r/Mayhem

“I think the biggest, at least most lasting, contribution was to bring De Mysteriis…to the black metal fans and artists of that day, because the riffs and general musical quality on that album was so highly influential to the rest of us, that it made us try harder as well. Not to mention that the guitar riffs on that record laid the foundation for a sound that a lot of other artists would be very influenced by. If you think Emperor was influential, where do you think we got it from?”

Mortiis

“Euro was driven. He was always there with diehard ideas. In times of much distraction, he was always there. He was always encouraging people to listen to anything extreme of any genre. I think it was sad to see all the people coming into black metal after he died. I think many of them thought that only black metal was real and didn’t have much perspective and shunned other styles. It was very bad for black metal, actually, that a lot of copy bands without any backbone came out of those people.”

Fenriz

“Euronymous said to me that in the Norwegian black metal scene, all of us need to be completely unique. It wasn’t good enough for us to be like these death metal bands, to be a great band. That goes without saying; every single band had its role to play, where we all had to have something completely unique to offer. When we had this conversation, Satyricon was still in the demo stage. I remember working on my music and thinking that was an interesting idea and thinking really hard and deep about what was it that I had inside me that had not been expressed by any of the other bands, but something which was uniquely Satyricon.”

Satyr

From the book "Born for Burning" by Matías Gallardo

My favorite song is chainsaw gutsfuck, I’m new to the band so I don’t know many good songs

I came across an interview from 2011 where Varg says: "The fading aggression in Burzum might be a result of me not only growing up but also a result of the fact that I deal with different themes now – and these themes are less aggressive and hateful. "

https://metalinjection.net/interviews/interview-varg-vikernes

That was a pretty surprising line to read. Aggression would be one thing, but to specifically mention being less hateful was kinda striking. I haven't kept up with him since the late 2010s; has he given any recent hints that he's thought about not being an evil fucking Nazi?

https://preview.redd.it/ab9ltvd3geah1.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=b74ea7130f8d8670d94cd8c9cdeb42eca501ec0d

“When I booked the Mayhem Ordo ad Chao tour, in France we were happy when we had 150 people coming to every show. People don’t realize, but back then they were fucking poor. They were poor as shit. And they had to soldier on and tour and tour and tour just to make minimum wage at best.”

Michael Berberian (Season of Mist, their label)

“I am a very stubborn person and I always keep going even if I feel that my situation is unbearable or is really shitty. I reached the bottom that was possible to reach in terms of the mind and in terms of negativity. I think you can hear that on the album; that it was going to be hard to go deeper than that, at least for me. After Ordo ad Chao, I just realized that I was not that person anymore. I always go 100% to the end, and that basically was the end. But I realized that only during the touring cycle. I think everything from Wolf’s Lair Abyss up until Ordo ad Chao was like building up to a volcano, and that eruption was the release of Ordo ad Chao. I felt that there were so many things that I needed to rediscover, redo, to rethink, to re feel…I’m happy I went out when I started not feeling it. If going on stage cannot be 100% what I do, then it’s time to go. I don’t fool the fans. You have to be honest to yourself and have self-respect, so that was it, that was the final chapter.”

“Me and Attila had a really exceptional connection, and for me that was the roughest thing, because I really, really admired his talent. But the others…we were not a unity anymore. When we were on tour, I was always drinking wine with the supports instead of sitting around talking to the other guys in the band. There was already a rift, something that separated us. There were some uncomfortable moments and I’m not really sure of what Hellhammer and Necro thought, but for sure it was a blow. But at the same time, we didn’t really get that well along, especially with Hellhammer in the end. When I look back at it, I feel like everybody kind of felt we had all this coming. The unity started to break already back in 2003 and never really got back. Too many things happened between people and we were not really respecting each other. I think it was a great feeling to have Attila in the band. Also, he motivated us, because there was not much motivation during the Chimera period. But for Ordo ad Chao me and Attila were on fire all the time. We had a lot of fun and a lot of serious talks. For me that was the saddest thing of leaving: my relationship with him and the chemistry we had. It could have gone really, really far because we had the same fucked up mentality. But the last tour I was drunk all the time, in a really miserable way, just partying with the support acts and creating a bigger space or vacuum between me and the band. And suddenly I just popped out. Everything was a bit strange. Even after the last show I didn’t shake anybody’s hand except for Attila. We got out of the plane and we separated.”

Blasphemer

From the book "Born for Burning" by Matías Gallardo

“He [Maniac] was in a really horrible state. I remember that when we were in the studio, he always showed up with two six-packs of beer and a bottle of liquor, and he was shitfaced. He recorded vocals from the album drunk, and he became difficult to deal with as well. I remember we had to drive him everywhere. He was supposed to stay overnight in the studio, but the guy in the studio didn’t dare to have him there in fear of what could happen to his equipment. So we drove Maniac back to Oslo every day, which was a one and a half hour drive. He was in a really dark place.”

“It was clear that something had to come to an end, and Maniac was the first one to go. It escalated to a point where we were having actual fistfights on tours. I remember I even kicked him down a staircase in London because he always fucked up every show. He couldn’t even sing anymore. He just fucked up the words and started to sing where it was not supposed to, and that happened every night. He also drank vodka from the early morning. So did I, but somehow, I managed to get in shape on stage. We were supposed to go to South America and I remember we confronted him with this idea and he said ‘yeah guys, I think I have enough touring and I think I have to step out’. He knew what was in the air.”

Blasphemer

“I saw that coming before Chimera. It was just too much for him. His nerves and his alcohol abuse taking its toll, so I asked Blasphemer if Attila could come in and do the album because I knew that Maniac was not gonna be able to tour the world. Blasphemer wanted to try one more time, one more album with Maniac, but when we were on the road it was apparent that he was not able to do it professionally, so after that he was fired.”

Necro

“For Maniac, it was that or dying. Getting kicked out of Mayhem was the necessary wake up call to get his shit together and live. Because if he had stayed in Mayhem, he would be dead now.”

Michael Berberian (Season of Mist, their label)

From the book "Born for Burning" by Matías Gallardo

Do we hate euronymous and varg or no?