Cooking with Satan

Welcome to the part III of our Mayhem Archive, a testimony of the early black-metal scene in Norway revolving around (the true) Mayhem.

This time, we bring you original letters written by Euronymous himself (the guitarist and leader of the band who got murdered by Varg Vikernes in 1993 for those who don’t know) who was an epistolary enthusiast. Euronymous was corresponding with a whole bunch of contacts all over the globe, spreading the word the old-school way. One of his current correspondent was Morgan A.K.A Evil from Marduk, a die-hard fan of the band at the time, but you’ll also find here letters written to a peruvian contact named Pocho Metallica (what a fucking sick name!!!) and last but not least the infamous letter announcing Dead’s death.
Of course there might be more Euronymous letters that can be found on the internet or even originals on e-bay and this is only a sample.

Last but not least, these letters were used with kind permission of Chagrynn from Death Row For Traitors which is the ultimate ressource about the life, work and death of Euronymous in order to keep his memory unstained by Vikernes shit storm.

What appears the most from these letters is that Mayhem was really damn broke and was mainly trying, like any other garage band, to survive, get their expenses paid and trade some records to keep the underground alive. Definitely punk and D.I.Y! Of course these letters are also enriched by the Mayhem folklore, they smell like blood, sweat and poison, and Euronymous his mainly responsible for the myth around his band (which by the way never survived his loss) but they show a different side of the norwegian horde.
I really enjoyed reading that stuff so I hope you will too! I mean, how couldn’t you enjoy the prose from a man who used to sign autographs saying: “May the blue bird of happiness never shit in your tea”!

Letter I:

CLICK ON THE POST TITLE TO VIEW FULL GALLERY

Check the other parts of The Mayhem Archive here and here.

And yes click on the letters to see it bigger, stupid.

Welcome to the part II of our Mayhem Archive, a testimony of the early black-metal scene in Norway revolving around (the true) Mayhem.
Here’s the last known interview of Dead (and Dead alone), second and most notable vocalist of Mayhem who killed himself in april 1991, by Evil (A.K.A Morgan Hakansson of Marduk) originally published in Slayer Mag.
This brings us back in the days, at the very end of the first black-metal wave, right before the media explosion that considerably altered the essence of the scene…

Check part I here.

Evil: How come you left Morbid and moved to Norway to join Mayhem?

Dead: As everyone knows (or should now): Morbid never was a real band. However after the “December Moon” demo the band kinda split up. I don’t know the reason why, but we were all very different and couldn’t compromise on how Morbid should be or sound like. What’s most mysterious to me is how everybody could change so much. When I and John formed the band, the band was looking for some members and asked them about the thought of having a black metal band as black metal should be, but it never turned out that way. They all seemed to be totally into the idea at first, but… well… I must say that I don’t think the 2nd Morbid demo is in the same vein as the first. But why the hell do I talk about Morbid in an interview when the band never should have been featured???? I talked to Euronymous on the phone and he explained how his view of the most brutal stage show would be and we discussed the problem that everybody wants everything to be so normal, boring and wimpy. And we totally agreed on that, I should come over and try out some rehearsals, to find out how I would fit in the band. And I guess I do fit ‘cos I’ve been singing here ever since. But the problems was that short after I joined the band we were out of rehearsal places…

E: You have said that the “Deathcrush” EP will be released again, what about it?

D: We want to release it again, but we just don‘t know how the hell we can afford it. It was wrong to limit it and now the copies are being sold for far too much money and that wasn’t the idea at all. Those who want it can’t get it unless they are millionaires. We will never release anything limited with Mayhem again.

E: Tell me about your new LP “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”. When will it be out? Any old Mayhem songs on it?

D: Good question… I wish I knew when! It’s planned to contain 8 tracks and to be released on D.S.P. as antimosh 003. When the 2nd edition of the Merciless LP has sold out and paid, the next band will go into studio (Imperator from Poland). When their 1st edition has…
»  read on…

Welcome to the first part of the Mayhem Archive, a testimony of the early black-metal scene in Norway revolving around (the true) Mayhem.
I know, I know… You probably heard that story a thousand times… But that documentary shows a different feedback on what happened in the early black metal norwegian scene by giving the floor to rather unheard protagonists of the inner-circle. Well, ok, we already knew that Euronymous was a commie and Varg Vikernes a sissy who (literally) stabs his friends in the back for fame and glory but still: here’s the foundation of a myth facing here a grown-up perspective. Interesting.