Black Hearts
A bootleg live album infamous for its photograph of vocalist Dead after his suicide.
The Dawn of the Black Hearts (subtitled Live in Sarpsborg, Norway 28/2, 1990) is a bootleg live album by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. Despite being a bootleg, the album is sometimes listed as one of the band's most important albums, mainly due to the notoriety regarding the original cover art, which is an image of the late Mayhem vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin shortly after he committed suicide. It has been called "arguably the most controversial album cover in extreme metal history."
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Mayhem
- Released
- February 17, 1995
- Recorded
- 28 February 1990 in Sarpsborg, Norway
- Genre
- Black metal
- Length
- 37:57
- Label
- Warmaster Records
Lore & Background
The bootleg is a recording of a live show that took place on 28 February 1990 in Sarpsborg, Norway. Metalion, an early figure in the scene who helped to organise this show, claimed that there were around 300 people in attendance and the members of Darkthrone and Immortal were present as well. The title originates from a line of lyrics Fenriz of Darkthrone wrote for the band. The album is infamous and controversial for bearing a photograph of vocalist Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin), shortly after his suicide on 8 April 1991. The photograph was taken by guitarist Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), shortly after he entered the house the band shared and discovered the body. Bull Metal, a penpal of Euronymous and owner of Warmaster Records, was sent a copy of one of the photos Euronymous had taken of Dead's corpse which ended up becoming the cover image. Euronymous had taken additional pictures of Dead's body in different positions (one of them with Dead "sitting half up, with the shotgun on his knee" not used as cover), but these photos were found and destroyed by Euronymous's father after he was murdered in 1993, which was two years before The Dawn of the Black Hearts was released.
Reader's Guide
The original track listing features songs recorded in 1990 with Dead as vocalist and Hellhammer as drummer. Extra songs included on many reissues were recorded in 1985 with Messiah as vocalist and Manheim as drummer. The lineup on the original release consists of Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin) on vocals, Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) on guitar, Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud) on bass, and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) on drums. The re-release bonus tracks lineup features Messiah (Eirik Nordheim) on vocals, Euronymous on guitar, Necrobutcher on bass, and Manheim (Kjetil Manheim) on drums. The album is listed on discogs.com and on the official Mayhem website.
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