Ongoing History Daily: Fun with black metal

If you’re into intense music–and I mean intense–then maybe you need a little Norwegian death metal, specifically a band called Mayhem. Here are some highlights from their history:

(1) In 2003, a fan had his skull fractured at a show when a severed sheep’s head fell off the singer’s butcher knife and hit the fan on the head.

(2) Their original singer–a guy named “Dead”–killed himself in 1991.

And (3) Euronymous, the founder of the band, was murdered by a member of a group called Burzum over some kind of dispute.  I can’t remember if this was at the same time that the bass player killed the guitarist for embarrassing everyone on the death metal scene by daring to wear a white sweater on stage.  And I haven’t even begun to talk about the churches that were burned down. 

Norway! Come for the fjords, stay for the church burnings!