MAYHEM - Morbid Mag No. 8 (1987)

Now it has been pretty silent here in Scandinavia concering MAYHEM. In that occasion I thought it was safe to run an interview. As you can read much has happened since the last time we featured them. One of the biggest things was of course when they reached no.2 on the KERRANG import chart, above M.O.D.. etc. etc. etc. etc. with their self financed "DEATHCRUSH" mini lp. If you haven't heard this yet you must surely have faded away a long time ago!! You all know the story so we will just let Euronymous answer the questions I asked, but first I would like to remind you about their.... MAYHEM, Box 75, 1405 LANGHUS, NORWAY.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MAYHEM SINCE YOU RECRUITED TORBEN AND KITTIL FROM VOMIT, REGARDING THE LINE UP?

Things didn't work out too good with VOMIT, so they are not with us any longer, But we've got new people, they are DEAD on vocals and HELLHAMMER on drums! DEAD used to sing for the swedish band MORBID, but moved to Norway to join MAYHEM.

HOW HAVE DEAD AND HELLHAMMER BEEN ACCEPTED IN THE BAND? DO THEIR PERSONALITIES FIT WITH THE BAND?

I don't think we could find much better replacments than these guys. They are much better than the old guys and both are willing to sacrifice a lot for the band. they're 100% into MAYHEM! Speaking of personalities, they're just the same kind of persons as me + NECRO, they fit PERFECTLY into MAYHEM. I am very happy with them.

WHY DO YOU THINK DEAD IS SO WEIRD? (HIS CHILDHOOD, QUORTHON (BATHORY) OR IS HE SIMPLY POSSESSED?

Wierd is not the right word, I honestly think DEAD is mentally insane (He knows I am writing this!) Which other way can you describe a guy who does not eat in order to get starving wound? or have a T-shirt with funeral announcements on it? I've always wanted to have a guy like that in the band.

HOW DOES IT FEEL LIKE BEING OUT OF A REHEARSAL PLACE? DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW PLACE NOW OR WHAT? WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED DOWN THERE?

No, we've still got no plave for practicing and it's not funny. There's a possibility that Rino of DECAY LUST is going to get us one, in that case we'll share the place with DECAY LUST(hail to them!). What really happened was that our first place was occupied by a recreation centre for Children, because it was the local authorities who owned it. Fucking stupid! Our next place was cool, but after a month the electricity was cut off because the electric wiring was dangerous. (YEAH, the toilet was dangerous too!! It smelled worse than the old goats behind. ed!) and here we are.

I HEAR YOU SUPPOSED TO PLAY WITH IMPERATOR RECENTLY? (I JUST GOT THE NEW FROM POLAND... IMPERATOR HAS SPLIT UP!!)

There were some festivals going on in Poland. We were to play with IMPERATOR and some others, but it fucked up because we don't have any rehearsal-place and NO money. We recently got an offer to play on a festival called "Thrash Camp" with BULLDOZER + some others for 4-5 000 people! But our time will come, as soon as we get rid of all this shit going on, we'll tour POLAND together with IMPERATOR(?) maybe AGRESSOR (France) that will be a killer. Both IMPERATOR (Serdeczne Pozdrovienia) and AGRESSOR (Puitan Merde!) are great friends of ours!

HOW DOES IT FEEL NOT BEING ABLE TO GRAB CHANCES LIKE THAT?

When everything fucks up you naturally become a bit frustrated, but as I said, our time will come! We've had lots of trouble lately, but things are going better. Now we all have got rid off the militarty service, and we've got a great line-up, it's just to get some $ and a rehearsal place. It's only an uphill slope, it goes up!

IT HAS BEEN ONE AND A HALF YEAR SINCE YOU RELEASED "DEATHCRUSH" (Aah), DON'T YOU THINK IT'S ABOUT TIME TO FEED THE DEATHSTERS OUT THERE?"

Yeah, but it's gone pretty slow with songwritin, we first made 6-7 songs, but we found them worthless so we threw them away. I use very long time to make songs, because they have to be better than everything we've done before! So we will not release anything before we're totally satisfied and think it could not be better! Even if it takes 5 years! That's in my opinion a weakness with most record companies, you have to make one record a year! It would not work with us. Besides, it's also those certain problems I don't want to boter people with writing about. Anyway, as soon as we make it, we'll do a 7" with 2-4 songs on it.

