I wouldn't really consider Mayhem underground but I don't really consider them mainstream either for example if you go up to a random young adult and ask if they have heard of Mayhem they would likely say no but at the same time you can ask a guy from his 40s or 50 he has probably heard of them. We can consider them mainstream for a select demographic of middle age men and damaged teens that are metalheads (holy shit I'm in the demographic!) Euronymous would hate the demographic mayhem has gotten in recent years if he was still alive but I think he would've hated it more if Mayhem went mainstream but dead people can't be picky now can they?
Before I get into the details of this blog let me clear this up
⬇️This Is Euronymous.
⬆️This isn't. This is Rory Culkin HUGE difference
Also, a little disclaimer one of my main sources is Lords of Chaos. Lords of Chaos was written on rumors, lies, and truths and I will comment if I think these things are true or not but I'm not the all-seeing all know eye of the world. If you don't agree with my opinions or think I'm wrong I don't care, but if you have CREDITABLE sources that say something different than I put here let me know!
Øystein Aarseth
Background Information
Born March 22, 1968, in Surnadal Municipality, Norway
This town was very tiny in the 70s which is around when Øystein was born. The people who lived there by 1970 which is me rounding the year he was born from 1968 was probably 5,934. If we want to look back to 65 it was a population of 1014. As someone who's lived in a “smaller town” for over 8 years and had a big population increase that is still a very tiny town. The only reason I say a big population increase is because it was merged with Asskard so it made the population bigger. Øystein was known for being “rebellious” I mean if you look back now like you and I can from when he was a teen to the short adult life he had it kind of makes sense because he started getting into metal whenever he was a teen like most of us did, yet not like most of us at the chrisp age of around 12 to 15 he joined the Marxism-Leninism in the "Red Youth" section of the Workers' Communist Party which helped to develope his obsession of the Soviet Union and communist Romania (Europeans am I right? Im kidding I love you my European readers <3). His alliance with the red youths did not last long after he realized they were mostly humanists and then labeled himself a fascist. Like you see in the movie Lords of Chaos Øystein was a rebellious and rowdy kid. It shows a scene when he was a teenager with him and Necrobutcher and another kid and Øystein gives Necrobutcher a knife and says to cut the other kid and that's not typical behavior. I wouldn't even say that's metalhead behavior, but I would say that it is somewhat teen behavior because the frontal lobe is not fully developed yet and it doesn't fully understand consequences. So you can guess by this that this kid was pretty rowdy and that not to get Emo but “ people couldn't understand him” Well that's what he probably thought and because he was a teenager and probably because he was a boy the only way he knew how to get attention was probably to shock people so drastically changing his appearance getting the long black hair, wearing all these dark clothes, and wearing the corpse paint got him the attention he craved. 
Allegations
So something said about Øystein Aarseth was that he was gay, that he owned kidde adult films, that he owned a silicone replica of male genitals with nails or something in it, and that he also owned snuff films which I believe two out of four of these things I believe he probably did own kidde adult films and I do believe he owned snuff films, but not for the reason he enjoyed them. I believe he had them for the shock factor whenever people came to his house. Don't get me wrong Øystein and the rest of Mayhem made some good music I own a CD, Record, and VHS of their music but I do believe that Øystein was a poser. I believe he did everything for the shock factor more than for black metal. But I also believe a lot of bands we don't want to believe do this do it for the shock factor and the money more than for the actual band/music culture itself, but hey good for them.
Mayhem's Glory
Mayhem was Co-Founded in 1986 with Oystein, Jorn, and Kjetil. They named the band after the Venom song Mayhem with Mercy (Venom is a really good band check them out if you haven't already). The original players were Euronymous the Gutairist, alongside Necrobutcher the bass player, and Manheim the drummer and Pianist. Which was Oystein, Jorn, and Kjetil in that order. They released Pure Fu*king Armageddon. Shortly after that Messiah joined and left then Manic joined Mayhem as a vocalist. Then they released Deathcrush in 1987 with both Vocalist on the album. 2 years later in 1988 Manheim and Manic quit and got swapped with Toben and Kittil then shortly after got switched to Hellhammer and Dead. Which stayed the same and they recorded 7 albums that were released from 1990 to 2019 most of them being their live concerts around Europe until 1991. April 8th Dead committed suicide. After that Necrobutcher left because of how Euronymous treated the situation. then briefly Occultus joined as both bass and vocals. then in 1993, Attila came in for vocals and Count Grishnackh came in for bass. They recorded De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas which had material written by Ohlin (Dead) and Jorn. Before it was released on August 10th, 1993 Euronymous was stabbed 23 times to death by bass player Count Grishnackh. they became inactive till 1995.
