Why the Absolute HATE Against Euronymous? (Black Metal)

I understand the man made some pretty edgy comments and tried very hard (too hard) to portray himself as some sort of cringey "dark lord of darkness" or whatever. But can anyone really argue that the music and riffs on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (and even Deathcrush) aren't some of the best of the entire black metal genre (alongside Burzum, Darkthrone, Neraines, Phantom, Warkvlt and others)?

In recent years I've seen an increasing number of people just ripping Euronymous to shreds, calling him a poser (which isn't entirely false, but the problem is these people often forget to mention the man's absolute talent). All the way to people like Necrobutcher (Mayhem) and Samoth (Emperor) openly saying that they wished they had killed Euronymous before Varg (!).

Did something happen that I'm not aware of, or was it always like this even from the start?

There was the little thing where Euronymous messed with Dead's corpse after his suicide. Stuff like that isn't generally well received, particularly by the friends of the deceased. I'm not surprised at all about other musicians turning on Euronymous.

You forgot to mention Fenriz, one of the most prominent Euronymous hater - from day one.

Also the few fans Euronymous had were mostly centered around Jon Nödtveidt in Sweden - aka people who didn't know him personally that well.

Speaking of the devil...

As for the riffs on DMDS they weren't all written by Euronymous. Only three songs - Funeral Fog, Freezing Moon and Buried by Time and Dust - were by Euro alone. The rest were composed in equal parts by Varg Vikernes, Snorre Ruch, Euronymous and Necrobutcher - see Until the Light Takes Us, Lords of Chaos (book not film) and Real Satanic Black Metal for more info.

List of people who allegedly were 'planning to kill Euronymous before Varg':

• Snorre Ruch
• Ivar Bjornson
• Jon 'Metalious' Kristiansen
• Necrobutcher and Hellhammer
• Satyr
• Ihsahn and Samoth
• Antoine Grand
• Fenriz, Nocturno Culto and probably Zephyrous for good measure
• The entire Swedish death metal scene smh
• Osama Bin Laden
• Dead's Ghost
• Tupac Shakur
• The Pope
• Hollywood Hulk Hogan
• Tony Montana
• The Girl from 'The Ring'
• Euronymous himself...

... did I forget someone?

^ you forgot Hanna Montana, Tony's secret daughter xD

well yeah the hate and bias against Oystein/Euro is really something else . but it was always like that even in the 90s . you had mainstream publications like Metalious and Kerrang! openly making fun of him when he died . it's not a new phenomenon by any means . is it unfair and unjust ? probably . but it's not new .

But the music on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is indeed some of the best, and most underrated, of all black metal. Even Varg agreed with that on his website, saying De Mysteriis showed Euronymous "at his very best" or something. Even Varg admits to still listening to De Mysteriis from time to time, and I don't know if that can be said for other black metal albums of the time. Seriously, who listens to Nemesis Divina or Blizzard Beasts in the current year?

Euronymous was known for making death threats against other bands and artists. The guys from Occultus, Marduk, Gorgoroth, Demonecromancy, Morbid all received threats and other messages from Oystein. He was surprisingly candid about his distaste for 'competitors' in the BM scene.

Euronymous was known for making death threats against other bands and artists.

Yeah he saw it as "his" scene. But most Norwegian Black Metal bands either laughed it off, ignored him, or threatened to retaliate, depending on how close they were to Euronymous and how well they knew him personally.

@Nero: That's the godfather of black metal, whether you like it or not.

Admit Euro is your daddy and we won't send angry letters written with a mechanical typewriter.

He was also in conflict with many of the vocalists, not just Dead. He would fire singers for apparently no reason: Messiah, Maniac, and apparently he even got in a feud with Attila.

Other sources say Euronymous was a normal guy until Dead's suicide, which drove him crazy as he tried to "outdo" Varg Vikernes as the face of black metal.

@Abbath: Did you read Real Satanic Black Metal (serious question)? Supposedly, he was constantly provoking Dead (Per Ohlin) by doing weird stuff like throwing out his mattress in the snow and playing loud electronic music while Dead was trying to sleep. He would also brag about 'driving Dead mad' in letters to Paul Watson (UK).

@Metalious: Interesting. I didn't know that. No I haven't read RSBM yet although I'm planning to once I finish my interim next month (I work as a sound engineer). Are you from Norway, btw?

@Abbath: Sweden. But Euronymous' mistreatment of Dead was something well known even in the 1990s. Pretty much every Mayhem member has confirmed it since.

He was a guitar hero legend who left us too soon. Black metal never recovered from this loss (the day Burzum killed Mayhem, IYKYK).

No Nargaroth references here! Save that for DMs.

I guess Euronymous was overall an easy person to hate. He never did anything to make himself likeable to any relatable degree. As for other Norwegian black metallers siding with Varg and Samoth over Euroman it was well known even in 1993.

The simple truth is that towards the end (1993), the band split into two camps: the rhythm section (Hellhammer and Necrobutcher), then the weird section (Pelle and Øystein). Only one camp is alive to tell their side. You have to remember they were all teens at the time, brains not even fully developed... who knows what they truly thought when they were alive? Metalious said himself that everyone was good at hiding their feelings back in the day.

