History Music / Mayhem

* NamesTheSame: On Website/YouTube, you will find two different artists named Mayhem; this band, and one of the many, many alias of electronic musician Renard, represented by a shark girl dressed like a raver. The latter's videos have commentators confusing her for the former.

** There is also a hidden track before the first song on the initial pressing of ''Grand Declaration of War'' which can be found by rewinding the CD from the start point. It is simply a backmasked version of the final song, "Completion in Science of Agony (Part II of II)".

** There is also a hidden track before the first song on ''Grand Declaration of War'' which can be found by rewinding the CD from the start point. It is simply a backmasked version of the final song, "Completion in Science of Agony (Part II of II)".

* StylisticSuck: ''Ordo Ad Chao''; while Mayhem's earlier work was quite lo-fi, their years since their reformation had crystal clear production and electronic drums. ''Ordo Ad Chao'' had muddy guitars, a very low-end sound (unheard of any black metal), and had under-produced drums (no EQ, no triggers).

* BlackMetal

* SpokenWordInMusic: Large portions of ''Grand Declaration of War''. Fans were less than pleased.

* TroubledProduction: If you haven't guessed from reading the rest of the article yet: Yes, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' had one of these.

* DivideByZero: A variant - the [[ArcWords Arc Word]] phrase on ''Ordo Ad Chao'' is "Everything done equals zero times nothing", which is a LogicBomb at the very least.

* EpicRocking: A few of their songs are quite long. The longest is "Completion in Science of Agony (Part I of II)" from ''Grand Declaration of War'', which is 9:44 in length. "Illuminate Eliminate", from ''Ordo ad Chao'', is close behind.

* EpicRocking: A few of their songs are quite long. The longest is "Completion in Science of Agony (Part I of II)" from ''Grand Declaration of War'', which is 9:44 in length.
* GenrePopularizer: For black metal. Specifically speaking, Mayhem essentially started up second-wave black metal, but first-wave black metal covers a lot of bands that are totally dissimilar to Mayhem (CelticFrost and MercyfulFate, for example), and the actual black metal genre didn't really have a proper definition until Mayhem and co. came along.

* KillAllHumans: Virtually the entirety of ''Ordo Ad Chao'' consists of this.

* AGoodNameForARockBand: As mentioned above, the band's name was taken from the Music/{{Venom}} song "Mayhem with Mercy".

* RefugeInAudacity: Their live shows.

Blasphemer has since left the band, owing to his various other projects (such as Ava Inferi and Aura Noir), and was replaced by a succession of live guitarists (among them Morfeus and Teloch).

Blasphemer has since left the band, owing to his various other projects (such as Ava Inferi), and was replaced by a succession of live guitarists (among them Morfeus and Teloch).

* UncommonTime: "Deathcrush" and "Slaughter of Dreams" among other tracks.

* TropeCodifier: Mayhem did more than any other band to shape the form that the black metal genre took.
* TroubledProduction: If you haven't guessed from reading the rest article yet: Yes, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' had one of these.

* UncommonTime: "Slaughter of Dreams" among other tracks.

-->-- Euronumous, 1992

Following Dead's suicide, Dead was replaced by Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, & Necrobutcher left the band and was temporarily replaced by Varg "Count Grishnakh" Vikernes, sole member of Bergen-based group {{Burzum}}. During the recording of the band's first full-length album, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'', tensions rose between Euronymous and Vikernes, which later resulted in Vikernes killing Euronymous, stabbing him a total of 21 times. Due to complaints from Euronymous's family, Hellhammer promised to remove Vikernes's basslines and record them himself, but this didn't happen. The explanation is either him feeling it was fitting that killer & victim should perform on the same album, or simply (and more likely) not having the time and money to go back and replace them, not to mention not knowing how to play bass.

After the killing of Euronymous and Vikernes' incarceration (which has seen him moving away from metal and has recently come to an end) the remaining members decided to forge on and recruited new members. Euronymous was replaced by Blasphemer (Rune Eriksen), a far more technically skilled and experimental guitarist, while Maniac was re-recruited for the EP ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' and the two albums that followed, ''Grand Declaration of War'' and ''Chimera'', both of which have divided critical opinion among the band's fanbase.

* AGoodNameForARockBand - As mentioned above, the band's name was taken from the Music/{{Venom}} song "Mayhem with Mercy".

* BookEnds - A more unconventional example. ''Grand Declaration of War'' is a sequel to their ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' EP. The saga as a whole is divided into three sections: I (''Wolf's Lair Abyss''), II (the first half of ''Grand Declaration of War'') and III (the second half). A riff appears at the very end of "Symbols of Bloodswords", the last track from ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'', and the album fades out. "A Grand Declaration of War", the first track of part II of the saga fades in with the same riff shifted up a semitone. The riff appears for the third and final time at the start of the track "View from Nihil (Part II of II)", followed by some spoken word vocals and a sample of a nuclear bomb detonating. This concludes part II of the entire saga.
* ContemptibleCover - ''[[http://asylumeclectica.com/asylum/morbid/archives/DawnOfTheBlackHearts.jpg Dawn of the Black Hearts]]''. ('''{{NSFW}}''')

* DrivenToSuicide - Dead. Who'da thunk it?
* EpicRocking - A few of their songs are quite long. The longest is "Completion in Science of Agony (Part I of II)" from ''Grand Declaration of War'', which is 9:44 in length.
* GenrePopularizer - For black metal. Specifically speaking, Mayhem essentially started up second-wave black metal, but first-wave black metal covers a lot of bands that are totally dissimilar to Mayhem (CelticFrost and MercyfulFate, for example), and the actual black metal genre didn't really have a proper definition until Mayhem and co. came along.
* ImAHumanitarian - Euronymous was rumored to have removed part of Dead's brain, and made a stew with it. He denied this, but he did remove several shards of his skull.
* KillAllHumans - Virtually the entirety of ''Ordo Ad Chao'' consists of this.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness - 10.
* NamesTheSame - On Website/YouTube, you will find two different artists named Mayhem; this band, and one of the many, many alias of electronic musician Renard, represented by a shark girl dressed like a raver. The latter's videos have commentators confusing her for the former.
* RealMenEatMeat - Inverted in the case of Attila Csihar, a longtime vegetarian.
* RefugeInAudacity - Their live shows.

