Khmeers and ate dinner with Pol Pot! Incredibly good! But the party turned to humanitarien, so we shall leave it.

Well Mayhem play live sometime in the future?

We refuse to play live! Its only trendchildren, moshers, skater and HC-swines that go to conserts. We dont play for such a low standard flok. We will play live, but it has to be together with evil band for a evil public and that is economicaly impossible to arrange. Today there are only idiot-concerts arranged where you mix everything possible, like BERGSLAGS-ROCKEN. What does that have to do with death? Punknuts like Babs should stay the hell away from death-metal. MAYHEM will never play such a concert. We have been discusing a to build up a Eastern-europe togheter with other evil bands like IMMORTAL and DARKTHRONE sometime in the future coz its completly OK to play in 'strange' countries. We played in Turky 1990, and thats was nice(cool). We will never play a concert infront of a normal public,
THEY CAN GO TO HELL.

Euronymous III (February 1992)

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A lot has happened to Mayhem lately, like vocalist Dead's death and parting ways with bassist Necro Butcher. You have also recruited a new member, if I'm not mistaken. Tell is about all this!

Euronymous: "The new member in Mayhem is Occultus. He used to sing in Abhorrent/Thyabhorrent, his vocals will be very different in Mayhem though. He's a total black metal head and very self-destructive, which is very good regarding our stage show. Yes, Necro Butcher is out of the band, because he's become a totally normal person with his own family (spit), and he has no longer anything to do with the black metal/death metal lifestyle. As for Dead - he hated this planet and all living creatures on it, the only thing which kept him here was his love for the ancient death/black metal lifestyle with face paint, spikes, leather, black clothes, Satanism and brutality. Today when all the so-called 'death' metal bands are wearing white clothes, jogging suits, basketball shoes, bermuda shorts, and have society lyrics (SPIT!), he thought that everything he lived for was destroyed and saw no longer any reason to live. The trend people killed him and we have declared WAR."

From now on you'll be a trio then. However, your songs are written for two guitars, and that also affects the sound. Are you looking for a fourth member and what kind of person would he be? Just a 'brutal' person perhaps?

Euronymous: "The Mayhem songs have always been made for only one guitar so that won't be any problem. Besides, we won't play very much live because there are mostly only trend people coming anyway and I refuse to play for such lowlife. That would only be if we could cut them up during the show and having them running out the emergency exit, screaming and bleeding with parts of their bodies missing. On the other hand, it's good to earn their money, of course. Anyway, if we should decide to have a fourth member some day, it would have to be a very special kind of person. Those who call themselves 'brutal' today are mostly fake trendies who have never done anything brutal in their lives. A member in Mayhem would have to be a total madman who followed the black metal/death metal lifestyle, looking the way Bathory, Hellhammer, Destruction, etc. did in the old days, and he should cultivate hate, war and DEATH (and I'm not thinking about the band Death!). He would have to have a BLACK personality."

Didn't Dead's death affect you in a major way? You have talked about it quite openly, and from what I've gathered, you also took some photos of his corpse?

Euronymous: "Although it was me who found him and had to crawl through his brains to get into his house, I don't think it affected me very much. Of course, he was a friend, but I know he wanted to die and then the only right thing he could do was to give his life to the Darkness. It would have been wrong to prevent him from doing it. Besides, when I say I'm into DEATH metal, I mean it. I hate when people say that they're into death, and when it comes to the point they're just life-loving humanitarian false trendies. OF COURSE I took photos, wouln't you? It's not every day you get to mess around with a real corpse! Unfortunately."

What kind of practicing possibilities do you have now, and is the situation stable, whatever that might mean...?

Euronymous: "The situation is still very difficult. I've been checking out some places lately and probably we'll manage to rent a good rehearsal place in a couple of weeks. In the future we'll join together with Thorns and possibly Darkthrone to make a really good rehearsal place with lots of equipment, and we have been talking about trying to put up a small studio too. We shall see."

It has been rather quiet on the Deathlike Silence Productions front (Euronymous' label that is). You're having some kind of problems, but is it all financial, or is there something else as well? I think the Merciless LP did sell quite well anyway - how much in fact? Is there going to be more editions?

Euronymous: "There have indeed been a lot of problems, mostly economical, but also concerning places to live and so on. Things shall be better in the future, I'm working hard with DSP now, as things finally have started to happen, I have a couple of releases coming up very soon. More about that later on. I've sold 2,000 Merciless records so far, which is not enough, there is still a good market for that record. Unfortunately, I shall have to start making CDs because a lot of people are only buying that now. I hate CDs but I need to survive."

You obviously have a lot of things going with DSP, because there's been talk about projects with bands like Tormentor, Abruptum, Alastis, Master's Hammer, Masacre and Rotting Christ. What is it all about? I mean, as far as I know at least Rotting Christ have a deal and so on. I've also heard that Darkthrone would make their third LP for DSP after their second with Peaceville. Tell us about that.

Euronymous: "First of all, in April this year ('92) there will be 2 DSP releases coming. First there will be an LP with the Norwegian black metal band Burzum. That LP is unbelievably great, when I write this it's just recorded. It's a kind of mixture of Hellhammer, old Bathory and Mayhem (yes!) if you can imagine something like that. It's very dark, depressive, moody, angry and still melodic and sad. The vocals are extreme, and I'm NOT thinking of the usual 'growling' vocals which sound like a dog barking. "A couple of weeks after this, the Abruptum LP will be released. This will be the most gruesome and black album ever, it's not ordinary music but pure EVIL on vinyl. The guys were torturing each other in the studio, they were whipping, beating, cutting, burning and pouring boiling water over each other DURING the recording, and you can HEAR it from the music that they were SUFFERING! These records will cost FIM 60, SEK/NOK 100, DEM 30, NLG 30, FRF 100, GBP 10, GRD 2900, or USD 15 in Europe (or the equivalent in other currencies), in Eastern Europe the price is USD 10. Outside Europe it's USD 15 by surface mail or USD 22 by air mail. Postage kills! "The Mayhem LP should be released after this, and then we should hopefully get enough money to send some of the other bands in studio. Rotting Christ don't have any deal, they just released a mini-LP on Decapitated Rec. while they are waiting for the DSP LP. As for Darkthrone - they wanted to sign on DSP but for practical reasons they will probably stick with Peaceville. Their LP should be out a couple weeks after this mag is printed, GET IT! It's incredible! Those guys have really understood what this music is really about." (Yeah, but as for the LP coming out AFTER this mag is printed... Oh well, call that "wishful thinking" or whatever! But who cares... - Ed.)

Another personal question here: now that a lot of things have changed in this world of ours, have you stuck to your principles, I mean politically?

Euronymous: "As Mayhem is NOT a political band, I don't really like to mix topics like this into band interviews, but anyway I'm still keeping the faith. I openly admit that I am a Stalinist and I'm very fascinated by extreme countries like Albania and Rumania in the good old days. I have thought about quitting from the communist party though, but this is just because they are not brutal enough any more. It was much better in the '70s, when they were very Albania-inspired and the leader even visited Cambodia during the Red Khmer period and had dinner with Pol Pot!! Those were the days!"

You've also started a record shop there in Oslo, tell us about that! I suppose you are also running a mail order thing?

Euronymous: "The record shop is called Helvete, which is Norwegian for Hell. I don't have much yet, due to the fact that it's very difficult to run a shop with only black/death metal here. The plan is that once I get out a couple of DSP releases, I'll be able to trade hundreds of records with other labels and hopefully earn some money. A shop like this is needed here (and other places), and if we hadn't started up a shop for death metal, someone else would. And those persons would most probably have nothing to do with the music, just like all the HC labels vomiting out 'death' metal releases all the time now, they should DIE, they don't have the slightest idea what this music is really about and they are running the whole thing. And it's better that WE earn the money that inevitably will be earned, than some shitty HC pigs. Yes, we are running mail order too, I'll have lists available soon. If anyone's interested, write."

In the beginning you sold the Merciless album at pretty low price, and aimed to sell it only in the underground. You must've known that you're going to lose money, but did you manage to stick to your principles? On the other hand, don't you think that the bands deserve better distribution? Is it just a case of you not wanting to be commercial, etc.?