ARE THERE ANY COPIES LEFT OF YOUR LIMITED VINYL, "DEATHCRUSH"?

If people write immediatly, there might be a small chance we got 5-10 copies left....but lately we've got a LOT of requests for it, so we might press another edition! It will of course be certain differences from the limited edition.

YOU MUST HAVE SOME MATERIAL YOU WOULD LIKE TO TELL US ABOUT, AND THE LYRICS AS WELL? (I HEARD SOME PARTS OF "NEW" SONGS WHILE I VISITED THEM EASTER, AND THIS WAS EXCELLENT. WHAT A PROGRESSION FROM "DEATHCRUSH"!)

We do have some new songs, but just one is finished with lyrics. It's called "Behind the liver", and I'am also working on some other lyrics. One (yet untitled) will be about this guy who wants to be boiled, one will be called "Sliced Facemusles", others are "Sulphuric Acid","Strangulation", "Distintigrated Bones","A Perfection Of Decomposition" etc. Our new songs are much more extreme, brutal and intense grinding than before, no wimp shit man!

WHEN CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE THE NICE THING, WITH THE NICE MATERIAL ON IT?

I guess the single will be out in about 3 months, but it depends on a lot of shit....

WHAT ABOUT YOUR PLANS TO GO TO FRANCE IN STUDIO THERE, HAVE THEY BEEN RE- SCHEDULED OR CANCELLED? (SAME STUDIO AS A-HA USED- HAHAHHAHAHA!)

Well, we've decided to record our next LP in France, and we'll do it.We have the engineer + the studio, we'll just have to write down to ALEX (AGRESSOR...AGAIN!) and say when we'll be there.

HOW WILL IT BE LIKE NOW WHEN YOU GET ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER AGAIN? DO YOU FEEL THE LINE UP WILL BE COMPLETED? I AM SAYING THIS BECAUSE MAYHEM HAS NEVER HAD A COMPLETED LINE UP FOR A LONG TIME, HAVE YOU?

We've actually never had a real completed line up, it feels pretty strange. I think its a very strong line up, and I think it will last. None of the guys work or anything, so as opposed to the old line-up. Nobody has anything to LOOSE. Nobody has to sacrifice anything to play in MAYHEM! Actually we have to stay in MAYHEM to survive(!), right now H.H., DEAD and NECRO has no homes, but through the band we're able to get our own apartments soon.

PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE MAIL ORDER SERVICE YOU ARE STARTING UP, AND HOW THE READERS CAN OBTAIN A LIST?

I started up this non-profit based mail order service because i'm fucking tired of all the major bastards who want to get a lot of money. I think it should not be necessary to pay $ 15:- for a record when it costs $ 3:- to make it. So i'm doing this just to help out and spread the underground stuff, all over the world. I've not yet finished the catalogue (which will be printed in about 15-20 languages, but people in Scandinavia can write and get a small one written in Norwegian. It's a lot of work to do this catalogue, so i'll wait until I get more stuff before I do it. I'll wait until I get more stuff before I do it. I'll also probably sell (in addition to records/'zines/demos/T-shirts) fake blood, butyric Acid (stinks like a mixture of rotting potatoes and NECRO BUTCHER's socks.), uncut horror movies, invisible plain field generators, etc. But just write, I'll send the catalogue to everybody when it's out. And a big hail to DIG, EARACHE=GOOD LABEL!

WHAT IS MAYHEM'S COMMENT TO ALL THE NORWEGIAN RIP-OFFS WHO ARE RUINING THE REPUTATION OF THIS COUNTRY?

Only one thing - FUCK!! They're enemies of mine! Those assholes just destroy what we've been trying to build up! DEATH TO THEM!

LAST COMMENTS?

I'd like to use this opportunity to say something about my record label (DEATHLIKE SILENCE). People can expect a lot of extreme grindcore death metal releases! The only records i know for SURE will be released are MATRICIDE, IMPERATOR, MUTILATED and ANGEL DEATH, but i also hope to do albums with other bands. Write for info! Finally, I'd like to thanx RONNY for doing this interview, killer support! Write us, mail is fun! Support your underground scene! Cooperation, not competition! Har du spist penger.