Øystein was quickly realizing the power of creating a militantly sinister image for the band, as part of his stated plan to “spread evil” to the masses. As far as their musical endeavors were concerned, the only circumstances where Mayhem really lived up to their image was during the rare live performance they could arrange. The 1990 Sarpsborg concert became legendary, later spawning a bootleg CD—the cover of which bears a very clear reproduction of Dead’s shotgun-detonated head and slumped torso, brains emptied onto his lap. No one should have been shocked that Dead chose to blast himself to oblivion, given his disposition. Speaking shortly after the Sarpsborg show in an interview done by Werner Linke of C.O.T.I.M. magazine, the singer revealed his own peculiar obsession with mutilated heads:
Pigheads, as well as other heads, is what we try to have at all gigs. It needs sick ideas and also money as well as it’s gotta suit the place we’re playing at. For example, if we use impaled pigheads in an Islamic country we’ll surely get killed then. Another thing is that what’s the most disgusting thing to do right here to fuck with the wimps might not be the same effect somewhere else... if we ever come to, for example, India, the most evil thing that we can do there that I have in mind will be to sacrifice a “holy cow” on stage.
I wanna have stage equipment at our shows of Transylvania landscapes, instruments of torture that are from the 12th Century, real trees from a dead forest, spotlights that are used to “paint” dark colors of dusk and later moonshine... different animal heads and human craniums hanging in meat hooks by chains from the dead trees and heads that have huge screws in their eyes... that’s what I think would make the perfect mood...
[Another aspect of the live show] is when I cut myself up. Something I study is how people react when my blood is streaming everywhere, but that’s not why I do it. I like to cut, in others preferably, but it’s mostly in myself. That I can’t do it too often ... makes me a bit mournful. The nearest thing is three gigs in Sweden which will probably be in the end of May and I think if I can take a highly tuned kitchen saw machine that’s cutting and sawing faster than it’s possible to control—that would be a nice thing to have there. Another band there ... will try to get a goat that they shall sacrifice on stage with a fireman’s axe.11
“DEAD”
Such interviews of the period demonstrate that by early 1990 the modern face of Black Metal had now reared its grimly corpsepainted face. It was a far cry from the vintage days of Venom concerts and their banks of flashing strobe lights, pyrotechnics, and cheesy outfits fashioned of studs and spandex. Norwegian Black Metal had found its soul, and was happy to just settle for a few decapitated heads, self mutilation, and an opposition to everything considered “good” or life-affirming.
The concerts Dead fantasized about for his homeland of Sweden would never reach fruition, nor would the promises of live animal sacrifice and demented rites involving table saws. For on that 8th day of April, in the house on Sørumveien Road in Kråkstad, the 21-year-old Per Ohlin picked up one of the many weapons in the house, loaded with ammunition provided by Varg “Grishnackh” Vikernes as a friendly gift the previous Christmas, and discharged himself abruptly from this mortal coil. Often accused of being humorless, he rectified this with a last scrawl of Schadenfreude on his succinct suicide note: “Excuse all the blood.”12
HELL IS FULL OF MUSICAL AMATEURS; MUSIC IS THE BRANDY OF THE DAMNED.
—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, MAN AND SUPERMAN1
5
WELCOME TO HELL
ØYSTEIN AARSETH WAS UNDAUNTED AND ODDLY INSPIRED BY DEAD’ S dramatic departure from Mayhem. He continued with his program to slowly take control of the extreme underground in Norway. He had already re-established his record label under the name Deathlike Silence Productions (DSP) and released an LP by the band Merciless. He hoped to soon re-release the now legendary Deathcrush mini-LP, but realized in order to raise the capital to continue with his projects, he would have to make additional money with less uncompromising releases than his own. In the 1992 Orcustus interview he explained:
If we had the economic possibility to do it, we should meet up at concerts and beat up ALL trend people ALL the time until they would be too scared to go to concerts at all; now we need their money instead. It’s impossible to stop the trend no matter how much we want. We have to do the best out of it and sell lots of trend shit to them.2
With such thoughts in his mind, he rented a space in Oslo for a record shop. Even if he would have to sell less extreme music to pay the bills, the orientation of the business would be around Black Metal—thus it was christened “Helvete,” the Norse word for Hell. Aarseth would create something unique of his new venture, even if he had to make some concessions to popular taste:
The original idea was to make a specialist shop for metal in general, but that’s a long time ago. Normal metal isn’t very popular anymore, all the children are listening to “death” metal now. I’d rather be selling Judas Priest than Napalm Death, but at least now we can be specialized within “death” metal and make a shop where all the trend people will know that they will find all the trend music. This will help us earning money so that we can order more EVIL records for the evil people. But no matter how much shitty music we have to sell, we’ll make a BLACK METAL look for the shop. We’ve had a couple of “actions” in churches lately, and the shop is going to look like a black church in the future. We’ve also thought about having total darkness inside, so that people would have to carry torches to be able to see the records.3
EURONYMOUS
The space was much too large for his limited stock of wares, so Aarseth closed off a smaller section of the building to house the store. The walls were painted black with the Helvete logo on the door in blood red paint. A former associate of Aarseth’s, Stian “Occultus,” remembers, “It was far too big, and the rent was too high. That’s the reason why it never did well.”4 Metalion concurs, “It was like renting a big house and only using one room. That was all they used.”5 He also clarifies that Aarseth’s plan for the customers to have to illuminate the shelves by carrying torches remained wishful thinking. “That was just a rumor again. It was very dark. Euronymous wanted people to go around with torches to look, but that was never a reality.”6
INSIDE HELVETE
Nevertheless, with Aarseth’s prominent position in the new Black Metal scene, the store began to gather energy as a focal point, even if it wasn’t generating much wealth. More and more Norwegian bands were shifting over to Black Metal, following the example of Mayhem. Now they would dedicate themselves fully to the “evil” and anti-social inclinations which made the Death Metal bands look like humanists in comparison.
