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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Pelle Ohlin |
| Born | Per Yngve Ohlin (1969-01-16)16 January 1969 Västerhaninge,Stockholm County, Sweden |
| Died | 8 April 1991(1991-04-08) (aged 22) |
| Genres | |
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| Years active | 1988–1991 |
| Formerly of | |
Per Yngve "Pelle"Ohlin (16 January 1969 – 8 April 1991), known professionally asDead, was a Swedish musician and the lead vocalist and lyricist of theNorwegian black metal bandMayhem from 1988 until his death in 1991. Prior to Mayhem, he performed as the vocalist in the Swedishdeath/thrash bandMorbid.Roadrunner Records ranked him No. 48 out of 50 ofThe Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time.[1]
Dead was known for his morbid personality and obsession with death. He hoarded dead birds, wore shirts with funeral announcements printed on them and worecorpse paint—being one of the first in black metal to do so. Acquaintances and peers described Ohlin as difficult to befriend or understand. Already intenselyintroverted anddepressed, Dead's personality and demeanor would only become more withdrawn leading up to his death, a progression marked by such patterns asharming himself offstage among friends and isolating himself for long periods in his bedroom.
Dead died bysuicide in April 1991 at the age of 22.[2] An image of his cadaver was used as the cover for theunofficially released live albumThe Dawn of the Black Hearts (1995).[3][4][5]
Per Yngve Ohlin (sometimes called "Pelle") was born on 16 January 1969 inVästerhaninge,Stockholm County, Sweden, to parents Anita Forsberg and Lars Ohlin, who divorced soon after his birth.[3] As a young child, Ohlin suffered fromsleep apnea.[6] At the age of ten, he sufferedinternal bleeding when hisspleen ruptured after what he claimed was an ice skating accident. However, in the Swedish metal bookBlod eld död (English: "Blood Fire Death"), his brother Anders stated that Dead was frequently bullied in school and one day sustained a ruptured spleen as a direct result of a severe beating by bullies.[7] Because of the injury, Ohlin had to be rushed to a hospital, where he was, for a time, declaredclinically dead. After a few years, the incident resulted in a fascination with death, and later inspired hisstage name.[3][8]
As a teenager, Ohlin developed a taste for heavy metal and rock music, citing bands likeBlack Sabbath,Kiss,Iron Maiden,Judas Priest,AC/DC,Motörhead,Venom,Metallica,Bathory,Sodom andMercyful Fate as his favourites.[9] Despite his love for Bathory, he was very displeased after their change in musical style and consequently referred toQuorthon as "a wimp".[10]
In early 1986, Ohlin founded theSwedish death/thrash metal groupMorbid, with which he recorded ademo tape calledDecember Moon. Disappointed that the band wasn't "going anywhere", he decided to contact members ofMayhem as he was aware the group were in need of a new frontman following vocalistManiac's departure.[11] According to Mayhem bassistJørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud, Dead initially sent the band members a small parcel containing a demo tape, a letter detailing his ideas for the future and acrucifiedmouse.[3][8] Although Necrobutcher lost the package itself, he kept the tape which had Dead's contact details. After getting ahold of him and inviting him to a rehearsal, Dead moved to Norway in early 1988 and became the new official vocalist for Mayhem.[8]
For concerts, Dead went to great lengths to achieve the image and atmosphere he wished. From the beginning of his career, he wore "corpse paint", which involved covering his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, "[i]t wasn't anything to do with the wayKiss andAlice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool".[12] Mayhem drummerJan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg claimed that Dead "was the firstblack metal musician to use corpse paint",[13] although this statement has been proven to be debatable as Mayhem guitaristØystein "Euronymous" Aarseth can be seen wearing corpse paint in live footage as early as 1985. To complete his corpse-like image, Dead would bury his stage clothes and dig them up again to wear on the night of a concert.[3][8] According to Hellhammer: "Before the shows, Dead used to bury his clothes into the ground so that they could start to rot and get that grave scent. He was a corpse on a stage... Once he even asked us to buryhim in the ground — he wanted his skin to become pale."[13]
