PerYngve Ohlin (January 16, 1969 – April 8, 1991), better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish black metal vocalist best known for his work with Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. He also performed as vocalist of the Swedish death metal band Morbid on their demo December Moon.
Personality
In interviews, fellow musicians often described Ohlin as a strange and introverted person. Fellow band member Hellhammer described Ohlin as “a very strange personality … depressed, melancholic, and dark.” Likewise, Mayhem guitarist Euronymous once stated “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?
According to Emperor drummer Bård “Faust” Eithun:
“He (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 humour. He did, but it was very obscure. Honestly, I don’t think he was enjoying living in this world.”
Performances
For concerts, Ohlin went to great lengths to achieve the image and atmosphere he desired. From the beginning of his career he was known to wear “corpse paint”, which involved covering his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, “It wasn’t anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn’t do it to look cool.” Additionally, Hellhammer claimed that Ohlin “was the first black metal musician to use corpse paint.”
In order to complete his corpse-like image, Ohlin would bury his clothes before a concert and dig them up again to wear on the night of the event. 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 bury him in the ground – he wanted his skin to become pale.
During one tour with Mayhem he found a dead crow, which he collected and stored in a plastic bag. He often carried it around with him and would smell the bird before performing, in order to sing “with the stench of death in his nostrils.”
Suicide
At some point in 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to “an old house in the forest” near Oslo called Kråkstad Hellhammer claimed that Ohlin “just sat in his room and became more and more depressed” and that there was a lot of arguing between Ohlin and Aarseth.
On 8 April 1991, Ohlin committed suicide in the house owned by the band. He was found by Aarseth with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. The shotgun was allegedly owned by Aarseth. Ohlin’s suicide note read “Excuse all the blood” and included an apology for firing the weapon indoors. Instead of calling the police, Aarseth went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse, after re-arranging some items. Necrobutcher claimed that “I think Øystein was shocked by Dead’s suicide, and taking the photographs was the only way he could cope with it.” One of these photographs was later used as the cover of a bootleg live album entitled Dawn of the Black Hearts (posted above).
Eventually, rumours surfaced that Aarseth made a stew with pieces of Ohlin’s brain, and made necklaces with fragments of Ohlin’s skull. The band later confirmed that the second rumour was true. Additionally, Aarseth claimed to have given these necklaces to musicians he deemed worthy. 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.”
Discography
Morbid Rehearsal
December Moon
Dawn of the Black Hearts
Live in Leipzig
Freezing Moon/Carnage
Out from the Dark
Dead also makes a brief appearance in the Candlemass music video “Bewitched”.
Sinister Creek 