Mayhem bassist Jørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud recently shed some interesting light on the murder of Mayhem guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth in 1993. According to Stubberud, he was on his way down to kill Aarseth himself, but found out that Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes had beaten him to it.
Now in a new interview with Revolver, Stubberud elaborates on why he wanted to kill Aarseth. Stubberud says it really pissed him off that Aarseth took pictures of vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin after he committed suicide, and that "he's the big fucking asshole, that's who he is. The betrayal — he betrayed his friends and the bad karma in the end came and took him."
But yeah, OK, I'll tell you straight up, I wanted to kill that fucker in the end. He … Imagine that somebody you think is your friend coming home and finding your other friend killed themselves and took pictures of their dead body. Who the fuck in their right mind would do anything like that? Everybody should have the little bit of intelligence to know that, that's gotta be somebody completely stripped from empathy and normal emotions. And really a bad fucking person. But now he's a fucking hero! And it's like, OK, I've always talked good about him, never wanted to talk bad about the dead, but this has gone too far now. I mean, if the guy wasn't killed, he would've gone to jail for many years for lighting up a church in Oslo. He'd be gone. He'd have been sued just like Varg Vikernes for 50 million NOK, so when he would be released from jail, he would never have a job, never own a car, own a flat, own a TV. He would be fucked with a capital F. He's the big hero? No, he's the big fucking asshole, that's who he is. The betrayal — he betrayed his friends and the bad karma in the end came and took him. I never cried a tear for that guy. I was mad as fuck when he died, and what I told that journalist is when I read it in the morning paper, I headed straight home and cleaned my house for all the illegals. I was sure the cops were going to come home to my place next and that I was going to be a suspect. I didn't know that they already knew who did it.
And I'll tell you since we're into this. Norway is a very small country. Varg Vikernes lit up a church, went to jail, they couldn't get evidence, so they had to let him out. Big disappointment for the cops, a loss of prestige. So, they bugged his phone, bugged his apartment, everything. And he was plotting to kill Euronymous on the phone and everything, making an alibi on the phone. But of course, they knew everything! So, I was a little pissed at the cops later on because I'm thinking … they knew what was going on and they didn't even stop it. This is very fucking bad, you know what I mean? The government was in on killing him. So, I never talked about it before, but now I'm thinking, since the government isn't linked up to my ass now, it's starting to get down to earth again. And that's not the smart thing for me to do, to make enemies again now that I've cooled again, but it's in me. I can't help it. Anything that wronged me has to be right.
Stubberud left Mayhem in 1991 after the suicide of Ohlin. At the time of the murder of Aarseth, Vikernes was the bassist of Mayhem.
Mayhem will also release their extremely kickass new album Daemon on November 8.
