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Battery Zine (1990) | Pelle Ohlin

Hello!! Here's another decently long interview with Pelle (5 pages in the zine) for ya'll. Also: I'm trying to post everyday, whether it's a photo or an interview, however I don't always have time. :-] Again, Pelle's answers are in italics and the questions are in bold.

"Hello Deathmetallunatics! Here's Werner again, presenting you an interview with one of the best Deathmetalbands that exist on earth, the true MAYHEM from Norway! (Huh, that sounds like a big hyper but what I wanted to tell you is that they fucking rule, ok?). Really, the stuff they create is so godly, I have to listen to it again and again and again... every day! Everybody into serious Deathmetal should this + of course the review somewhere else in this zine and of course write to these guys. Let us waste no more space with this stupid intro, just read what dead (voc) answered to my questions...

Has anything been released after "Deathcush"? If not, when can we expect some more stuff from MAYHEM, and what (LP/EP)??

- Not really.. well we've recorded a few rehearsings (which we never released). What we've done is doing new material all the time and dropping them for better songs. We have very different ideas of how we shall sound like and it's hard for us to make songs that we are satisfied with. These shall not sound like anything else and not be bounded to the moment of now. What I mean with that is that we first have to forget of how all the other bands sound like and not to be bounded to any time to avoid trends and to find originality. Yeah, it's now been a time since "Deathcrush" was released and we've got many requests of a new vinyl but it's hard to make new material that doesn't become ordinary or usual after a year. However, in the latest time we have released two songs for a compilation LP that will be released by Chicken Brain Records in this summer. The songs are "The freezing moon" and "Carnage". "The freezing moon" is a new one while "Carnage" is from the first demo. "Pure fucking armageddon" that we did the mistake to limit only to 100 copies and it's not available now. But we thought the song "Carnage" was worth to be picked up again (you're completely right, Dead -W.). We haven't signed anything (of course) for CBR and we'll not get anything of the profits for the selling records later. I don't think we'll let any other label give out something with us in the future cause there's no reason to do that and we'll never sign any contract neither sell our band to fat multi-labels who don't give a fuck about the music. Fat deals ain't no investment as some believe, only a bad try to get rid of the job behind everything that's necessary to do but not impossible to do by one self. We got the idea of that we have to use the so Darkened Black name DE MYSTERIIS DOM. SATHANAS for something a long time ago. That title comes from a story of a book with that name, which is Latin for "Lord Satan's secret rites" and it's thought to exist in only one copy and I won't give up searching for it... we had a finished lyric for that song and the music to it was almost complete also. By then we had to drop all the new songs we were onto making cause of a festival in Poland that was supposed to be then.,, it fucked and we later should pick up those songs, more or less finished, we'd forgot about them but we have to use that song DMDS by all means.,, it'll be the most complicated thing we ever have been involved in. That is also what the LP, that we hope will come out soon, will be entitles.

And then you'll play in Russia. When will this take place and in which part of the country will you play? Only in the European part or also more in the eastern part?

- Yes, but I wonder of when this will be.... their tour agency, that is government owned, want us to wait and that's all we have heard about them. It all begun with that Euronymous asked a pal there of the possibilities to set up about 3-4 gigs there and then answered that thought of put us together with two other band there, ACCENT and SYZORYE, and make a tour containing 20-30 gigs sometimes in the future that for us seems to be far. Later one guy of SUZORYE kind of took over that and now we just don't have any idea of how and when it'll be.

Do you really think you're ready for a Russian tour? I mean, does anyone know you over there?

- Of what we've heard of the people we know there, we are well-known by radiostations and music mags (I don't think there are any zines there) and those guys have arranged for tours before, but only with their own local bands.

I know of Euronymous that he is a communist, so is that one reason why you wanted to tour over Russia?

