Whatever you think of the man, Euronymous was a musical genius and a leading figure in the rise of the second wave of Norwegian black metal - alongside Varg Vikernes of Burzum, Fenriz of Darkthrone, Abbath of Immortal, and you know the rest.
Whether in provocative interviews or in Mayhem's extreme stage antics, Euronymous was a man that thrived on provocation... until the very end.
According to Emperor's drummer Faust, "He was such an insane devil worshiper you wouldn't believe it". Others, on the contrary, claim that his true personality was milder and his extreme image was just a marketing ploy to sell more records by cultivating an image of "darkness" (source). Whatever the case, this post should be of great interest to you.
Five Incidents That Prove Euronymous Was "Out There"
Was Euronymous just a "poser" playing "evil"? Or was he really, as Hellhammer puts it, "cracked in the head"? We will never know the true answer.
But there are at least five (documented) incidents that point towards the right direction.
Disclaimer: Many of these incidents are taken "as is" from the book "Heavy Metal Master Class" by Emile Alquier. If you want to read the full reports and/or interviews, you should purchase the book.
5. Giving "Donkey Sh-t" to Dead (and getting stabbed)
By 1991, three members of Mayhem - Dead (Pehr Ohlin), Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) - were living together in a house in the woods near Kråkstad, which was used among other things as a place for the band to rehearse, with Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) and Thorns (Snorre Ruch), and eventually Count Grishnackh (Varg Vikernes), making frequent appearances.
According to Ruch, one day Euronymous was particularly excited. He was waiting with his friend Vlad and wanted to play a "joke" on Dead.
The "joke" consisted of the three men bringing "donkey sh-t" to put in Dead's bed, forcing him to sleep outside.
Thorns: It was in February and the temperatures [sic] were close to 0°. So when we recovered the sh[-]t it was frozen, so it didn't smell. [...] The initial plan was to go directly into Dead's room and shove the sh[-]t under his mattress (he slept on the floor). [...] But the door was locked, and [Euronymous] couldn't find the key. Meanwhile the sh[-] was getting warmer and it was starting to smell. [...] Eventually, all three of us decided to go back outside and sneak in through the window. The smell was atrocious (laughs).
This was a more "lighthearted" incident, but one that still - according to several sources - led to an argument in which Dead nearly stabbed Euronymous in retribution (see "Lords of Chaos", the book not the movie).
4. Death Threats to Occultus
Shortly after Dead's suicide, Euronymous recruited Occultus (Stian Johannsen) as bassist and vocalist. Occultus left Mayhem after receiving multiple death threats from Euronymous, promising notably to "slit his throat" if he didn't wait in front of the studio by 7 AM.
Occultus: He would send death threats to everybody, so I was kind of expecting it... but when you received a letter saying basically "we are coming for you unless you are by X time at Y place", after a while, you don't how to react anymore. [...] He was a difficult person to work with.
Making death threats was, according to many, a defining characteristic of Euronymous. This eventually led to his downfall, as we will see further on.
3. A Broomstick in Metalion's Wheelchair
Jon "Metalion" Kristiansen is best known for having founded the "Head Not Found" (which later became "Morsay Mag") zines in the late 80s and early 90s, alongside his lesser known brother Magnus Kristiansen.
Magnus Kristiansen, who recently passed away from brain tumour (R.I.P., 1967-2023), was for most of his live confined to a wheelchair - he couldn't move his legs.
According to the book "Real Satanic Black Metal", Euronymous was one day very unhappy with the way his band had been portrayed by "Head Not Found" so he payed Metalion a visit with Thorns, but they found his brother Magnus keeping shop instead.
Thorns: At this point he [Euronymous] goes "where's Jon?" and the guy doesn't know. He was drawing flower pictures. [...] When we came back in, he was still drawing on vinyls with a marker pen. He [Euronymous] obviously found that disrespectful, so he grabbed a broomstick and locked it in his wheelchair. He couldn't reach down and get the broom out, much less call for help, leaving him stuck at the soundboard. "I said where's Jon, we need to talk". The guy [Magnus] can barely speak as he is shaking so much. Euronymous then says "you better f[-]cking call him then!" and starts covering his drawings with [offensive symbols].
To this day, Jon Kristiansen still hates Euronymous and won't publish anything positive about early Mayhem.
2. Taking pictures of Dead's corpse
This is one of the most famous incidents. Upon discovered Dead's inanimated body on the 8th of April 1991 (he had just committed suicide), instead of calling the police, Euronymous bought a disposable camera and staged photos of Dead's body. These were later used to bolster Mayhem's "evil" image - notably on the "Dawn of Black Hearts" bootleg.
Necrobutcher: Øystein called me up the next day ... and says, "Dead has done something really cool! He killed himself". I thought, have you lost it? What do you mean cool? He says, "Relax, I have photos of everything". I was in shock and grief. He was just thinking how to exploit it.
Necrobutcher left the band shortly after, disgusted with the rumours of Euronymous "cooking stew" with parts of Dead's brains and making a "necklace" from his skull.
1. Lethal Feud with Varg Vikernes
This is probably the most well known incident involving Euronymous, and the one that eventually led to his downfall.
In August 1993, Varg Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death at the latter's apartment in Oslo. The killing was initially blamed on Swedish black metallers by the media, who had a "rivalry" of sort with the Norwegian scene.
According to Necrobutcher, the Norwegian police were well aware of the feud between Vikernes and Euronymous. In his own words:
Necrobutcher: Because they bugged [Euronymous' phone], and he actually talked about killing people before [...] so they probably were thinking to themselves, "We didn't nail this guy for all the church burnings, so let's nail him for murder, and get rid of this f–king guy in Oslo the same time." So that's basically what happened.
While no one can take anything away from Euronymous' musical genius, it was pretty clear he had a few screws loose. Still, the early Norwegian black metal scene would have been a much different place without him. Would black metal have existed at all...? Hard to say.
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