I love a few things more than learning the history of a band that I know very little about if anything. I recently was scrolling through documentaries and biopics about musicians, and I came across a movie called Lords of Chaos. I had never heard of this one. I read the description and learned that it was the story of Norwegian Black Metal legends Mayhem.
All I have ever known of Mayhem is the stories, rumors, and extreme descriptions of Mayhem’s life on and off the stage. In watching
I love a few things more than learning the history of a band that I know very little about if anything. I recently was scrolling through documentaries and biopics about musicians, and I came across a movie called Lords of Chaos. I had never heard of this one. I read the description and learned that it was the story of Norwegian Black Metal legends Mayhem.
All I have ever known of Mayhem is the stories, rumors, and extreme descriptions of Mayhem’s life on and off the stage. In watching Lords of Chaos, I learned a lot about Mayhem. While we all know that bio-pics are generally exaggerated to make for a good story, I found Lords of Chaos a great introduction to Mayhem, and it was enough to make me obsessively learn about the band.
I have a clinical obsessive disorder. No, I’m not a stalker, so don’t worry. I get obsessed and hung up on things to the point where I will spend days absorbing information. Mayhem was no different. After watching Lords of Chaos, I went online and read as much as I could about Mayhem, and I was surprised to learn that the movie was pretty accurate in the sense of the story.
Mayhem was formed in 1984 by Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous; guitar) and Jørn Stubberud (Necrobutcher; bass), and in 1988, Mayhem completed and launched the legendary line-up that featured Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer; drums), and Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead; lead vocals). Dead was an over the top character that took Mayhem to a whole other level of dark intrigue.
Besides burying his clothes for days before retrieving them to wear on stage, Dead would even keep a dead animal in a paper bag, which he would place over his mouth and nose to breathe in the stench. Dead performed this ritual wanted to be able to sing with the sound of absolute death. Dead would often cut himself on stage, flinging blood on the raging audience, and at times was known for tossing out pig’s heads or other dismembered animals.
Dead committed suicide in the band’s house in 1991 by slashing his arms, throat, and a self-inflicted shotgun blast to his right temple. Euronymous walked in and found the body to which he arranged the gun and knife near his body to take a photograph of the scene, which was later used as the album cover for the Mayhem bootleg The Dawn of the Black Hearts. Euronymous allegedly collected brain matter and fragments of Dead’s skull from which he made necklaces out of to present to band members and a few close friends of Dead, including Marduk guitarist Morgan’ Evil’ Steinmeyer Håkansson.
Necrobutcher parted ways with Mayhem in 1991 because of personal concerns following the suicide of former vocalist Dead and internal conflicts and disagreement with bandmate Euronymous. Necrobutcher was replaced by Marg Vikernes, who took on the moniker Count Grishnackh and what followed put Mayhem on the map as one of the evilest and feared metal bands on the planet.
Varg spearheaded a series of Church burnings that took the entire belief system of Mayhem to a whole other level that even Euronymous felt was too far. The power struggle between Euronymous and Varg continued to grow to the point where both were plotting a way to kill the other to regain control of Mayhem.
In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of August 10, 1993, Vikernes and Snorre’ Blackthorn’ Ruch (friend of the band) drove from Bergen to Euronymous’s apartment in Oslo. When they arrived, there was a confrontation, and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds – two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back. Varg was arrested on August 19, 1993. In May of 1994, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway’s maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the burning down of four churches, and for possession of explosives.
This is such an insane story even to believe, and in the movie Lords of Chaos, this legend comes to life and in such a great way. Aside from the fact that none of them speak in Norwegian accents, they all believably portrayed them. Unlike the horrible acting in the Motley Crue biopic The Dirt, the cast of Lords of Chaos took on their roles, and you can tell they did their homework. While bassist Necrobutcher said that he didn’t like the movie saying it was “too sad” (did he expect it to be a romantic comedy?), he commented on what a great job the producer did. Everything down to the clothes, the house they lived in, and the geographic setting was nearly perfect.
I also loved Lords of Chaos because the characters were actually portrayed as way more than just a brutal, violent, anger-filled Black Metal band. The members of Mayhem were a collective of misunderstood and overlooked youth. None of them seemed to have horrible home lives as they seemed to all come from supportive families. A few of them even had wealthy parents who helped finance much of the bands’ artistic progress.
As someone who had little knowledge and even less interest in Mayhem, Lords of Chaos succeeded in getting the legend of Norway’s Mayhem. Even with some of these stories now shared with the public, Mayhem will forever be a band that we may never know everything about. The tag for the movie says, “Based on Truth… and Lies.” At least the producer summed it up in a way that left me wondering which was truth and which was lies.
