Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin (16 January 1969 – 8 April 1991), better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish metal musician who was best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the
Norwegian black metal
Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pil ...
band
Mayhem
Mayhem most commonly refers to:
* Mayhem (crime), a type of crime
Mayhem may also refer to:
People
* Monica Mayhem (born 1978), Australian pornographic actress
* Jason "Mayhem" Miller, American mixed martial arts fighter
* Mayhem Miller (dr ...
from 1988 until his death in 1991. Prior to Mayhem, he also performed as vocalist in the
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
/
thrash
Thrash may refer to:
*Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work
*Thrash (surname)
* Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers
*'' Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video gam ...
band
Morbid. Dead was a popular figure of the Norwegian black metal scene, and his legacy persists in the genre to this day.
Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City.
History
The label was launched in 1980 in ...
ranked him No. 48 out of 50 of ''The Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time''.
Dead was known for his morbid personality and obsession with death. He hoarded dead birds, wore shirts with funeral announcements printed on them, and wore
corpse paint
Corpse paint is a style of black and white makeup used mainly by black metal bands for concerts and band photos. The makeup is used to make the musicians appear inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic, and is perhaps "the most identifiable aspect of th ...
—being one of the first in black metal to do so. Acquaintances and peers described Ohlin as difficult to befriend or understand. Already intensely
introvert
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
ed and
depressed, Dead's personality and demeanor would only become more withdrawn leading up to his death, a progression marked by such patterns as harming himself offstage among friends and isolating himself for long periods in his bedroom.
Dead committed
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...
in April 1991 at the age of 22.
An image of his dead body was used as the cover of the bootleg live album ''
The Dawn of the Black Hearts''.
His death marked a turning point in the history of the Norwegian black metal scene, leading to a wave of erratic behavior by the scene's members.
Early life
Per Ohlin (sometimes called "Pelle") was born in 1969 in
Västerhaninge
Västerhaninge () is a locality situated in Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It had 15,134 inhabitants in 2010. It is connected to Stockholm by commuter rail.
Västerhaninge borders the large Hanveden forest to the north, the Jord ...
, Sweden to parents Anita Forsberg and Lars Ohlin, who divorced soon after his birth.
As a young child, he suffered from
sleep apnea
Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder in which pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep occur more often than normal. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many tim ...
.
At the age of ten, he suffered
internal bleeding
Internal bleeding (also called internal hemorrhage) is a loss of blood from a blood vessel that collects inside the body. Internal bleeding is usually not visible from the outside. It is a serious medical emergency but the extent of severity dep ...
when his
spleen
The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes . ruptured after what he claimed was an ice skating accident. However, in the Swedish metal book ''Blod eld död'' (English: "''Blood Fire Death''"), his brother Anders Ohlin stated in an exclusive interview that Dead was frequently bullied in school and one day sustained a
ruptured spleen as a direct result of a severe beating by bullies.
Because of the injury, he had to be rushed to a hospital, where he was, for a time, declared
clinically dead
Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a conditio ...
. After a few years, the incident resulted in a fascination with death, and later inspired his stage name.
As a teenager, he developed a taste for heavy metal and rock music, citing bands like Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped def ...
, Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...
, Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...
, AC/DC
AC/DC (stylised as ACÏŸDC) are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, but the band calls it ...
, Motörhead
Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a prec ...
, Venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a st ...
, Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
, Bathory, Sodom
Sodom may refer to:
Places Historic
* Sodom and Gomorrah, cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis
United States
* Sodom, Kentucky, a ghost town
* Sodom, New York, a hamlet
* Sodom, Ohio, an unincorporated community
* Sodom, West Virginia, ...
