History YMMV / Mayhem

* NeverLiveItDown: Like with [[Music/{{Burzum}} Varg Vikernes]], 90% of conversations about Mayhem will always be about their second official vocalist overkilling himself, their guitarist using ''a photo of said vocalist's dead body'' for a bootleg cover, and said guitarist being murdered by the aforementioned Varg Vikernes [[IsntItIronic on their debut album]] after a lengthy period of TroubledProduction. This even is a factor for BlackMetal's dark reputation, aside the church burnings.

---> '''''"COME ON! LEIPZING! COME ON! JOIN US!!!!"'''''
** The overall atmosphere of ''De mysteriis dom santhas'', with Attila's cryptic-like vocals, the borderline insanity of Dead's lyrics, and the fact this album features Euronymous and Varg despit the fact Varg ''murdered'' Euronymous and it technically being the last album the band made before it's resurrection by Hellhammer afterwards is...unnerving to say the least.

** Arguments exist on how ''De mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' '''should''' be. Some fans argue the album's fine as it is, however others feel there should have been a version with Dead on vocals ([[DrivenToSuicide despite it being too]] [[AuthorExistenceFailure late to do so]] for the band) or the album should have combined Dead and Attila's vocals ala how Music/{{Gorgoroth}} did with ''Antichrist''.

* NightmareFuel: The "cover art" for the bootleg live album ''Dawn of the Black Hearts'', which is a photograph that ''Euronymous took of Dead's corpse''. [[{{Squick}} If you value your stomach]], [[SchmuckBait don't look it up]].

* TheWoobie: '''Yes. Even for this band.'''. Arguably Dead. He suffered sleep apnea as a child ''and'' internal bleeding, which resulted with his obsession with death and the occult. Old band members that knew him (Fellow band member Hellhammer and Faust of Emperor) stated he didn't seem happy with life and Euronymous just kept adding and add more psychological problems and causing fights with him (at one point, Dead had to sleep ''freaking outside'' because Euronymous was tormenting him), until he finally killed himself. And what did Euronymous do? '''TAKE FRIGGIN' PICTURES OF HIS DEAD BODY'''. Despite his reputation as simply being a depressed, but still decent guy with a morbid fascination with darkness, all Dead is known for these days is his suicide and his bloodied photo on ''Dawn of the Black Hearts''.

* MoralEventHorizon: This is what many of Euronymous' friends and several of his own bandmates (namely Necrobutcher) saw his treatment of Dead as. Even before his suicide, Euronymous bullied him extensively and egged on all of his most troubling behaviors, and quite a few people took great issue with his behavior towards him. The suicide itself firmly cemented this sentiment, as quite a few people felt that Euronymous had engineered it by allowing a person who he knew was suicidal to be alone for an extended period of time in the hopes that he ''would'' kill himself so as to further their image, and Euronymous' attention-grabbing behavior after the suicide only deepened their feelings of disgust towards him.

* TheWoobie: '''Yes. Even for this band.'''. Arguably Dead. He suffered sleep apnea as a child ''and'' internal bleeding, which resulted with his obsession with death and the occult. Old band members that knew him (Fellow band member Hellhammer and Faust of Emperor) stated he didn't seem happy with life and Euronymous just kept adding and add more psychological problems and causing fights with him (at one point, Dead had to sleep ''freaking outside'' because Euronymous was tormenting him), until he finally killed himself. And what did Euronymous do? '''TAKE FRIGGIN' PICTURES OF HIS DEAD BODY'''.
** There ''is'' a bittersweet thing about Dead in that despite his death, fans and old members still consider him a fun guy, just a bit into the dark humor.

----

** Euronymous' status as a Decent Human Being is highly debatable...[[AwesomeMusic his prowess on a six-string is not.]]

* AwesomeMusic: ''De mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' is the most frequently cited contender, obviously. Where you should go after that depends on your musical inclinations. If you want raw, old-school black metal, your best bets are ''Deathcrush'', ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'', and ''Ordo ad chao''. If you want more experimental, avant-garde material, ''Grand Declaration of War'' is probably what you're looking for (although you should check out ''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' in this case as well... and then check out ''Chimera'' and, again, ''Ordo ad chao'').

** Whether Euronymous actually [[BecomingTheMask believed his own hype]] is indeed debatable. But, considering he took pictures of Dead's dead body and '''kept pieces of his broken skull'''...it's safe to say that he was TheSociopath.

