Dawn of Mayhem's singer, Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin), after his suicide in April 1991. The photograph was taken by Mayhem's guitarist, Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), when he discovered the body. The album was released in 1995 on vinyl in an edition of 300 copies by Warmaster Records by Mauricio "Bull Metal" Montoya, owner of Warmaster Records Colombia, original drummer of the death metal band ...
An album cover from the 1984 black metal band Mayhem containing the body of Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin aka Dead, from the band Mayhem. The photo was taken by Øystein Aarseth aka Euronymous shortly after he discovered his bandmate's body.
‘The Dawn of the Black Hearts,’ a bootleg live recording of a 1990 Mayhem concert, was published in 1995. Despite being a bootleg, the album is regarded as one of the band’s core releases, largely because of the fame attached to the cover art, which features one of the aforementioned images of Dead taken shortly after his suicide.
The Mayhem band Dead album cover is a permanent scar on the history of music. It serves as a reminder that behind the "cult" status and the "grim" aesthetics, there were real people, real blood, and a real loss of life that didn't need to happen.
It’s the Mayhem album cover for the bootleg The Dawn of the Black Hearts. Honestly, calling it "controversial" feels like a massive understatement. It’s arguably the most extreme artifact in music history because it isn't a prop, a clever bit of makeup, or a staged "shock rock" stunt. It is a real photo of a dead human being.