BURZUM’S FIRST ALBUM
By mid-1991 the groups Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Thorns, Enslaved, Arcturus, and later Emperor were all in contact with Øystein Aarseth, who had plans to release most of them via Deathlike Silence. The inner core of friends and casual acquaintances who made up these bands would later be termed the “Norwegian Black Circle” by Aarseth when he spoke to the press about the church burnings destined to start before the year’s end. Ihsahn, the singer of Emperor, recalls the dynamics that were operating at that time:
There’s no discipline in the scene anymore, like earlier on around the shop—you had to be kind of accepted. You came there and if you were trusted, if they knew that you were serious in your views, you were accepted. There was a lot of respect for the shop, and people came there with corpsepaint on, which in some cases was quite stupid as it was daytime, and people were out shopping. But it was a very complex and very hard atmosphere, you felt this once you came in there—it was very powerful. The shop was an environment ... People wanted to be accepted, and they were kind of humble before Euronymous and the older guys from the scene.7
ABRUPTUM’S DEBUT CD
One of the more recent arrivals to the scene was Varg Vikernes, also known as “Count Grishnackh,” with his one-man band Burzum, who lived in Bergen on the West Coast. It was a
long six- to seven-hour trip over mountains by car or train from there to Oslo. Vikernes would come for extended visits, during which he and Aarseth became fast friends. Details were sorted out for DSP to sign Varg’s band, for which a debut album was already recorded. Aarseth was immensely excited about the sound and presentation of Burzum; the band fit perfectly into his scheme to release only “truly evil” music. With its depressed atmosphere and wailing, painfully hoarse, high-pitched vocals, Burzum sounded quite distinct from any other band in the scene.
Aarseth also kept in touch with a growing number of extreme bands from outside Norway whom he likewise encouraged and made plans to release records by: Japan’s Sigh, Monumentum from Italy, and the bizarre Swedish entity Abruptum. Only a few of these schemes would ever be realized before Aarseth’s death, mostly because he was never cut out to be a businessman. He ran his label ineptly, and the capital to invest in new releases was simply not there.
JAPANESE BLACK METAL BAND SIGH
BÅRD EITHUN
WHAT WAS YOUR RELATION TO THE RECORD STORE?
He opened the shop in May or June of ’91 and I started working there from July, ’92, until July, ’93. In the beginning he was doing the shop with two other guys, but it didn’t work out very well. Then he asked if I would work there, because we could get some money from the Labor Exchange system; it was quite easy for me to get money and he could have someone working in the shop. It was also interesting for me to work there.
WHEN DID YOU MEET VIKERNES?
That was before I moved to Oslo, it was before a Morbid Angel gig. The shop was kind of a meeting place for people. I think it was in ’91. It was at that gig that Vikernes was introduced to the scene, because people hadn’t met him before.
IMMORTAL
WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION?
I liked him because he was able to do things. He also often wanted to overdo stuff. If he did something that went well, then he wanted to do it ten times more that evening if it was possible. He didn’t know how to stop and take a break. He was okay then, but when he was arrested the first time, in January, ’93, and he became more of a known person in Norway, then he got more difficult to be with because he was a prominent person and such.
WHAT SORT OF IDEAS DID HE HAVE WHEN YOU FIRST MET HIM?
He was a Devil worshipper and he was against Nazis, for reasons I don’t know, but that’s what he said. After the arrest in early ’93 then he got into this Nazi stuff.
IMMORTAL ONSTAGE
HELVETE
WHAT WAS THE “BLACK CIRCLE”?
It’s just a name that was invented for the people who hung around the shop—the people in these bands and some others too. People kept asking who were the members of this Black Circle, but it didn’t really have members. We just had some people we knew who were able to do things but there wasn’t anything like members and membership cards and official meetings. We just knew who was able to do what and just asked them if they might be interested to come around the shop. It was very easy stuff, there wasn’t anything more behind it.