, and Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate is a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen, formed in 1981 by vocalist King Diamond and guitarist Hank Shermann. Influenced by progressive rock and hard rock, and with lyrics dealing with Satan and the occult, Mercyful Fat ...
as his favorites. Despite his love for Bathory, he was very displeased after their change in musical style, and consequently referred to Quorthon
Thomas Börje Forsberg (17 February 1966 – 3 June 2004),Date stated in the death notice for Ace Börje Forsberg that his family put in the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 23 June 2004, the death notice also included the lyrics to the Batho ...
as "a wimp".
Career
Morbid and Mayhem
In early 1986, he founded the Swedish thrash/death metal group Morbid, with which he recorded a demo tape called '' December Moon''. Disappointed that the band wasn't "going anywhere", he decided to contact members of Mayhem
Mayhem most commonly refers to:
* Mayhem (crime), a type of crime
Mayhem may also refer to:
People
* Monica Mayhem (born 1978), Australian pornographic actress
* Jason "Mayhem" Miller, American mixed martial arts fighter
* Mayhem Miller (dr ...
as he was aware the group were in need of a new frontman following vocalist Maniac
Maniac (from Greek μανιακός, ''maniakos'') is a pejorative for an individual who experiences the mood known as mania. In common usage, it is also an insult for someone involved in reckless behavior.
Maniac may also refer to:
Film
* '' ...
's departure. According to Mayhem bassist Jørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud, Dead initially sent the band members a small parcel containing a demo tape, a letter detailing his ideas for the future, and a crucified
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
. Although Necrobutcher lost the package itself, he kept the tape which had Dead's contact details. At that point, Dead moved to Norway in early 1988 and became the new official vocalist for Mayhem.[
]
Performances
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
Corpse paint is a style of black and white makeup used mainly by black metal bands for concerts and band photos. The makeup is used to make the musicians appear inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic, and is perhaps "the most identifiable aspect of th ...
", which involved covering his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, " wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
and Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guilloti ...
used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool". Hellhammer claimed that Dead "was the first black metal musician to use corpse paint", although this statement has been proven to be debatable as Euronymous 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.[ 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
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
and kept it in a plastic bag. He often carried it about with him and would smell the bird before going onstage, to sing "with the stench of death in his nostrils."[ He would also collect dead geese, and keep them underneath his bed.][
Dead would cut himself while singing onstage. During a gig in ]Jessheim
Jessheim is a town in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway.
History
The railway station with the Jessheim station was built in 1854 as part of the Hovedbanen line from Oslo to Eidsvoll.
The railroad had at the initial construction o ...
on February 3, 1990, he slashed his arm with a broken bottle. Faust 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".
In an interview conducted by Marduk
Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...
guitarist Morgan HÃ¥kansson, and published in the fanzine
A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
''Slayer'', Dead explained how he and the rest of Mayhem would expel poseur
A poseur is someone who poses for effect, or behaves affectedly, who affects a particular attitude, character or manner to impress others, or who pretends to belong to a particular group. s 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."
Dead also made a brief appearance in the 1986 music video for Candlemass' "Bewitched".
Personality
In interviews, fellow musicians often described Dead as odd and introverted
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
. Mayhem drummer Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg described Dead as "a very strange personality €¦depressed, melancholic, and dark". Likewise, Mayhem guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth 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?" Former Mayhem drummer Kjetil Manheim later likened Dead's personality to that of Marvin the Paranoid Android
Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship ''Heart of Gold''. Originally built as one of many failed prototypes of Sir ...
.[ Some authors have speculated that Dead may have had ]Cotard delusion
Cotard's syndrome, also known as Cotard's delusion or walking corpse syndrome, is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or intern ...
, a very rare condition that manifests in believing one's body is not that of a living human but instead a corpse; this theory is supported by a variety of statements from Dead on the subject of his blood and body.
According to Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
drummer BÃ¥rd "Faust" Eithun:
eadwasn'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.
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 eaddidn'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.
According to a longtime pen pal
Pen pals (or penpals, pen-pals, penfriends or pen friends) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of le ...
of Ohlin known as "Old Nick", Ohlin disliked technology. He would only ever write letters to himself or others using