During one tour with Mayhem, Dead found a deadcrow and kept it in a plastic bag. He often carried it with him and would smell the bird before going onstage, to sing "with the stench of death in his nostrils."[12] He would also collect dead geese and keep them underneath his bed.[3][8]
Dead wouldcut himself while singing onstage. During a gig inJessheim on February 3, 1990, he slashed his arm with a broken bottle.Emperor drummerBård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun claims that Dead had to be taken to hospital after the gig, but arrived too late and so "it was no use to give him stitches".[14][15]
In an interview conducted byMarduk guitarist Morgan Håkansson and published in thefanzineSlayer, Dead explained how he and the rest of Mayhem would expelposeurs at their concerts. Reciting the events of one particular show, he claimed, "Before we began to play there was a crowd of about 300 in there, but in the second song 'Necrolust' we began to throw around those pig heads. Only 50 were left." He and the other members enjoyed this sort of practice; he concluded with, "If someone doesn't like blood and rotten flesh thrown in their face they can FUCK OFF, and that's exactly what they do."[16]
Dead made a brief appearance in the 1986 music video forCandlemass' "Bewitched".[17]
In interviews, fellow musicians often described Dead as odd andintroverted. Hellhammer described Dead as "a very strange personality […] depressed, melancholic and dark."[18] Likewise, Euronymous once said, "I honestly think Dead is mentally insane. Which other way can you describe a guy who does not eat, in order to get starving wounds? Or who has a T-shirt with funeral announcements on it?"[19] Former Mayhem drummerKjetil Manheim later likened Dead's personality to that ofMarvin the Paranoid Android.[8] Some authors have speculated that Dead may have hadCotard's syndrome, a very rare condition that manifests in believing one's body is not that of a living human but instead a corpse.[20]
According to Faust: "[Dead] wasn't a guy you could know very well. I think even the other guys in Mayhem didn't know him very well. He was hard to get close to. I met him two weeks before he died. I'd met him maybe six to eight times, in all. He had lots of weird ideas. I remember Aarseth was talking about him and said he did not have any humor. He did, but it was very obscure. Honestly, I don't think he was enjoying living in this world, which of course resulted in the suicide."[21]Stian "Occultus" Johannsen, who briefly took over as vocalist after Dead's suicide, remarked that Dead did not even possess a normal perception of himself: "He [Dead] didn't see himself as human; he saw himself as a creature from another world. He said he had many visions that his blood has frozen in his veins, that he was dead. That is the reason he took that name. He knew he would die."[22]
According to a longtimepen pal known as "Old Nick", Ohlin disliked technology. He would only ever write letters to himself or others usinglonghand style and would never resort to the use of apersonal computer. Old Nick concluded "technology in general made him [feel] uncomfortable. He just rejected it altogether, finding refuge [instead] in a world made of forests and woodlands."[23] Dead also had an unusual interest withporphyria due to its connection to the mythology ofvampirism.[23] In his letters, Dead expressed a fascination with theoccult, even stating that his great grandmother practicedwhite magic before. Dead stated that for a time, specifically to better understand his near death experience, he had attempted before to perform his own rituals but was ultimately unsuccessful in his practices.[24]
Excuse the blood, but I have slit my wrists and neck. It was the intention that I would die in the woods so that it would take a few days before I was possibly found. I belong in the woods and have always done so. No one will understand the reason for this anyway. To give some semblance of an explanation I'm not a human, this is just a dream and soon I will wake. It was too cold and the blood kept clotting, plus the new knife is too dull. If I don't succeed dying to the knife I will blow all the shit out of my skull. Yet I do not know. I left all my lyrics by "Let the good times roll"—plus the rest of the money. Whoever finds it gets the fucking thing. As a last salutation may I present "Life Eternal". Do whatever you want with it. / Pelle.I didn't come up with this now, but seventeen years ago.[7]
In time, Dead's social situation and his fixation on death caused his mental state to worsen greatly. He would casually cut himself while in the presence of his friends, who would have to subdue him and treat his wounds.[8] Although this upset many of his friends, Euronymous grew fascinated with Dead's suicidal ideologies because he felt extreme negativity fit Mayhem's image—and according to them, he encouraged Dead to kill himself.[8][12] Manheim said: "I don't know if Øystein did it out of pure evil or if he was just fooling around."[8]
By 1991, Dead, Euronymous and Hellhammer were living in a house in the woods nearKråkstad, which was used as a place for the band to rehearse. According to Hellhammer, Dead spent much of his time writing letters and drawing. He "just sat in his room and became more and more depressed."[25] Necrobutcher said that, after living together for a while, Dead and Euronymous "got on each other's nerves a lot."[3] Hellhammer recalls an anecdote where Dead once retreated outside to sleep in the woods because Euronymous was playingsynth music that Dead hated. Euronymous followed and began shooting into the air with a shotgun to further antagonize him.[25]Varg Vikernes ofBurzum claims that Dead once stabbed Euronymous with a knife during an altercation.[26] Vikernes also claims to have sent Mayhemammunition, including shotgun shells, as aChristmas gift, although he claimed those were not the shells Dead used to kill himself, and that he instead saved a "special shell" particularly to be used for his suicide.[2][27]
On 8 April 1991, while left alone in the house,[8] Dead used akitchen knife to slit his wrists and throat and, afterward, shot himself in the forehead with a shotgun.[2] He left a briefsuicide note which started with the line, "Excuse the blood...".[7][3][4][5] His body was found by Euronymous, who had to climb through an open window as the doors were locked and there were no other keys to the house.[2][8][28] Instead of calling the police immediately, Euronymoushitchhiked[29] to a nearby shop to purchase adisposable camera with which he photographed the body; after re-arranging some items for his pictures, he proceeded to call emergency services.[2][8][30]
Dead's suicide caused a rift between Euronymous and some of his friends, who were disgusted by his attitude towards Dead before the suicide, and his behavior about Dead's death afterwards. Necrobutcher ended his friendship with Euronymous and left Mayhem.[8] Manheim later speculated that Euronymous had willfully left Dead alone in the house so that he would have a chance to kill himself.[8] Dead's suicide was said to cause "a change in mentality" in the black metal scene and was the first ina string of infamous events carried out by its members.[8][12]
An obituary in a Swedish newspaper stated that Dead's funeral was held atÖsterhaninge kyrka [sv] on Friday 26 April 1991.[31] He was buried atÖsterhaninge cemetery in Stockholm County.
Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's "evil" image and claimed Dead had killed himself because black metal had become "trendy" and commercialized.[32] Necrobutcher speculated that taking the pictures and forcing others to see them was a way for Euronymous to cope with the shock of seeing his friend's body.[8][12] After Hellhammerdeveloped the photos, Euronymous initially promised to destroy them but ultimately did not. He stored them in an envelope at his record shop and sent one to the owner of Warmaster Records,[8] which resulted in its use as cover art for thebootleg live albumThe Dawn of the Black Hearts (1995). The cover of Mayhem'sLive in Leipzig contains part of Dead's suicide note:Jag är inte en människa. Det här är bara en dröm, och snart vaknar jag. (Roughly translated:I am not a human being. This is just a dream, and soon I will wake.)[citation needed] Necrobutcher was deeply disturbed by Euronymous' actions and behavior following Dead's death, and is quoted saying "I might punch you in the face if you wear [the photo of Dead's corpse] on a T-shirt."[33]
In time, rumors spread that Euronymous had made astew with bits of Dead's brain and had madenecklaces with bits of his skull.[8][34] The band later denied the former rumor, but confirmed that the latter was true.[34] Moreover, Euronymous claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy,[35] which was confirmed by several other members of the scene, like Faust,[36] Håkansson[37] andMetalion.[38]
Necrobutcher noted that "people became more aware of the black metal scene after Dead had shot himself ... I think it was Dead's suicide that really changed the scene".[39]
Ohlin contributed vocals to all of the following:
As a part of Morbid
As a part of Mayhem
Split albums
[F]uture Mayhem singer Dead makes a cameo appearance as one of the headbanging gumbies in the [Bewitched] vid.
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