Thulean Archives

^[1] I didn't know anything about Mayhem because we never really talked about them. In 1991, very early, Harold of Immortal and me one day found out that, you know what? Let's go on a road trip. So we visited Mayhem outside of Oslo in Ski. Mayhem had rented an entire house in the countryside outside of Ski in Norway. And when we arrived, only Euronymous and Dead were there. That is, Euronymous let us in, and Dead stayed in his room. And the other guys, well, according to Euronymous, Hellhammer was just, you know, in Oslo hitting on girls. That was his explanation. And Necrobutcher, he was just smoking pot with his girlfriend somewhere. Note that I'm not saying this is true. I'm just saying that this is what Euronymous told us. And Dead, he was just sitting in his room. So Mayhem didn't rehearse at all. They didn't produce anything, they didn't do anything. They were just dead. As you might have understood by now, Dead was actually alive at this point in time. But he stayed in his room all the time we were there. With one exception. And except when we ate. We ate there. And that other exception was when he took a walk to some kiosk nearby, and I joined him, and we barely talked. And that is my entire experience with Dead. So I had. Didn't know him, barely met him, and that was it. Euronymous didn't have a car, but of course, we were on a road trip, Harold and I, so we had a car, and he asked us if we could drive him out to Necrobutcher. I don't remember why, but we did. But I also remember that he instilled on us a negative opinion on Necrobutcher. He made us think of him as some sort of wind betrayer(?). And who was just smoking pot and, you know, betraying Mayhem. So we met him, and I didn't talk to him, but I was there a little for some time, and we left. And that is my entire experience with Necrobutcher. So I didn't really know him. And then we returned to Bergen. So we socialized with them for about one, maybe two days. We didn't really have a lot to do with Mayhem. So after about six months, we heard from Euronymous, and he told us that Dead had killed himself. And that was it in 1991 until the end of 1991. In the end of 1991, Euronymous had opened his record shop. And we were there because we were going to a Morbid Angel concert. Pretty much the only concert I ever went to, I can add. But we, along with all sorts of other bands and guys in the metal underground scene in Norway, came, and I met in the shop, and therefore we met Euronymous again. And I mentioned that because that was the first time I met Hellhammer, who Is a very sociable and likable fellow. And that's all I can say about him. And the impression that Euronymous had given us of him was very wrong. He was a really cool guy. At the time, in late 1991, when Morbid Angel was having their concert in Oslo, Mayhem was still dead. That is, they didn't rehearse. Euronymous had moved to Oslo,^[2] and therefore they didn't even have a place to rehearse. And the bass player was not there at all. Why? Let's find out. Well, you know, when Dead killed himself, A Euronymous treated it as a way to promote Mayhem. But this didn't fall into good soil with the other guys in the band, and in particular with Necrobutcher, because that had been his friend. So why would they treat him like that? Why would they treat his memory like that? And all the lies that Euronymous made up in this context annoyed him, and therefore he didn't want anything to do with Euronymous. And therefore, in effect Mayhem for a long time. I never met anyone else in Mayhem ever. Not current members, not former members, nothing. I only ever met Hellhammer, Euronymous, and briefly, one single time, Necrobutcher. Actually, before I end this, I have to correct myself. I did actually meet the vocalist who recorded... who did the vocals for the debut album. So I have met him too. Also a nice guy, by the way. Bye-Bye. And throughout the period when I did know these guys, and whenever I talked to Euronymous, often on phone, by the way, because I didn't live anywhere near him, he never said anything positive about the others. He always wanted everyone to think that Mayhem was him. But the truth is that without, for example, Hellhammer, who is probably one of the best drummers out there ever, Mayhem would have been nothing. And this constant stepping on all the others by Euronymous, of course, also led to some tension between them. So when Euronymous was killed, Hellhammer, of course, wasn't too sorry about it. As you know, I played the bass on their debut album. And in this process I also rehearsed with them in Oslo, I think only three times, maybe four, maybe even two. Well, the album was to be recorded. They came to Bergen, where I already lived, and we recorded it there. This was in September 1992, by the way. And after that, things went downhill between Euronymous and me. I never had any problem with Hellhammer. He's always been a nice guy. He still is. But with Euronymous. And by the time in 1993, in... I think in March, maybe April, that was the last time I ever met Euronymous.^[3] And I really didn't want anything to do with him anymore. When they returned to Bergen to mix the album, we were already on unfriendly terms. And I didn't want anything to do with him. So therefore, both of them had to rent a hotel when they came to mix the album. And nobody else wanted anything to do with Euronymous at the time either. But this was, of course, solely a conflict between Euronymous and the others. And nobody had any problem with Hellhammer. So unfortunately, it came at Hellhammer's expense, too. Now, that is the brief story of my relationship to Mayhem.

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1. Dead, Mayhem & my story with them.
2. Their vocalist was dead.
3. Wll, I did meet him one more time... In August 1993.