u/Ghost_of_Claudia

“He was always the same guy for me. He never put up a persona thing for me. Never.. He always joked around that we had to do some evilness, but that was his thing from the start. He was always down to earth and a nice guy, except his communism thing, ha ha! I sent him fonts and pictures from our library at Rjukan. That place was packed with those things. The Albania 45 logo that he used on his letters and tapes? Who do you think sent him that? I did. I sent him tons of communist shit from that library.”

“In the beginning, it was political. He said that an LP should not cost more than you could afford to pay for it. He was extremely like that. Until he realized that this was a really bad business model. ‘If I’m continuing doing it like this, my business will go to hell'. So he had to start asking for money for his records. And then things changed.”

Maniac in the Cursed in Eternity booklet, 2018

How do you remember Øystein some 25 years on?

"Brand Builder. RiffMaster. Tape Trader/Label Owner. Misanthrope. Megalomaniac. Totalitarian Communist. Evil Genius. Perhaps a bit of a “wanna-be” Chemist/Scientist/Showman with some P.T. Barnum mixed in!?!  He may have been strangely flattered by my descriptions here. He did have a wicked sense of humor too, after all. To clarify, these shouldn’t be read as insults to the dead.I like to remember him as a friend and someone who was excited about the movement behind black metal. I knew him from the calls we did and the letters we shared. That’s one way of knowing someone, I suppose. Others have their own memories, I’m sure. In other ways, I agree with what [Mayhem bassist] Necrobutcher has said lately in the way he treated Dead’s death. I have a conflicts about that for sure.”

Typhon (Necropolis Records, the one who put together the Nordic Metal compilation

“There I sat with my guitar, learning riffs. From my great hero. Call it a workshop or masterclass. Øystein was interested in the Norwegian scene and wanted to professionalize it, to take it to a higher level. He seemed passionate about presenting his vision. But despite his authority - and a ten year age difference - it felt collegial to sit and play with him.

“Both Øystein and Snorre developed theories about guitar playing. They talked about building cathedrals - or walls - of sound. [...] Instead of the usual way of playing all six strings on one guitar, Øystein’s idea was to play only one string on six guitars! It was supposed to sound big and megalomaniacal, like a Gothic building. That’s why it was so fitting that Mayhem had the Nidaros Cathedral on their cover - a black cathedral of sound. Both Øystein and Snorre worked a lot with chords, sometimes also in the direction of symphony orchestra and jazz thinking.”

Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) in 666 Shades of Black by Harald Fossberg, 2026

“[...] So we had a shot of vodka while listening to De Mysteriis…I left him [Euronymous] on a very high note and I’m really happy that I did that meeting and had that last conversation. In retrospect, he was looking like he was turning into a different kind of guy that we never got to see, but that he probably realized himself that he could only go so far with this total extreme approach. Maybe he needed to make some friends in different places and not only appeal to the most extreme people.”

Anders Odden (Cadaver etc.) in Born for Burning - The History of Black Metal, by Matías Gallardo, 2026 (emphasis within the quote by me)

(pictured from left to right: Attila, Snorre, Hellhammer, Pytten and Euronymous)

How would you describe Euronymous as a mentor for the other bands?

“He had a very strong position. He defined what was accepted and not. And I understood why. He had come a longer way in his search musically compared to the many others, and he had pretty much stopped using distortion pedals. He used some simple things, and he worked a lot with his amplifier, and he was probably the Black Metal guitarist that had the most traditional Rock gear. He used the red Les Paul guitar - single coil I believe, and a Marshall 800 or 900 and a standard Marshall cab, 4 x 12. He did not try any absurd things, like trying 3 or 4 pedals in series. And this was a relief for me, because I didn’t know much about those insane guitar sounds and pedals other artists would bring to the studio, so I appreciated his traditional approach. I totally understood why people were looking up to him, he could define the directions, and he could do these extremely good compositions. One of my big moments experiencing one of his compositions was when Attila came and played with ENSLAVED at USF, and I was on the side stage looking at Ivar, and we knew this was a once in a lifetime experience. That was a really strong experience.” 

And how would you describe him as a person and friend?

“A really interesting person. Intuitive. Strong opinions. Lots of ideas musically. Some of them were far out and complicated. We were planning things for the next album. If you know GRATEFUL DEAD, the bass player had a custom made bass where every string had a separate pick up leading to a dedicated amp. Øystein was thinking about doing the same. We were hoping to find some technical people to do the similar with his guitar for the next album, and use a lot of time to pre prod to create this stereo sound where every string had its dedicated sound. It would create this sound of stringing chords! We were talking intensely about this. And I know we would have been successful in some way or another.”

Pytten for the DMDS 25th anniversary interview

This was posted by Julianne Regan herself, so it must be legit.

To quote Julianne:

"This gorgeous book by Wesley Doyle is out in September, but can be pre-ordered now. Chris Bigg, of 4AD fame, has been responsible for the design. Yours truly is in it (AAE), alongside Wayne Hussey, Peter Murphy, Heartworms, Rosie from March Violets, Andi S*x Gang, Danielle Dax, Gavin Friday, and more."

https://ruffianbooks.com/products/spellbound-a-gothic-rock-compendium-hardcover-and-limited-edition-slipcase?variant=51716787142932