When you say the words “black metal,” only one band comes to mind. Mayhem, with their terrifying live shows, brutal music, and genuinely shocking offstage story, defined the genre when they emerged in the 80s, and made global headlines in the ’90s.
Although Mayem is probably best known for misanthropy and serious criminal acts, their music, particularly from the De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Deathcruth era, stands the test of time. If you want to read about Mayhem’s offstage story, and why the band remains so controversial, there’s no shortage of information online. That is not what we’re looking at here.
In this article, I’ll focus on the key pieces of gear that made Mayhem’s chiling, brutal black metal endure and influence the genre. I’ll focus on the gear Mayhem used in their early years, rather than the decidedly upmarket equipment the band has access to in their current touring lineup.
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Mayhem Guitars
In Norway in the 1980s, expensive guitars were hard to come by. Mayhem, like most of their heavy-metal contemporaries, used inexpensive guitars for years. The modern Mayhem lineup uses more high-end gear, but for the classic Mayhem sound, an inexpensive Les Paul is the way to go.
Euronymous played various Les Pauls over the years, including a Greco Les Paul copy. A Gibson Les Paul Standard might be the Holy Grail for many guitar players, but in my opinion, the full-power Gibson feels too nice for Mayhem.
Accordingly, I’d recommend the Epiphone Les Paul Modern, Les Paul Standard, or Les Paul Studio. All, of course, in black.
Unlike thrash bands across the Atlantic, Mayhem tended to use passive pickups, so the stock pickups in a Les Paul will do the trick just fine. You will need to use humbuckers to handle the level of distortion this music demands without succumbing to feedback and unwelcome squeals.
In the 90s, Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen played ESP Eclipse guitars, and this ESP Eclipse, in black satin, is an excellent example of this kind of music. Morten Bergeton Iversen, former Gorgoroth axeman, currently plays with Mayhem and uses another ESP Eclipse (dubbed the “Black Metal”), equipped with a single Seymour Duncan Black Winter pickup.
In fact, any of ESP’s Black Metal guitars would be excellent for playing Mayhem’s music. If you’re partial to a Superstrat-style guitar with greater upper-fret access than that afforded by a Les Paul-style guitar, the Black Metal strat shape is a terrific option for channeling some black metal tones on a more playable instrument.
Regardless of your choice of guitar, truly nailing the Mayhem sound demands some very particular techniques.
Black Metal Technique
It’s often said that most of Mayhem’s tone came from their cheap distortion pedals and cheaper recording equipment. While that’s true, their major contribution to the sound and atmosphere of black metal comes from the array of techniques developed and deployed by the band in their early years.
Chief among these is the relentless use of rapid tremolo picking. You’ll need to develop your tremolo picking, which is effectively just ultra-fast alternate picking on one string at a time, to get anywhere close to a black metal tone.
Similarly, you’ll want to deploy flattened fifth intervals, also known as the tritone, extensively in your playing. The more atonal and dissonant your music sounds, the better.
You’ll need to mostly play power chords. Forget about complex inversions: this music is about authenticity and brutality, not technical expertise.
Black metal is characterized by a brittle, icy, treble-forward tone. To better achieve this, pick as close to the bridge as possible. Your guitar’s tone will naturally get brighter as you pick near the bridge, or darker as you pick closer to the neck.
Mayhem Amps
As with their guitars, Mayhem didn’t have much choice when it came to amplification in their classic era.
Later, more professional iterations of Mayhem have dabbled in high-powered metal amplifiers from Peavey and ENGL. Teloch, in particular, is partial to the ENGL Powerball.
The classic Mayhem sound, however, came from a 1970s 50-watt Marshall Super Lead. The Marshall’s natural distortion, boosted by pedals, was a definitive characteristic of black metal.
For a modern alternative at an affordable price point (and considerably less weight than carrying around a Marshall stack) I recommend the DSL40C, a Marshall combo amp that offers an excellent impression of the classic Marshall tone.