Mayhem was Co-Founded in 1986 with Oystein, Jorn, and Kjetil. They named the band after the Venom song Mayhem with Mercy (Venom is a really good band check them out if you haven't already). The original players were Euronymous the Gutairist, alongside Necrobutcher the bass player, and Manheim the drummer and Pianist. Which was Oystein, Jorn, and Kjetil in that order. They released Pure Fu*king Armageddon. Shortly after that Messiah joined and left then Manic joined Mayhem as a vocalist. Then they released Deathcrush in 1987 with both Vocalist on the album. 2 years later in 1988 Manheim and Manic quit and got swapped with Toben and Kittil then shortly after got switched to Hellhammer and Dead. Which stayed the same and they recorded 7 albums that were released from 1990 to 2019 most of them being their live concerts around Europe until 1991. April 8th Dead committed suicide. After that Necrobutcher left because of how Euronymous treated the situation. then briefly Occultus joined as both bass and vocals. then in 1993, Attila came in for vocals and Count Grishnackh came in for bass. They recorded De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas which had material written by Ohlin (Dead) and Jorn. Before it was released on August 10th, 1993 Euronymous was stabbed 23 times to death by bass player Count Grishnackh. they became inactive till 1995.
Euronymous
Euronymous was Oystein's stage name. The name is after the demon with the description of a blue-black skinned corpse eater, was originally from the mythology of the ancient Greeks but was demonized under Christian influence into the demon of cannibalism. He was said to be a member of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Fly and was ranked as a prince of death. Before he was known as Euronymous he was known as Destructor for a short while. Euronymous was the gutairist for Mayhem from 1986 to 1991. Mayhem was founded in 1986. Euronymous wanted Mayhem to be very satanic because that was what black metal was "Black metal is Satanic" Euronymous says in an interview. He also said not many people know what Black metal is. They confuse it with other metal bands. Euronymous also was very heavily against Christianity. He finds "These born-again Christians going around being nice to the whole world. that's extremely annoying." (I found this quote very amusing) This brought many people to believe the Euronymous likely encouraged Varg to burn down the many sacred churches that he did. Euronymous was a leader for the Black metal movment along side Ozzy Ozborn when he was in Black Sabbath, King Dimond, and Cronos in Venom. He had much influnce within the movment he could be linked to many crimes just because of his influnce. He had enough influnce and power he felt he was strong enough to say "I crushed a bottle in the head of a guy which was shaking a lady that was together with me. When his pal came against me it blackened. I don't remember it, but I drove the crushed bottle right in his face." in a interview without repercussions. I belive Eurnymous was a poser though. I dont believe that story is true. I believe most things said about him or what hes said are not true.
Helvete/Neseblod Records
Oystein opened his record store Helvete because "it is exactly the kind of shop I should like to buy records myself" and because it could be the "Headquarters" for the black circle which was most likely where they planned their crimes such as Assult, Murder, and Arson. Helvete was opened to only sell Black metal music and to probably sell his record label's records such as Count Grishnackhs music under the name Burzum and Mayhems music. Ironically enough recently around April 10th, 2024, the record store basement got caught on fire like the churches that were planned to get burned down within the basement of the store.
Deathlike Silence Productions
Oystein's Death
Oystein died at the young age of 25 at the hands of Varg also known as Count Grishnackhs. Because supposedly Oystein said things such as "Varg really has to die" and Varg says Oystein said that he was going to knock out Varg with a Taser gun like security guards have, take him out to the woods, torture him to death, and make a snuff film out of it. Do I believe that's true? No. Euronymous was probably a coward and a poser he wouldn't do his own dirty work. Varg says he took it serous because he wasn't public with that idea. Yet people knew? There is something wrong there but Varg said he did tell a select group of people and one of them told him. Because Buzum is under Deathlike Silence Oysteins label he had contact with Varg and sent him a contract for something with Vargs music Oystein wanted him to sign it in person so Varg thought that's how he was going to kill him so once he got it he immediately headed with Blackthrone a Mayhem gutairist to Oslo where Oystein lived. once he got there it was 3am or 4am so naturally Oystein was sleeping and woke up to Varg buzzing him to let him in. Once he got there Varg said the following happened He opened the door frightened at Varg's aggression and kicked him in the chest then Varg threw Oystein to the ground stunned not thinking Oystein would attack him like that after a couple seconds Oystein got up to go to the kitchen to get a knife and "luckily" for varg he had a small pocket knife on him and thought if Oystein has a knife he will too. But before Oystein could grab his knife Varg stopped him by blocking the path to the kitchen. After being blocked from the kitchen Oystein ran to the bedroom where supposably he kept the shotgun Ohlin shot himself with was held as well as the supposed taser pistol which was confirmed not to be there at a later date. But Varg did believe he had them at the time so he followed Oystein but instead of going into his bedroom, Oystein tried to exit the building. As he was on the stairs Varg followed him and stopped him and Blackthrone was there as well. Oystein apparently broke a lamp and was on the floor "swimming" in the glass shards in only undergarments which poked into him making it a very bloody scene. After Darkthrone saw this scene and ran off with Vargs car keys as Varg was covered in blood supposably Oystein got up again to attack him and Varg "finished him Oystein off" by stabbing him in the skull. I do not believe that is the true story. but if I could get on a call with him I would love to talk to him about this story or even better if I could get on a call with Necrobutcher and ask him about his plans to kill Oystein. I guess Oystein just had bad blood with Bass.