- He's mentally addicted to countries he finds sicks or as communistic as possible, preferably totally enclosed with iron borders and everything and with a language none else can understand. He wants Norway to be in conspiracy with Albania or Cuba and also that a "Commogrey" wall shall be risen and the borders closed... we other don't share his ideas of that, Necrobutcher is only into crimes and drugs and he's a kinda rightwing, Hellhammer wants to be a dictator and he's seriously into fascism and Nazi stuff. I think everything politically involved is CRAP and I don't think any political involved things mean anything and I keep away from it. The countries and republics and places Euro has "planned" that we shall tour are - Albania, North Korea, China, Kampuchea, Vietnam, Mongolia, South Yemen, Afghanistan, Iran, Angola, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Libya and Cuba. My thoughts of these countries that we can never visit them & especially cannot play there. Out(?) there's a guy in Cuba who tries to set up a gig for us there and also in the (lesser sick) Philippines there might be something as well as Malaysia. I think it all will end with that Euro will tour there by his own.. there will be too music hassles with the stage show I think, and in Iran it's no possibility to bring any instruments. Places like for example Romania that are losing the communistic involvement also lose Euro's interest. But I'm madly into Romania instead and that's cause the main part of Transylvania is there. So that's why Euro wants us to play in Russia, even if they now have "too much" Glasnost and everything. Euro reads books of Mao and he wishes to live in South Yemen or North Korea and go also to Kampuchea to join the Red Khmer.

I heard that in a communistic country, only guys with privileges are allowed to go to gigs of Western bands, and not always the real fans, so will this be the case with you, too? Or won't you have such problems over there?

- At least we think that was the case many years ago but that it has changed pretty much since then. The real problem is that there exists NOTHING of an underground there and they don't even know of what it is. There ARE Deathmetalbands there, even if the're very rare, and the same guys who listen to them also like Hard-Heavy-Speed- Pop. VENOM is really widespreaden and well-known there but they haven't heard of METALLICA (or not many of all know of them) which I think is great...

Do you think that you'll earn money (or at least don't lose it) or are you going to pay for it?

- The reason of why it'll be so easy to set it up and why that agency is into us is that we don't want dollaers. They'll pay by a cheque instead an we can get that money froma Norwegian bank in what currency we wish to have it in. The problem that can appear is to get them into giving such a cheque afterwards but our Russian friends talked them (in the agency) into it.

Talking about live shows, judging from what you have told me about your show (impaled pigheads and such stuff), you seem to have a very brutal stageacting. So aren't you afraid that perhaps some moron takes it too seriously and beats up someone (or hurts him seriously)?

- There's always some fuckheads that do not understand what it's all about and cannot understand others who are there for the music and that problem is at almost every concert not depending of what band is playing I think. If someone's diving or something there's often some asshole who cannot see what that is and then wanna start up a fight of that reason. Idiots that go to concerts only to throw bottles and destroy for both the band and the crowd shouldn't be there. We haven't had many liveshows and that one we could have hose "effects: there were many into Speedmetal and glam-fag-rock and they left as soon as the pigheads begun to fly around in there... but something I do hate indeed is mosh! I can't accept it exist children that think of themselves funny & noisy recording demos demos after a couple weeks after one more trendy band has formed. A kid of 11 years or so has listened to CARCASS and the day after he finds out he shall form a band along with plas from school. It's like that these bands get created and they never care or know of, they only fuck with the scene by their hundreds of demos that are teeming everywhere and it sounds all the same! I REFUSE to listen to that! And especially never laugh at their fun-pix, fun-lyrics or fun-noises they make.. to all those things are supposed to be so childish and non-seriously funny, it's only themselves that manage to alugh but no one else does! I think it was necessary to tell of that, too.

Do you use any other effect than impaled pigheads on stage?