* MoralEventHorizon: This is what many of Euronymous' friends and several of his own bandmates (namely Necrobutcher) saw his treatment of Dead as. Even before his suicide, Euronymous bullied him extensively and egged on all of his most troubling behaviors, and quite a few people took great issue with his behavior towards him even before the suicide. The suicide itself firmly cemented this sentiment, as quite a few people felt that Euronymous had engineered it by allowing a person who he knew was suicidal to be alone for an extended period of time in the hopes that he ''would'' kill himself so as to further their image, and Euronymous' attention-grabbing behavior after the suicide only deepened their feelings of disgust towards him.

* 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!'').
** ''Esoteric Warfare'' seems to be this as well. While some do love the change from the Satanic imagery to more different themes such as chaos and war, some found the album boring, and thought the only good thing was the single "Psywar".
*** Ironically, despite its different lyrical content and the music being composed by a ''completely different person'', ''Esoteric Warfare'' is not too dissimilar musically from ''Ordo ad chao''.
** The band itself is this to some people who start getting more into the black metal scene; thus, some people debate whether Mayhem is ''good period'' due to Euronymous basically ''building the band's image'' and being the only reason the band is famous (thus, some regard bands such as Music/{{Darkthrone}}, Music/{{Immortal}}, Music/{{Enslaved}}, or Music/{{Emperor}} as being better black metal acts).

* 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 (Music/CelticFrost and [[Music/KingDiamond Mercyful Fate]], for example), and the actual black metal genre didn't really have a proper definition until Mayhem and co. came along. (It is worth noting, however, that many of the second wave's most important characteristics had already been established by Music/{{Bathory}}, particularly on ''Under the Sign of the Black Mark'').

* TheScrappy: Hellhammer is '''immensely''' disliked by some due to suffering heavy SmallNameBigEgo and literally ''praising'' [[Music/{{Emperor}} Bård Faust]] for "killing that fucking faggot". [[note]]The drummer of Emperor, Bård Faust, was arrested and sent to prison for murdering a homosexual, resulting in a split within the black metal community.[[/note]] Even people who respect his musical abilities tend to acknowledge that he's also a severe {{Jerkass}}.

** Inverted with [[MeaningfulNameDead]]. [[DrivenToSuicide No surprises as to what happened to him]]. The mask became the man.

** Whether Euronymous actually [[BecomingTheMask believed his own hype]] is indeed debatable. But, considering ''he took pictures of Dead's dead body, '''even stealing pieces of his skull...'''''it's safe to say that he was TheSociopath.

*** Ironically, despite its different lyrical content and being the music composed by a ''completely different person'', ''Esoteric Warfare'' is not too dissimilar musically from ''Ordo ad chao''.

* TheScrappy: Hellhammer is '''immensely''' disliked by some due to suffering heavy SmallNameBigEgo and literally ''praising'' [[Music/{{Emperor}} Bård Faust]] for "killing that fucking faggot". [[note]]The drummer of Emperor, Bård Faust, was arrested and sent to prison for murdering a homosexual, resulting in a split within the black metal community.[[/note]]

* SignatureSong: "Freezing Moon," which, along with "[[{{Darkthrone}} Transilvanian Hunger]]", is often considered the signature song ''of all of BlackMetal''. Earlier, their signature song was "Pure Fucking Armageddon."

** Whether Euronymous actually [[BecomingTheMask believed his own hype]] is indeed debatable. But, considering ''he took pictures of Dead's dead body,'' ''''even stealing pieces of his skull...''''it's safe to say that he was TheSociopath.

** Whether Euronymous actually [[BecomingTheMask believed his own hype]] is indeed debatable. But, considering ''he took pictures of Dead's dead body,'' ''''even stealing pieces of his skull...'''''it's safe to say that he was TheSociopath.

* MagnumOpus - Fans consider ''De mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' to be this; it's often regarded as the greatest black metal album of all time.
** ''Deathcrush'', while an EP, is also a frequent contender. Other fans may consider ''Grand Declaration of War'' or ''Ordo ad chao'' to be this, depending on their tastes. ''Grand Declaration'' tends to be well liked by fans of ProgressiveMetal and AvantGardeMetal, while ''Ordo'' seems to be regarded as the point where they managed to strike a good balance between the experimentalism of their earlier post-Euronymous works and the atmosphere of their early material.