Oh, and after listening to their album, it was cool to hear a band that launched an entire music movement in their home country. I immensely enjoyed the album, now knowing it’s relevance and importance to the Black Metal scene. The Mayhem story of this band is one that I feel everyone should know of. Mayhem is a legendary band with a story that should be shared around every Metalhead bonfire from now until the end of time.
While we all know that bio-pics are generally exaggerated to make for a good story, I found Lords of Chaos a great introduction to Mayhem, and it was enough to make me obsessively want to learn about the band. I get obsessed and hung up on things to the point where I will spend days absorbing information. Mayhem was no different. After watching Lords of Chaos, I went online and read as much as I could about Mayhem, and I was surprised to learn that the movie was pretty accurate in the sense of the story.
Mayhem was formed in 1984 by Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous; guitar) and Jørn Stubberud (Necrobutcher; bass), and in 1988, Mayhem completed and launched the legendary line-up that featured Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer; drums), and Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead; lead vocals). Dead was an over the top character that took Mayhem to a whole other level of dark intrigue.
Besides burying his clothes for days before retrieving them to wear on stage, Dead would even keep a dead animal in a paper bag, which he would place over his mouth and nose to breathe in the stench. Dead performed this ritual wanted to be able to sing with the sound of absolute death. Dead would often cut himself on stage, flinging blood on the raging audience, and at times was known for tossing out pig’s heads or other dismembered animals.
Dead committed suicide in the band’s house in 1991 by slashing his arms, throat, and a self-inflicted shotgun blast to his right temple. Euronymous walked in and found the body to which he arranged the gun and knife near his body to take a photograph of the scene, which was later used as the album cover for the Mayhem bootleg The Dawn of the Black Hearts. Euronymous allegedly collected brain matter and fragments of Dead’s skull from which he made necklaces out of to present to band members and a few close friends of Dead, including Marduk guitarist Morgan’ Evil’ Steinmeyer Håkansson.
Necrobutcher parted ways with Mayhem in 1991 because of personal concerns following the suicide of former vocalist Dead and internal conflicts and disagreement with bandmate Euronymous. Necrobutcher was replaced by Marg Vikernes, who took on the moniker Count Grishnackh and what followed put Mayhem on the map as one of the evilest and feared metal bands on the planet.
Varg spearheaded a series of Church burnings that took the entire belief system of Mayhem to a whole other level that even Euronymous felt was too far. The power struggle between Euronymous and Varg continued to grow to the point where both were plotting a way to kill the other to regain control of Mayhem.
In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of August 10, 1993, Vikernes and Snorre’ Blackthorn’ Ruch (friend of the band) drove from Bergen to Euronymous’s apartment in Oslo. When they arrived, there was a confrontation, and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds – two to the head, five to the neck, and 16 to the back. Varg was arrested on August 19, 1993. In May of 1994, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway’s maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the burning down of four churches, and for possession of explosives.
This is such an insane story even to believe, and in the movie Lords of Chaos, this legend comes to life and in such a great way. Aside from the fact that none of them speak in Norwegian accents, they all believably portrayed them. Unlike the horrible acting in the Motley Crue biopic The Dirt, the cast of Lords of Chaos took on their roles, and you can tell they did their homework. While bassist Necrobutcher said that he didn’t like the movie saying it was “too sad” (did he expect it to be a romantic comedy?), he commented on what a great job the producer did. Everything down to the clothes, the house they lived in, and the geographic setting was nearly perfect.
I also loved Lords of Chaos because the characters were actually portrayed as way more than just a brutal, violent, anger-filled Black Metal band. The members of Mayhem were a collective of misunderstood and overlooked youth. None of them seemed to have horrible home lives as they seemed to all come from supportive families. A few of them even had wealthy parents who helped finance much of the bands’ artistic progress.
As someone who had little knowledge and even less interest in Mayhem, Lords of Chaos succeeded in getting the legend of Norway’s Mayhem. Even with some of these stories now shared with the public, Mayhem will forever be a band that we may never know everything about. The tag for the movie says, “Based on Truth… and Lies.” At least the producer summed it up in a way that left me wondering which was truth and which was lies.
Oh, and after listening to their album, it was cool to hear a band that launched an entire music movement in their home country. I immensely enjoyed the album, now knowing it’s relevance and importance to the Black Metal scene. The Mayhem story of this band is one that I feel everyone should know of. Mayhem is a legendary band with a story that should be shared around every Metalhead bonfire from now until the end of time.
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