- Pigheads, as well as other heads, is what we try to have at all gigs. But also other things are kind of planned at future shows. It needs sick ideas and also money as well as it gotta suit to the place we're playing at.. for example if we use impaled pigheads in one (of Euro's) Islamic countries we'll surely get killed then. Another thing is that what's the most disgusting thing to do right here to fuck with the wimps might not be the same effectful somewhere else and if we ever come to for example India, the most evil thing that we can do there I have in mind will be to sacrifice a "holy cow" on stage. I wanna have stage equipment at our shows of Transylvanian landscapes, instruments of torture that are from the 12th century, real trees from a dead forest, spotlights that are used to "paint" dark colors of dust and later moonshine... different animalheads and human craniums hanging in meat hooks by chains from the dead trees and the heads have huge screws in their eyes... that's what I think would make the perfect mood. But if we can build such things by ourselves pay for the giant expenses it surely will include and make it portable also, I can't imagine if we will ever be able to make. But to tell of what else we have as the show or effects is when I cut myself up. Something I study is how people react when my blood is streaming everywhere but that's not why I do it. I like to cut, in others preferably, but it's mostly in myself. That I can't do too often which makes me a bit mourning.. the nearest thing is three gigs in Sweden which will probably be in the end of May and I think of if I can take a highly tunes kitchen saw machine that's cutting and sawing faster than it's possible to control it..... that would be a nice thing to have there I think. Another band there, that's the one the guy that'll set this whole thing up by the way, will try to get a goat that they shall sacrifice on stage by a fireman's axe but I just can't remember that bandname. Another Blackmetal band that'll play there is GROTESQUE (from Gothenburg) + some other Deathmetals. If it shall be "gore" then it gotta be REAL effects and only snuff is real!

Is MAYHEM still trying to play as fast as possible, or is that something of the past?

- Hard to say yes or no. Maybe I shall add here I wasn't in the band in the beginning and I didn't join MAYHEM till after "Deathcrush" was recorded, and we got a new drummer straight after that's called Hellhammer. What I can of by my experiences of early MAYHEM is only when I first heard the band. That was when the first released demo "Pure fucking armageddon" that suddenly appeared in five copies in a record shop in Stockholm called heavy sound.. that record shop is really commercial and their prices stink! But anyway that tape was the most brutal, fastest and unbelievably evil than what I had ever heard since VENOM! That first released tape, which was a reh/demo is not available any longer, it was given out in only 100 copies. I could har then, and they told me of it also, that it was a sharp contrast to most of the bands that were in '86 and as for that time it was really something very fast. And as for my experiences in about that time, which was outside of MAYHEM then, when we played most of those who watched thought it sounded chaotic and they simply couldn't understand us... but the speed is not exactly what we think is the view of our sound. It's not necessary to play as fast as it's possible for a band neither the heaviness as some call it in doom shall not make the sound of a band. I fell that it's necessary to add that I'm neither into noise nor techno. When we make something new of material for a song we don't think like "it gotta be 100 times faster" or "no, we can't use such a guitar-riff 'cos it's not doomy enough". When we first make it as well as when we improve it we only are working on what's necessary for that track and try to find out of what makes it that we think we like that one. Then it's not depending on how fast it goes but the rhythms and sound itself. To express brutality and the matter in the lyrics is not not done by breaking the soundwall with drumpounches. What I think the most Doomband can't make so well is that they wanna be Deathmetalbut at the same time they try to get that heaviness of BLACK SABBATH. Nothing wrong with BLACK SABBATH (the early...) but it can't be mixed with Death, then it turns out to be something between these and that's Heavy-Speedmetal and that's not acceptable!

Will you always play Deathmetal, or can we expect a change of the style?

- Maybe we now have learned a bit more of our instruments since the start... of the present time the only we have to compare with of a new recording are the two track that'll be on the Swedish compilation LP. I have no idea of what responses it'll be from it. But yes, we have changed a bit, but not more than what can be expected after almost three years since last recording and two new members. And it is a difference between the first PFA demo and "Deathcrush". I can't tell much more than my own thoughts of how a band shall hopefully sound like. That is to keep the sound and spirit that once existed in the time of what now is "old fashioned Blackmetal: of VENOM and the earliest bands that came by then like POSSESSED, DESTRUCTION, SODOM, POISON (German of course!!), BATHORY, DEATH and so on before they either vanished or wimped out to get big bucks and groupies. What has happened after that is hard o ignore when one got reminded by totally unserious and senseless demos of noise with either vegetarian or anti-everything lyrics or no lyrics at all - can they never realize they;re all fuckheads and should never form those fun-bands that each such dude is in 30 or 50 dofferent crap bands with thousands of half-second songs? But they can eat their fucking (polluted) salad believing they do the scene a big favour while I stick with what I worship and that so many others seem to be indeed scared of - BLACKMETAL! Once there was something illful that ordinary wimps feared and never understood. Something none had heard anything like of ever before. There were less numbered bands and the scene was new and not big but there was a friendship, so limited but strong. In leather and spikes.

What do you think of bigger bands like METALLICA that become more wimpy and slower with every album?

- What happened with METALLICA can never be forgiven, they died after "Kill em all" although I can listen to some of the songs from "Ride the lightning". Their sound of aggressive power is totally lost and there is no reason for such a band to continue. Bands that appear on such crap as MTV (get off the air - W.) and commercial lists should never exist!!!! They're too damn technical with only harmonies and tight rhythms to pose as rutinated superstars.

Do you listen only to Deathmetal, or also to something else? In America it seems as if many people listen to many different musicstyles, not only metal, so what do you think of it?

- Each place seems to me having an own scene. And mostly it can be noticed if a band is American by their sound. I've never been there, only heard lots of strange comments by friends who visited it. I think I better keep these comments untold.... Do you believe me when I say that I don't listen to anything else than Black/Death? (We do believe you lol - me) To me that's what exists and nothing else. I listen to what I find to be evil or black for the evil's sake. That's why I begun listen to it. Satanic sound of pure evil illful brutality that I couldn't get out of my grey matter! I still like it that way and that's why I continue having about the same idea of it. In lyrics I try to express various evil thoughts and the same in for example drawings. That's one reason why I think effects as stage show is of such importance.

On the rehearsal tape you've sent me, it's you who's singing, or am I wrong? Well, Most Deathmetal bands prefer a vocalist with a very deep voice, so why is it different with MAYHEM? Do you do that on purpose to sound different than other bands?

- Yeah, it's me on vocals and Hellhammer on drums 'cos that tape was pretty new. If my voice is different from the most bands I take it as a compliment. Each singer has got an own voice and an own way to use it. But mostly there's only one particular way of singing that suits on singer's voice. I use to sing in that way and how we think fits to the music, too. I have no purpose that I necessary have sound completely different than anything else do or create something new. Neither to copy from anyone. No, it's simply our sound.

Your voice reminds me a bit of Quorthon from BATHORY and that brings me to the next question. I read that you and Quorthon aren't what one could call friends, so could you tell me what's up with that or don't you want me to talk about that?

- Why is Quorthon talked of so often? (I don't mean by you but from so many..). I don't think he invented Occultism or the deathway of singing. I can listen to the early stuff by BATHORY only. Like the first LP and the compilation LPs, but later he lost all the ability to crush and kill. I don't think so many outside of Scandinavia have him but I can tell you it's not worth the try. Some dudes I know more or less know that guy, but I've met him only once. He's one of the worst motherfucking wimps I've had the misfortunate to meet! Do you by the way know it's his dad who's "the boss" and he runs his record label and Quorthon goes nowhere without his daddy.. "Quorthon" has changed his real name now to Ace and he doesn't have have to slightest idea of any Occultism and especially not of the black arts his lyrical stuffs content! I just don't understand who makes the lyrics.. could it be the Boss? The only interest Quorthon has is to fucking around at the London's rockclubs and the so-called Vvornth, the drummer he picked up from a GLAMROCK band!!! How strange how everything he says in interviews is changing completely all the time... in the earliest days of BATHORY he explains how important it is with the darkness in songs and he's writing of the satanic influences he has 'cos that's his greatest possession. He also explained of a gig that fucked in the earliest line-up of BATHORY befre he became an one-man band for two LPS - the reason why that gig wasn't possible to set up was 'cos of the extreme stage-show they were supposed to have then. Things as for example sacrifice a lamb.. that's NOT how he's talking now at all. He became for a while so totally against satanism, black magic and so on to change again to "nothing is wrong with satanism, black art, the evil etc., but what I hate is the satanists"..more amazing than ever I think! He's a fuckhead and he's too much of a superstar and he "can't" talk to normal people 'cos he is far too fucking famous for that! Haven't seen any likely case of wimpism before! WOE! And he didn't like the sacrificed guineapighead impaled on an upside-down cross with nailed eyes that I thought smelled so nice....

Is there a special way to get such a voice or were you born with it?

- In fact I sound different on the demo I sung at with m old band in Sweden - MORBID. Which is the only demo I am on by the way. I've learned some more of how to sing I guess, but I hope people won't thing of it as a negative...? That demo of MORBID "December moon" that we'd recorded in Dec. '87 isn't much of spreaden out so I guess not many have heard it that are reading this interview. We split up about a month after that recording. I can't think of if I have any technic or a special method, I just sing.

Are you "only" a singer, or do you also play and instrument? If not, don't you find it a bit frustrating that you can't write music?

- I'm "only" a singer. I once tried to learn playing guitar but with no success at all so I gave it up after a short time. That was years ago...... I joined for a short moment a very stupid band and we tried without any success to make music but it was too disturbing for all of us so we quit that almost immediately. In that "band" I tried to play bass which went shit and by that short existence I found it did sound kind of better when I tried to sing.. strange, I just thought of if we had done that right now instead of about six years ago we had probably been one of these noise bands of the thousands of inscrutable demos and working on ruining the scene I suppose. I don't think of myself as a musician.

Normally singers have to take care of their voices, like no smoking, no drinking and much sleep, so how do you treat your voice? Is drinking and smoking the best way to get a Deathmetal-voice?

- I guess I should take care of the voice more than I do. But I can tell you that I don't smoke and don't drink very often either, and as for drinking, that's 'cos of lack of money and time...

Why do you have these pseudonyms? Just cause they sound cool?

- I got many nicknames and usually when I visit somewhere they start to call me something strange of a name. We think there's nothing wrong with our names that we have chosen and we think those pseudonyms reflect our personality. If we had used our "real" names, none outside Scandinavia surely couldn't say them. We use these names 'cos they sound best!

How do you react when someone makes fun of you cause he thinks your names are stupid?

- That doesn't happen often, but if some shithead does it's too stupid that I shall care of!

Sweden seems to be a land of Deathmetal, while I can't think of too many good Norwegian Deathmetalbands, so how is the Deathmetalscene in Norway? Which bands are good?

- Firstly, I don't think Sweden is a Deathmetalcountryand the most of the bands there are just shit. Many of them are "into" Deathmetal right now 'cos every one else is. I don't like the scene in Scandinavia at all. It's true there are not many of the Norwegian bands but to say some that I find OK - DARKTHRONE, VALHALL, ISENGARD, AMPUTATION, and CADAVER.

Are there plans to release more stuff on DSP (the label which the guys from MAYHEM founded) in the next future?

- It'll be a couple of released MERCILESS editions before any further band on DSP will come along. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to pay for the studio expenses for the bands. The next band will be IMPERATOR from Poland and then MASACRE from Columbia. They are the only ones that are certain yet. IMPERATOR is ready to go in studio now and it'll be 8-10 songs on their LP (depending on if they will use two old songs or not), they've got a new drummer and they now got lyrics in English. We'll let the next release of our band be on DSP also, which probably will be that "De mysteriis dom. sathanas" LP. But when ever that will be I don't know...

How are the sales of "The Awakening", or is it too early to say something about it?

- The first edition of "the awakening" sold out as fast as we could manage to pack the records. Of an edition of 1000 copies it's hard to be fair to everybody by who shall have the record when the orders are more than what we have records to send out....

Karlen from MERCILESS told me of a tour with MAYHEM, so is it merely a wish, or will something like this happen?

- I don't know about actually a tour, but we thought of having some gigs around somewhere in Scandinavia.. I just can say we hope a such thing will be. A guy told us for a long time ago he wanted us down to Portugal to play there and that he will pay in advance for that trip expenses. We think of that when it'll be we'll bring also MERCILESS there, but when that thing can be done I just don't have an idea of.

