While performing Dead would often cut himself with hunting knives and broken glass.[14] Additionally, the band often had pig or sheep heads impaled on stakes and planted at the front of their stage.[14]
Stian Johannsen ("Occultus"), who briefly took position as vocalist after Dead's suicide, made this statement about him:
"He [Dead] didn't see himself as human; he saw himself as a creature from another world. He said he had many visions that his blood has frozen in his veins, that he was dead. That is the reason he took that name. He knew he would die.[15]"
In 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to "an old house in the forest" near Oslo,[16] which was used as a place for the band to rehearse.[12] They began writing songs for their next album,
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher said that, after living together for a while, Dead and Euronymous "got on each other's nerves a lot" and "weren't really friends at the end".[12] Hellhammer recalls that Dead once went outside to sleep in the woods because Euronymous was playing synth music that Dead hated. Euronymous then went outside and began shooting into the air with a shotgun.[17]
Varg Vikernes claims that Dead once stabbed Euronymous with a knife.[18]
On 8 April 1991, Dead committed
suicide in the house owned by the band. He was found by Euronymous with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note notably read "Excuse all the blood, cheers." and included an apology for firing the weapon indoors. Instead of calling the police, Euronymous went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse, after re-arranging some items.[19] One of these photographs was later stolen and used as the cover of a bootleg live album
Dawn of the Black Hearts.[20]
Necrobutcher recalls how Euronymous told him of the suicide:
Øystein called me up the next day ... and says, "Dead has done something really cool! He killed himself". I thought, have you lost it? What do you mean cool? He says, "Relax, I have photos of everything". I was in shock and grief. He was just thinking how to exploit it. So I told him, "OK. Don't even fucking call me before you destroy those pictures".
[10]
Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's 'evil' image and claimed Dead had killed himself because death metal had become 'trendy' and commercialized.
[21] In time, rumors spread that Euronymous had made a
stew with bits of Dead's brain and had made
necklaces with bits of his skull.
[22] The band later denied the former rumor, but confirmed that the latter was true.
[22] Moreover, Euronymous claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy,
[23] which was confirmed by several other members of the scene, like
Bård 'Faust' Eithun[24] and Metalion.
[25]
Dead's suicide affected Necrobutcher so much that he left Mayhem, thinning the band's ranks down to two. The group performed for a short time thereafter with Occultus, joining the band to begin recording vocal and bass tracks in Mayhem's debut album,
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. However, this was short-lived; he left the band after receiving a death threat from Euronymous.
[12] In July 1993,
Live in Leipzig was released as the band's tribute to Dead.
Later that year, the recording of Mayhem's upcoming album resumed; thus Aarseth engaged three more session musicians,
[26] Burzum's
Varg Vikernes (with the stage name "Count Grishnackh"
[27]),
Thorns' Snorre W. Ruch (under the name "Blackthorn"
[28]), who handled bass guitar and rhythm guitar respectively, and the new singer
Attila Csihar, of Hungarian black metal band
Tormentor, replacing the defunct Ohlin. Due to complaints by his parents, Euronymous closed his scene focal point record shop Helvete, claiming that the reasons for this were adverse media, and police attention. Much of the album was recorded during the first half of 1993 at the
Grieg Hall in
Bergen. To coincide with the release of the album, Euronymous and Vikernes had conspired to blow up
Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. Euronymous's murder in August 1993 put an end to this plan and delayed the album's release.
[13]
On 10 August 1993, Vikernes murdered Euronymous. On that night, Vikernes and Ruch travelled from Bergen 518 km to Euronymous' apartment in Oslo. Upon their arrival, a confrontation began, which ended when Vikernes fatally stabbed Euronymous. His body was found outside the apartment with twenty-three cut wounds — two to the head, five to the neck and sixteen to the back.
[29] Vikernes claims that Euronymous had plotted to torture him to death and videotape the event, using a meeting about an unsigned contract as a pretext.
[30] On the night of the murder, Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract and "tell him to fuck off", but that Euronymous attacked him first.
[30] Additionally, Vikernes defends that most of Euronymous' cut wounds were caused by broken glass he had fallen on during the struggle.
[30] Vikernes was arrested within days, and a few months later he was sentenced to 21 years in prison for both the murder and church arsons
[30] (Vikernes was released from prison in 2009.); whereas Blackthorn, although he had waited for Vikernes downstairs to smoke,
[31] taking no part in Aarseth's murder, was charged with complicity in murder and sentenced to serve 8 years in prison. With only Hellhammer remaining, Mayhem effectively ceased to exist.