With that said, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is still an elite black metal album on par with the likes of Ascension of Erebos, and it's not really fair, let alone historically accurate, to say X member contributed more than Y. It was a group effort.

Maybe this can help enlighten you: https://heavymetal.substack.com/p/the-cringe-of-euronymous-black-metal ... it shows Euronymous at his 'best'

More seriously, I heard even Euronymous' own family turned on him at the end because he forever associated the Aarseth name with his Ghetto Twilight cosplaying. I think he had a younger brother Nilson or Nilsen who had to change his name because he couldn't even find a job.

@Enslaved: Why doesn't he open a record shop? Also, I love how they cast his sister as basically a hooker in the movie. SHOTS FIRED! And you wonder why the Mayhem people wanted to part in it.

yes, he had one brother. he didn't have a sister like lords of chaos portrayed and his brother wasn't as young as the girl in the movie, he's only two years younger than øystein and he didn't change his name but he moved to germany with his wife. the aarseth family is very private (and who could blame them?) so I don't know a lot as much as I want but here's some little things that I do know for sure:

• nils (øystein's brother) has øystein's guitar and all his equipment as well as some of his paintings
• he moved to germany with his wife (who is german) in 1996/1997 i can't remember
• nils is the one who gave those pictures of baby and teenaged øystein to the true mayhem collection
• the dad (helge) was a rich attorney which is how he was able to fund helvete for øystein and I believe his apartment after that lfmao... I have a picture of whom I'm pretty sure is him as well
• their dad found all of the pictures øystein took of pelle's corpse in a safe and he destroyed them which is why only the DOTBH cover is available
• his mother (inger) was very protective and she kept denying her son was a satanist and blamed everything on varg vikernes
• a norwegian airline had a poll on whose likeness they wanted to commemorate on one of their planes and they settled on øystein but had to choose someone else because helge and the aarseth family threatened to sue the airline
• the aarseth family owns the rights to all of øystein's content which is presumably why you never hear anything being spoken about his childhood or his personal life or home life outside of his black metal career
• one of the childhood photos you see of øystein when you go to look them up is actually not him, it's a random russian boy which somehow got mixed up with øystein's actual childhood photos
• one of nils children (he has two sons i believe) is in an actual black metal band and plays with dead's half brother (not anders who is pelle's biological brother)

that's about as much as I know and I was personally close to the aarseth family for a very long time as you can probably tell. I know more about them than anyone and much more stuff than I can post here

Yeah when Euroman ran for cover to his parents when Varg was sitting in jail was pretty much the breaking point of their relationship. I remember Satyr describing him as "fuming".

one of nils children (he has two sons i believe) is in an actual black metal band and plays with dead's half brother (not anders who is pelle's biological brother)

I always thought Euroman had a twin sister who married some German expat and Grim's actual name was "Schultz-Aarseth" which he just shortened to "Aarseth" for prestige. These double-barrelled surname were quite common in Norway in the day.

I also thought Nils was the SON of Euronymous LOL not too far off the mark :)

no øystein didn't have children at the time of his death. maybe you are confusing with varg vikernes who had a daughter? also since you mentioned nils (I don't know a lot about øystein's other siblings or if they exist at all), I feel like I need to state the one fact that I know about him which is this: he doesn't hate/harbor any resentment for varg vikernes for what happened. at all. and he actually didn't have any contact with øystein (euronymous) or kristansen (metalion) and dislikes them both because he walked into their record store and saw... can't remember which one but it was either a record or a poster of the DOTBH cover in the store which they had both signed and he found it disrespectful. I'm actually planning to ask anders, pelle's brother, whether or not øystein truly went to pelle's funeral like he claims to have done. we know metalion didn't and he always was a serial liar that much was known even back then.

I know some members of the old guard of MAYHEM once played in Minnesota goregrind band. Their lyrics and some songs title are about Dead, Grishnackh and "anti-Euronymous".

For example :

• Euronymous was a pussy
• "Grand Declaration Of War" my ass
• Dead
• Euronymous (Hail Grishnackh)
• "Lamb of god, Sheep of christ, slit your throat, with Grishnackh's knife."

Not sure how much of it is supposedly a joke.

@Pointblank: Well in that regard just look at Warkvlt itself. The band of Euronymous' own nephew, the son of his brother Erik or something, who had to move to Germany.

In 2023 for the 50 year anniversary of Varg they released a "tribute" album Burzumination. It was released on February 11. The birthday of Varg. He was born in 1973.

So of the lyrics and song titles can be seen as a bit "mocking" of Varg like "The Laughing Uruk-Hai on Crank Methrampage". But others are fiercely making fun of Euronymous and the rest of the Norwegian BM scene: "If Only Grishnákh Had a Sharper Messer" and "A Very Old Funeral for Vegárd Doom Occultard".

^ just a little correction. Heinrich Aarseth ('Grim') is the son of Nils, not 'Erik'. To my knowledge there is no 'Erik' Aarseth and Euronymous only had one younger brother. And no sister. These confusions likely come from the 'Lord of Chaos' fiction. Also, that WARKVLT album is hilarious :D