Fans were recently given the chance to buy a rather gruesome piece of band merch, with a skull fragment of late Mayhem vocalist Dead going up for sale.
Back in the mid-’80s, Mayhem quickly became one of the pioneers of the Norwegian black metal scene. Famed for their brutal music, ferocious live shows, and connection to a series of Norwegian church burnings, the band became something of a cult sensation.
In 1991, the band received an extra boost of infamy following the suicide of vocalist Per ‘Dead’ Ohlin. After shooting himself at the age of 22, the vocalist’s corpse was photographed by bandmate Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth, with the picture later being used on the cover of a bootleg live record.
Over the years, Euronymous’ relation with Dead became rather infamous, with rumours claiming he ate pieces of his brain, and made a necklace with pieces of his skull. While Mayhem denied claims of cannibalism, they did confirm that Euronymous actually crafted himself a rather morbid necklace.
As Metalinjection points out, true-crime collectibles site Serial Killers Ink recently listed a typed letter by Euronymous, which comes with a piece of Dead’s skull.
Written to band manager Tamas Vamosi, the letter was composed just five days after the suicide of dead, and contains a skull fragment taped to the page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKUPKi58Hwo
While Euronymous was killed by Burzum’s Varg Vikernes back in 1993, it seems this type of letter wasn’t exactly uncommon for the musician to send out, with Marduk’s Morgan ‘Evil’ Steinmeyer Håkansson confirming he also received a skull fragment years ago.
“I got it way back, right after he died,” he explained to Loudwire back in 2012. “Back in those days [Mayhem] were living in a house and didn’t have the best financial aspects, so they didn’t even have a telephone.”
“So I remember I was celebrating New Year’s in 1991 with Dead back home in Sweden. Then he got back, he wrote one letter [to me], then someone told me he’s killed himself.”
“So I wrote a letter [to Mayhem] and then I got the reply back from [Euronymous]; ‘Well he just shot himself and here’s a piece of his skull.” It was a shotgun, you know? So [he also sent me] two pieces of the lead and a piece of the wet brain. I’ve still got it. I keep it well protected.”
“He sent it to all these former comrades of Dead,” Håkansson continued. “A few of them. There were not that many people… maybe five.”
While the item is listed as ‘out of stock’ on the Serial Killers Ink website, it’s not clear if it’s been taken offline, or if a dedicated black metal fan forked out the $3,5000 to add a morbid piece of merch to their collection.
Check out Mayhem’s ‘Deathcrush’:
