Black metal is messy. It’s loud, it’s often intentionally ugly, and in the case of the Norwegian scene in the early nineties, it was genuinely dangerous. If you’ve spent any time digging into the history of Mayhem, you’ve definitely seen it. Or at least, you’ve heard people whisper about it. I’m talking about Dawn of the Black Heart.
It’s not even an official album.
That’s the thing most people miss right out of the gate. This isn’t something the band put together in a studio with a marketing plan. It’s a bootleg. A live recording from a 1990 show in Sarpsborg. But the music—which is raw, screeching, and honestly pretty lo-fi—isn't why this record became a morbid holy grail for collectors. It’s the cover. It’s that photo of Per "Dead" Ohlin.
The Story Behind the Photo
Let's get the grim stuff out of the way because you can't talk about Dawn of the Black Heart without addressing the "suicide cover." On April 8, 1991, Dead took his own life in a house shared by the band. When his bandmate Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) found him, he didn't immediately call the police. Instead, he went to a nearby shop, bought a disposable camera, and took photos of the scene.
One of those photos eventually became the cover of this bootleg.
Euronymous claimed he did it to "preserve the reality" of the scene, but the move was widely seen as a calculated attempt to cement the band's "evil" reputation. It worked. But it also fractured the scene. Bassist Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) was so disgusted by Euronymous’s actions that he left the band shortly after.
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Honestly, the whole situation was a pressure cooker of mental health struggles and teenage edgelord behavior taken to a lethal extreme. Dead was a guy who clearly needed help—he used to carry a dead crow in a bag just to smell "the scent of death" before going on stage. He was obsessed with the afterlife. Seeing that obsession used as a marketing tool by his "friend" is the darkest part of this entire story.
Why This Bootleg Actually Sounds Like Chaos
If you're expecting the polished production of modern metal, you're going to be disappointed. The Sarpsborg show on Dawn of the Black Heart sounds like it was recorded through a tin can in the back of a cave. But for purists? That’s the appeal.
It captures the definitive Mayhem lineup:
- Dead on vocals (his voice is a haunting, shredded rasp)
- Euronymous on guitar (shrill, buzzing, and iconic)
- Necrobutcher on bass
- Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) on drums
You hear the sheer aggression of tracks like "Freezing Moon" and "Funeral Fog." These songs would eventually be recorded for the masterpiece De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, but the versions on this bootleg are different. They’re feral. There’s a specific energy in Dead’s performance that Attila Csihar—as great as he is—didn't quite replicate. Dead lived these lyrics. When he sings about being "drawn into the circle of death," it isn't theater. It's a diary entry.
The bootleg was first released in 1995 by Mauricio "Bull Metal" Montoya, who ran Warmaster Records in Colombia. He was a pen pal of Euronymous. It’s a weirdly international connection for a scene that felt so isolated in the snowy suburbs of Oslo.
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Misconceptions and the Collectors Market
People think this is an official Mayhem release. It isn't. The band (the current iteration led by Necrobutcher and Hellhammer) doesn't see a dime from the original pressings. In fact, they’ve spent years trying to move away from the "corpse-paint and crime" era to focus on being a legitimate, high-functioning avant-garde metal act.
Then there’s the value. If you find an original 1995 vinyl pressing on Warmaster Records, you’re looking at a four-figure price tag. It’s one of the most expensive pieces of metal memorabilia on the planet. Most of what you see on eBay or Discogs are "bootlegs of a bootleg." These are cheap re-pressings with slightly different colors or extra live tracks from shows in Lillehammer or Zeitz.
The Tracklist (Sarpsborg 1990)
Basically, the core of the record consists of eight songs.
- Deathcrush
- Necrolust
- Funeral Fog
- Freezing Moon
- Carnage
- Buried by Time and Dust
- Chainsaw Gutsfuck
- Pure Fucking Armageddon
Some versions add the 1986 Pure Fucking Armageddon demo or tracks from a show in Eiskeller. It varies wildly depending on who was at the printing press that day.
Is It Even "Good"?
This is the internal debate every metalhead has. Musically, it’s a vital historical document. It’s the only high-profile recording that shows what the Dead-era Mayhem was capable of live. It’s fast, it’s terrifying, and it’s influential. Every "raw black metal" band today is trying to catch the lightning—or the static—found on this record.
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But ethically? It’s a nightmare. You’re looking at a photo of a deceased 22-year-old who was in the middle of a mental health crisis. There’s a reason most mainstream streaming platforms won't host the original cover art. It crosses a line from "extreme art" into "exploitation."
When you listen to Dawn of the Black Heart, you aren't just listening to music; you're eavesdropping on a tragedy.
The Legacy in 2026
We're decades removed from the church burnings and the inner circle drama. Mayhem is still touring. They’ve played the biggest festivals in the world. They even have a movie about them (Lords of Chaos), though the band members have mixed feelings about how accurate it is (spoiler: not very).
The infamy of this bootleg hasn't faded. It’s actually grown. In a digital world where everything is sanitized, the raw, unfiltered horror of this record acts as a magnet for people bored with the mainstream. It represents a time when music felt like it had actual consequences, even if those consequences were devastating.
If you’re looking to understand the "Second Wave of Black Metal," you can’t skip this. You just have to decide if you’re okay with the baggage that comes with it.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
- Listen to the music, skip the cover: If you want the audio experience without the morbid imagery, look for the Live in Sarpsborg official release. It uses a photo of the band on stage instead.
- Read 'The Death Archives': Necrobutcher wrote a book that covers this era with actual photos he took (the non-gruesome ones) and a lot more context on the band's dynamics.
- Check the pressing: If you're a vinyl collector, look for the "Warmaster" logo. If it’s not there, it’s a later pirate copy. Don’t overpay for a 2010s reprint thinking it’s the 1995 original.
- Context is everything: Research the Norwegian black metal scene's timeline. It helps to understand that these were kids in their late teens and early twenties, fueled by isolation and an obsession with being the most "extreme" thing on the planet.