While re-reading the book "Heavy Metal Master Class" in my spare time, I came across something interesting on the chapter of early Norwegian black metal.
It was a Dead (Per Ohlin) interview done in April 1989. Now, this isn't significant in itself... until you realise that's it's probably the first interview, and some may say public appearance, of the legendary Morbid and Mayhem vocalist Dead.
Now I obviously can't simply copy and paste the entire content here, but I tried to keep as much as possible as I know many will be interested in the "first contact" with the vocalist (for the rest, you'll have to read the book sorry). But it's a very historically important interview. I'm not sure even the authors realised the historical significance when they compiled it (it was translated from a written correspondence between Dead and Marduk guitarist Evil).
Legendary Dead (Mayhem) Interview from 1989
First off, Dead is asked about the Norwegian and Swedish black and death metal scenes. His answer cuts straight to the point.
Dead: Scandinavia hasn't got any scene. Only wimps and trendies are here. Too many ordinary people and f-ckheads! Don't come to Scandinavia! I wanna move from here!
This sort of echoes what Euronymous had always been saying about "trendy Swedish death metal" giving the Norse countries a bad name. Black metal was eventually formed as a rebellion against trendy bands that would become Arch Enemy and the like.
How Dead met Euronymous, and joined Mayhem
He also briefly goes over how he and Euronymous met.
Dead: I talked to Euronymous on the phone and he explained how his view of how 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...
This was explained in more detail by Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone in another interview.
"The Balkan countries is where I want to live..."
He also explains his dissatisfaction with the Scandinavian scene and how admiration for Balkan countries, something explored on the upcoming (at the time) "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"... and also on "Transilvanian Hunger" eventually (TH was a tribute to Dead if you didn't know).
Dead: It [Satanism and Occultism, tn] is a great possession of mine! But to learn about Magic takes time. It's necessary to know a lot about it before trying some curse on the neighbours or something like that. [...] But I'm more into legends of Eastern Europe. They are not known of here, but people still believe in them. Each castle has got it's own history with a bloody past... that's what obsesses me most. The Balkan countries is where I want to live.
This kind of mirror what other black metal musicians were saying at the time.
On how Dead wrote the lyrics of DMDS
Last but not least (I personally thought this was the most interesting part of the interview), Dead goes into great detail about how he writes (or wrote) each song on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas".
Dead: So far, I've written the lyrics to all the songs after "Deathcrush": "Funeral Fog", "Freezing Moon", "Buried By Varg And Dust" and "Pagan Fears". Mostly they deal with how I feel when I wrote them. It's hard to explain, and they are very different too. I can explain "Funeral Fog", it's about a legendary place in the middle of the Carpathian horse shoe. A swampland called [unreadable] which is surrounded by fearful superstition and the weirdest beings are thought to haunt the place. That I thought about when I write that song and started to imagine a heavy fog lit up by the full moon. This fog oozed up from that place. Drifting woefully in silence to extinguish the lives of the local people. And bring their souls back to the dead. "Pagan Fears" is the newest song made by us, and it's a bit strange. It reminds me of "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" but it is not as brutal. Anyway, the lyrics talk of some people living in an ancient and barbaric society [...] and the idea, that the past isn't dying, but remains in some faded reality, and that they'll not die out, but remain in the past which is actually not dying, to haunt people in the future, pup up in their minds. The time itself exists and is eternal, so is it vanishing? They realize they remain forever. That was a strange idea I've walked around with till I had to write it down. We don't have any concept in particular in the lyrics and not only I am writing them. Before it was mainly Necro Butcher [sic] who wrote most of the stuff and he has explained to me what it was like. He was almost asleep, then he suddenly thought of a song title. He had to write it down quickly. And after some minutes it happened again and again. The day after he tried to read what he had written down that night and he found out he couldn't read the handwriting he had written in no light and the pen had been fucked up. But some lines were readable and they became "Deathcrush".
The least you can say is that Dead put a lot of effort in his art. It's a far cry from most modern day black metal posers who write their "music" in one afternoon and send it out immediately to record labels.
Keep in mind this interview was done way before the huge 1990/1991 European Mayhem tour (which includes Live in Leipzig among others).
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