* TropeCodifier - Mayhem did more than any other band to shape the form that the black metal genre took.
* TroubledProduction - If you haven't guessed from reading the rest article yet: Yes, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' had one of these.

* VampireVords - In RealLife, Attila Csihar has such an extreme Dracula-like Hungarian accent that it makes you wonder if he exaggerates his own accent to make his vocals more obviously reminiscent of Bela Lugosi's Dracula.

After the killing of Euronymous and Vikernes' incarceration (which has seen him moving away from metal and has recently come to an end) the remaining members decided to forge on and recruited new members. Euronymous was replaced by Blasphemer (Rune Eriksen), a far more technically skilled and experimental guitarist, while Maniac was re-recruited for the EP ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' and the two albums that followed, ''Grand Declaration of War'' and ''Chimera'', both of which have divided critical opinion among the band's fanbase.

* NamesTheSame - On YouTube, you will find two different artists named Mayhem; this band, and one of the many, many alias of electronic musician Renard, represented by a shark girl dressed like a raver. The latter's videos have commentators confusing her for the former.

After the killing of Euronymous and Vikernes' incarceration (which has seen him moving away from metal and has recently come to an end) the remaining members decided to forge on and recruited new members. Euronymous was replaced by Blasphemer (Rune Eriksen), a far more technically skilled and experimental guitarist, while Maniac was re-recruited for the EP ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' and the two albums that followed, ''Grand Declaration of War'' and ''Chimera'', both of which have [[YourMileageMayVary divided critical opinion among the band's fanbase]].

* StageNames

* EpicRiff - A lot of the time, most notably on ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas''.

* LoveItOrHateIt - Amongst fans of the black metal genre as a whole, everything Mayhem recorded since ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' is like this. ''...Sathanas'' is almost universally regarded as the pinnacle of the genre (or at least, of the genre at that point in time), but the polarizing reactions to their more recent work is absolute, and best illustrated by ''Ordo Ad Chao'' (a solid attempt to get back to their darker, lo-fi roots, or a particularly lazy rehearsal tape with full production) and most of all, the aptly named ''Grand Declaration of War'' (genuinely avant-garde prog-black metal which showed a willingness experiment with unusual time signatures, guitar techniques and electronica or ''Jesus Christ that chap spent the whole album just talking!'').
* MagnumOpus - Fans consider ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' to be this; it's often regarded as the greatest black metal album of all time.

Following Dead's suicide, Dead was replaced by Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, & Necrobutcher left the band and was temporarily replaced by Varg "Count Grishnakh" Vikernes, sole member of Bergen-based group {{Burzum}}. During the recording of the band's first full-length album, ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'', tensions rose between Euronymous and Vikernes, which later resulted in Vikernes killing Euronymous, stabbing him a total of 21 times. Due to complaints from Euronymous's family, Hellhammer promised to remove Vikernes's basslines and record them himself, but this didn't happen. The explanation is either him feeling it was fitting that killer & victim should perform on the same album, or simply not having the time and money to go back and replace them.

* GenreLaunch - For black metal. Specifically speaking, Mayhem essentially started up second-wave black metal, but first-wave black metal covers a lot of bands that are totally dissimilar to Mayhem (CelticFrost and MercyfulFate, for example), and the actual black metal genre didn't really have a proper definition until Mayhem and co. came along.

Forming in the mid-1980s and taking their name from a song by the band Music/{{Venom}} (who also coined the term BlackMetal), the Norwegian band's original line-up consisted of guitarist Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), bassist Necrobutcher[[hottip:*:Not to be confused with the pro wrestler. That Necro Butcher is two words, Mayhem's Necrobutcher is just one. Know the difference, it could save your life.]] (Jørn Stubberud) and drummer Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg). When the group was originally formed, Euronymous also sang, before being replaced by [[MeaningfulName Maniac]] (Sven Erik Kristiansen) on vocals (who was [[HilariousInHindsight placed in a mental institution]] after the recording of the infamous ''Deathcrush'' EP)[[hottip:*:No word on whether the two events were at all connected]]. The band found a replacement in the Swedish Per Yngve Ohlin, nicknamed "[[PropheticName Dead]]" (previously of obscure cult-act "Morbid"), for his love of, surprise, surprise, death: he would wear clothes people had been buried in months before, cut himself on stage (one point he cut himself so much on stage he had to be sent to the hospital in bad need of a transfusion), and kept a dead crow in a jar because he liked "the stench of death". Despite these amusing quirks, for some reason everyone who met him had ill feelings about him and always said that he looked like he hated being alive. These folks would ultimately be proven correct when one day, Euronymous entered the house that Dead was staying in and found him, appropriately enough, dead, a [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill bullet wound in his head and his wrists cut open]] (Dead just wanted to be sure).