Mayhem: How We Survived 30 Years In The Business

"It's hard to say whether we thought we'd be around in 30 years. I don't think we thought in those terms,” says Jørn 'Necrobutcher' Stubberud of the illustrious and controversial Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. “I thought for myself that I would probably be 24 years old and then die at that time. So it made it very hard to predict any future beyond five years. But when we started this band we were very enthusiastic about it, and because we were like 16 at the time it was all-consuming, and I would say that it has been a good way to spend the years.”

Speaking in fragments of sentences in a non-native tongue, Necrobutcher seems elusive, almost cagey. It's not hard to see why though, as his band was at the centre of the scene that exploded into global infamy in the early '90s. Yep, Mayhem were the band that made a photo of their singer's suicide scene an album cover. And yes, band members did make necklaces out of chunks of his skull. Then there was their involvement in the church burning scene, and the guitarist, Euronymous, that was stabbed to death by Varg Vikernes. But Necrobutcher's not interested in talking about all of that. In fact, he believes that the band has managed to keep at it for 30 years because he, along with drummer Hellhammer and long-time vocalist Atilla Csihar, have always kept looking at what was ahead of them, instead of focusing on the tawdry details of a lurid past. “It's always been just going ahead. I've never stepped back and thought about anything like, 'Why am I doing this?'”

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