Euronymous: "You are mentioning some topics which have been subjects of intense thinking here. There is obviously an antagonism between being 'underground' in the common sense of the word, and the original black metal ideas. If you start to look at how black metal bands were in the ancient days, such as Venom, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer, Bathory, Destruction, Sodom, etc., you see that they had nothing to do with what is called 'underground'. They were signed to big labels, they earned well-deserved money and were NOT submitted to the hardcore-laws which are ruling the 'underground' today. These laws say that you are not allowed to play death or black metal (!) if you don't: (1) hate money and refuse to earn anything on what you've paid enormous amounts of blood, sweat, money and time for. (2) Are 'openminded' and have lots of 'attitudes', like being vegetarian, being into peace and love (Fuck off! War and Sodomy!), singing about pollution and other society lyrics or other things that are approved by the moral police (HC pigs). (3) You must absolutely not think that you ARE anything. You must creep for your fans ('Oh, do you really like us? Thank you', etc.), you must use most of your life answering thousands of letters or you are being called a ripoff, nobody of course thinks about the fact that it costs a band maybe $25 EACH day just for postage! These people obviously have never tried living on their own and feeling the PAIN of not being able to EAT because you use all your money on postage. "There are other moral laws too but I get too angry when thinking about this. The black metal bands of ancient times didn't have to think about any of these shitty things, they could go for being BIG, having a huge stage show and earning big money. And nothing was wrong with that. Now, WE have been servants of the 'underground' for 8 years. Where do we stand today? We have NO money, sometimes not enough to eat. Our equipment is fucked up, shit, or non-existent. We don't have proper places to live. This would be no problem if it had been a GAIN for the TRUE SCENE, but take a look at which people we have been slaves for: the underground today consists of short-haired children or trendies with white clothes and jogging suits, HC-moral-police-pigs, and a VERY small percentage of TRUE people. "All these 'underground' rules look great at first sight - the music becomes a protest towards the commercial music industry. This is good of course. But on the other hand - they KILL the bands. After 8 years of being broke, I'm starting to become quite fed up. Why shouldn't I live on the music? Basically I have the choice between two things - staying 'underground' and slowly taking the life of the band - in the end I'd have to quit and get myself a job, the band/label is a full-time job so I couldn't do both. The other thing is to say FUCK OFF to most of the 'underground' principles and start to EARN MONEY. Then, I'd be able to make more music with the band, and release tons of great records with great bands. This is of course a much better gain for the true scene. This is why I've now decided to do things a little bigger. Still I hate to see big distributors getting their hands on the records, but I simply don't have a choice. I've never wanted to expose this music to trend people, but I realise that I'm dependent on sucking money from them in order to make a decent living. And I have NO bad feelings about taking the money of trendies. This would also help the bands getting the money they deserve, maybe a few of them can even quit their jobs and start living on the music." "Of course there are limits, I HATE to see Earache bands with videos on MTV, and I was DISGUSTED to see Entombed playing a playback show for discokids on a disco show on Swedish TV. These people shall FEAR this music. We must return to the old days of Venom and the other ancient ones. They were big, but they were NOT commercial! Their music is still ten times more gruesome than all the Morrisound/Sunlight trend recordings of today. Another view - if we don't do DSP much bigger, someone else will make a black metal label which will start selling good, and what happens then? We sit here, broke and without bands. That shall not happen. Everything may very well be big, but the TRUE ONES must control it."

Now that the underground is changing or has changed its outlook, do you think that it's better to give up all that, or would it be wiser just to wait and see what it will be? When you compare the situation now and about four or five years ago, what's the difference?

Euronymous: "The underground is dead. It has ceased to exist. It has no meaning anymore, since you're only killing yourself if you blindly follow its rules. Here in Norway, a new and TRUE underground is slowly growing from the darkness, it consists of the TRUE bands and the TRUE fans. All in black clothes and taking the original meaning of DEATH metal into an extremity. All these people HATE a lot, and will take part in the great WAR against the trendies. It's about time to make an ABYSS between the trendies and the others, they shall have NO ACCESS to this internal (Infernal? - Ed.) fellowship. They shall just be allowed to buy the records and giving us their money. I can actually only admire the glamrock scene here in Oslo, they just don't accept ANYONE who isn't exactly like them - make-up and all that shit. Of course this is neither open-minded or 'kind', and that's great. People are supposed to HATE us."