When I listen to "Deathcrush", I hear that the guitarsound has not much bass in it, so is this the way you want th guitar to sound or just how it came out in the studio, or are my ears cheating me?

- I guess you're right about th sound might be lighter than ordinary. But in fact it is down-tuned but with a bad speaker, the distortion makes it that way. I don't play guitar by myself and once again I'm not musically talented so I don't know of the particular reason for that sound...

In this interview with F.E.T.U. Euronymous said that in some occasions, he reached up to 50 hits per second...??? Is this really true? It's hard for me to believe it...

- In fact that's not really so fast with 50 hits/second, huh.... with the thought of it's one up and one down. It might sound faster than it is.

Do you think that a distorted bass and doublebassdrums are necessary for Deathmetal?

- Definitely yes and with our sound it fits perfect. As for the distorted bass it makes it possible to tune up the bass, but Necrobutcher doesn't in fact actually play bass, it's like a rhythmguitar played on a bass. And the main reason for having doublebass on the drums is that it ca be to play with the pedaldrums not only doing it faster by them. A bass with no distortion sounds too funky and a single-bassdrumkit is for pop or discobands which I don't give much for!

Compared to Manheim, Hellhammer seems to play much more technical and complicated, so do you think that this drumming style is better for Mayhem?

- You're right about it's more technical on the drums. He may do it too technical sometimes, I think, instead of having aggression and brutality in the sound and I don't think much about techno. Technical playing mostly doesn't give anything at all in the sound, instead it's a risk that the power in it and that the Evil Black sound got wasted by that. Something I HATE by technical styles is when it is to show how good one is at some instruments but it's mostly the guitar players that do that. It ruins only.

Uh, I must come to an end, so instead of another boring "last comment", could you tell which zine you think is the most stupid/shitty one?

- The very worst one ever done that we've seen is the "Shit mag" from Chile that only uses one sentence of each answer of the interviews by all bands, not depending on how long or what the answers are. But it's hard to say exactly what zines are the worst crap when so many of them are... some rite in a totally "impossible" English in both the letters and interviews to us and sometimes not even in English... we really don't know what to do with the 25 or more questions in for example Spanish but mostly their letters are the worst and what do you do with many pages written in Hungarian, Polish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German (from Eastern Europe) or Italian????? All we can do is to write back in English and if there is any possibility for us to translate their letters so we know of what to answer and we of course do that. Otherwise I use to answer in Swedish or Japanese. (Pelle knew Japanese?? Or am I misunderstanding??? - me) It is really weird how zines can exist in the most strangest places... and once we got a letter in pretty good done Swedish from Hungary. It's hard for me to see how it can be a scene (or a kind of) in places like Cuba, GDR, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Israel and Scandinavia. It sounds really strange to us but it is bands and sometimes zines at such places and we try to contact them. But to give a more proper answer on that question but not to put shit, eh, the place of really many shit-zines and also much of rip-offs is Poland. No place is totally free from rip-offs neither only shit-zines existing. But Chile and Greece also got much of that kind but not as much as Poland. What I really hate of rip-offs is when someone buys a demo and then sell it like bootlegs when it's no even cheaper to buy a such one or when they print t-shirts of our band and never even tell us us of that. It's ok when we receive one shirt-each member and then they can sell and print as much as they want to. It's the same with some zines, they either send interviews and after that we never hear from them again or they don't even write us up at all, only copy other stuff from various zines and later we can receive letters from people telling of our reviews or bio in zines we thought those didn't exist... that's the worst zines I think!

Oh my god, this was a pretty long interview, wasn't it? I hope you enjoyed the questions and especially the answers as much as I did, so you can be sure that I'm deeply proud to have that interview in Battery. If you wanna contact the band, you can write to the following address: MAYHEM, Box 75, 1405 Langhus, NORWAY, but please include an IRC or something like that. You can also ask about the label DEATHLIKE SILENCE PRODUCTIONS and the MERCILESS LP which fucking kills - read my review!! OK, that's it and thanx to Dead for such long answers!"

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