WAS THE IDEA THAT IT WAS ORGANIZED CREATED BY THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES?
If it was “organized,” it must have been because we had this shop that made it possible to have an economic background for the actions. But yes, the media made it look lots more organized than it was in reality. The media loves these big scandals and always try to make the most out of it.
THE SHOP WAS JUST A CENTRAL PLACE...
Yes, a meeting place. That’s the most organized the Black Circle was.
HOW DID SO MUCH HAPPEN WITHOUT ANY ORGANIZATION?
I don’t know. I guess after the first church burned down in Bergen, people got very enthusiastic about it.
EXPERIMENTS IN EVIL
There are fanciful stories that have circulated about Euronymous setting up a laboratory of sorts in the basement of the house he shared with Hellhammer and Dead. Allegedly he would descend into the cellar for hours, concocting recipes with volatile chemicals, attired all the while in his white lab coat. Some of Euronymous’s experiments were rumored to have caused dangerous combustions, creating fiery results with almost supernatural qualities. The same could be said of the Helvete shop, although the consequences would reach far beyond the black walls that enclosed it. The chemistry of impetuous personalities and impatient enthusiasms would play off each other in an escalating drama that quickly made national headlines.
Smaller “actions” had occurred before someone in the scene decided to torch the ancient Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen. Aarseth proudly alluded to church break-ins done to provide interior decorating props for the record shop, and a few such minor crimes were probably committed from mid-1991 onward.
In late ’91 an Oslo concert by the popular Satanic Death Metal band Morbid Angel was a meeting point for fans who would become integral to the inner core of the Black Metal scene. It was also linked to a rash of cemetery grave desecrations. The media would later paint a picture of the profanations occurring as a result of the excitement generated by the concert, but Vikernes clarified, “It wasn’t after the concert, really it was the day before. I was accused of it, but they didn’t have any witnesses. The witness withdrew his testimony, so I was actually freed of the charge.”8
Other small, fledgling crimes included a threatening attack against Stian “Occultus,” the temporary member of Mayhem who Euronymous later disowned entirely. In an old German fanzine interview from 1991, Vikernes boasted, “Under a fullmoon of June a cross was burnt in Occultus’s garden. His window shattered under the raging stormclouds by the hands of evil beings tossing an iron crucifix. The false will be given a sign before they DIE! One night!”9 When recently asked about the nature of the incident, Vikernes explains there was “some idiot who said, ‘I’ll kill you.’ We just took a cross which said ‘My girl’ on it, put it in his garden with gasoline all over it and lit it, and threw rocks through his bedroom window. Nothing came of it.”10
METALION
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE CHURCH BURNINGS—FROM THE MEDIA?
No, first hand information you could say. From Euronymous—he told me that Grishnackh had burned a church, yes, great. It was the first one in Bergen.
DID VIKERNES SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT TO YOU?
There was a certain understanding between us. We were not talking directly, but I got the impression of what he was saying. It was no problem to understand what he meant and vice-versa, but he didn’t say directly.
DID YOU KNOW ABOUT WHO WAS DOING THE DIFFERENT ACTIONS?
Yes, but how interesting is that?
I’M CURIOUS ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON.
Too many people, anyway!
INSIDE HELVETE
BÅRD EITHUN
WAS THERE ANY SERIOUS PHILOSOPHY BEHIND WHAT BEGAN TO HAPPEN?
Many people were happy about all the attention we got. A lot of people wanted attention, and as they got it they wanted to go further into it and do more things. I also believe that many people were really into it because of the music, Black Metal philosophy, working against Christianity and organized religion. They believed in it.
WHERE DID YOU PICK UP THE IDEOLOGY?
The feeling around the shop was that we worked against all these organized religions that were in Norway—Christianity and also the new ones like Islam. That was at least my intention...
The idea was that we would make an organization which was mostly basing its action on illegal activities and not legal ones. We wanted to get in touch with people on the illegal market who could get us weapons. We had a guy who lived near the shop who could get us all sorts of weapons. He could also get amphetamines and heroin, but that wasn’t interesting to us.
HELL ON EARTH
Helvete was by no means a normal record shop. Situated in the Old Town in Oslo’s East End, a lower-income area with a high percentage of immigrants and young people, it was rather inconspicuous from the outside. With its blackened windows it could easily be mistaken for on
e of the many porn shops or brothels posing as massage parlors that thrive in Oslo’s low-rent neighborhoods.
Once the visitor was inside, any confusion as to where he was would be quickly dispelled. The purpose of the interior decoration was to live up to the shop’s name in every respect. One of the first things to catch your eyes was a female mannequin dressed in a hooded cloak, the kind one would expect to see members of a witch coven wearing in a Hammer horror film. Other paraphernalia that helped set the mood included a skull proudly displayed on the counter. Aarseth’s more grandiose interior decorating schemes, like making tombstones from polystyrene, were never carried through.
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