Did the planned Mayhem tour happen last year? Have you had any gigs lately? Do you try to arrange your gigs all by yourself or what is it like...? Are you an expensive band?

Euronymous: "We had a tour in East-Germany and Turkey. We were supposed to play in Greece and Holland too, but by some unfortunate coincidences it was fucked up. We have not had any gigs since, because of a lot of problems. We were asked by Tormentor (Hungary) to make a tour there and in Rumania, and we're thinking about that and possibly some other East-European countries as well. We're not principally an expensive band, we see what we can get compared to the expenses, and if we can get an ok amount of cash, depending on WHERE we play (it's difficult in e.g. Eastern Europe), we will take the offer. Right now we aren't able to play live, but that will come. We should also be sure to have a good stage show with impaled pig heads, etc."

Tell us about your visions of your forthcoming album?

Euronymous: "The new Mayhem LP will be entitled De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and it will be DARK. If everything goes OK, we'll record it VERY soon and get it out some time in the summer of '92. We'll try to record it by using a good studio which is quite cheap so that should be ok. It will be very massive, as we'll have two guitars (+ solo) abd two basses. It will be very fast, with lots of dark emotions and moods. I can't really tell so much about it, anything may still happen (as usual)."

Do you follow all the movements in the underground? And what about your favourite bands at the moment (wasn't that original?)? Do you listen to any records released by commercial labels? What do you think about bands that don't give a shit about the underground after they've signed a major deal?

Euronymous: "I don't find it very strange that bands don't wnt to be in the 'underground' after getting a deal, most of all because they are very busy with touring, rehearsing and doing business. You have to consider that if your use 15 minutes for one letter (which means quite a short letter to someone you haven't written in a long while to), a band probably gets 20-50 letters each day depending on how known it is, and that would mean 5-12 1/2 hours of steady letter writing EVERY DAY not including interviews (like this one)! I mean - we must get rid of the idea that you're not allowed to exist as a band if you don't use half of your life answering letters! It must be up to the band itself, whether it wants to write letters to half the world or not. It irritates me to see people calling bands ripoffs, they obviously have no idea what it means to be buried in mail. It costs a fortune too. Another things is of course when someone has send money for something. Well, I don't care which label has released a record as long as I like the record, of course. Maybe some HC idiots think that way but they're also taking stupidity to extremes. About fave bands - they are many and it's hard to mention a few. Recently I've listened a lot to Burzum, and the new Darkthrone is just unbelievable. I also recently discovered The Gathering from Holland - they kill. But of course we have the ancient godz like old Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer etc. There is a lot of shit bands being released today, but if you search, there are some really good ones too."
One more question: you have Mayhem t-shirts available now, right? How about your music then, because we're all dying to hear some new Mayhem material (and anxiously waiting for the "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" of course)...?

Euronymous: "There is actually a record out now including a Mayhem tune, it's a compilation album released on CBR in Sweden. On the CD version there is even one more song (I hate that), and these two songs are the only ones we ever recorded with Dead. I'll be selling this album later if someone's interested. There are a lot of bad Swedish standard 'death' metal bands on it, but a couple of good ones too (Merciless). Yes, we have t-shirts available, they're black with white logo, sizes M/L/XL (big ones) and they cost KR 100 in Scandinavia, FIM 60 in Finland, DM/NLG 30 in Germany/Holland. In the rest of Western Europe they cost the same as DM 30/USD 17 in each country's currency, in Eastern Europe it's USD 17 by surface and USD 22 by air mail. I don't think there is anything more I should say, but FUCK trend people. Let us suck their money and beat them up afterwards."

The latest news is that Euronymous is planning to rerelease Mayhem's "Deathcrush" mini-LP in April/May '92. It'll be available at a price of $13 in Europe, and everywhere else $13 by surface and $20 (air mail). Write to: Mayhem, Schweigaardsgt. 56, N-0656 Oslo, Norway. (February 1992)