My other favorite modern Marshall is the Studio Vintage combo, which faithfully recreates the sound and look of the classic Marshall Super Lead.
Either of these high-quality Marshall amps will do a great job of providing a solid foundation for your black metal tone.
If you want something more modern, however, with more gain on tap, the 15-watt EVH 5150 combo is an excellent amplifier. I’d recommend the model in black, to match your guitar and taste in metal.
Mayhem Amp Settings
Mayhem’s amp settings, like the band’s music, are simple and effective. It’s a very trebly, distorted sound.
Volume: 8
This music is meant to be played loud. I saw Mayhem live last year and my ears were ringing for days afterward. Start with your volume at 8.
Bass: 3
You want minimal warmth for this tone. It needs to be as chilly and extreme as a Scandinavian winter.
Mids: 5
You need just enough midrange definition to hear your pick attack, but not much more than that.
Treble: 10
Turn your treble all the way up for playing black metal. This music is supposed to be brittle and icy.
Gain: 10
Turn your distortion up as high as it goes. It can be fizzy, but you want to avoid the sound getting mushy, creamy, or undefined.
Mayhem Pedals
It’s a well-publicized fact now that most of Mayhem’s guitar tone came from their choice of affordable Boss distortion pedals. These were the only distortion pedals available in Scandinavia at the time, so that’s what Mayhem used.
The defining sound of black metal was the Boss HM-2, which has been faithfully recreated in recent years following a resurgence in popularity. This harsh, aggressive pedal was a definitive feature of black metal.
To boost the HM-2, because a pedal named “Heavy Metal” simply wasn’t metal enough for Mayhem, Euronymous used to gain-stack his guitar signal with the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive.
The Super Overdrive does not come in black, but its distinctive yellow chassis can be seen in countless photos of Mayhem’s early, chaotic live gigs. This was a relatively common trick for many bands. Lead guitarists in the thrash scene often used an additional drive to kick their tone into high gear for solos.
In black metal, guitar solos are relatively uncommon. They do occasionally take place, but the music emphasizes atmosphere over technicality. You won’t be using your SD-1 as a solo boost: instead, it’s more or less always on to give your HM-2 more grit and power.
The much-maligned Boss Metal Zone is another pedal that was heavily used by black metal bands, although reports of Mayhem’s use of this pedal vary.
On the track “Freezing Moon,” Euronymous unleashed a cold, atmospheric delay sound. For this, he deployed the Boss digital delay.
When it comes to guitar pedals, that’s about it. Black metal guitarists weren’t touring with huge pedalboards and massive switching options. They tended to lean towards brutally simple operations. Sometimes, they wouldn’t even run their pedals on the floor, instead leaving them engaged on top of their amps throughout the performance.
Critically, how you set your pedals will have a huge effect on your guitar tone. Below, I’ve added the definitive settings for using the Boss HM-2 for black metal.
Boss HM-2 Black Metal Settings
First, be sure to use the HM-2 on top of your amp’s distortion, not over a clean amp.
While there is some debate over the exact settings that sound best when using the Boss HM-2, my recommendation, after much trial and experimentation, is as below.
- Level: 10
- EQ 1: +15
- EQ 2: 5K
- Dist: Max
- Custom switch: off
You can dial back the distortion if you like, but these settings work best for black metal.
You can engage the Custom switch to add some depth and dimension to the sound, but this feels more like the Swedish “chainsaw” distortion used in death metal than the brittle, icy distortion of black metal to me.
Final Word
Mayhem’s bone-chilling guitar sound defined black metal. Modern black metal bands, whether they hail from Norway or elsewhere, turn to Mayhem’s sound as the blueprint (or blackprint) for their own tones.
The good news about this tone is that, unlike some other types of music, you can get very close to the Mayhem sound with simple, affordable gear. The real key to this sound is your choice of notes and techniques and boosting your amp with an appropriate Boss distortion pedal.
From there, it’s a simple matter of donning your face paint, jamming in a basement, and ensuring that your recordings aren’t too high-fidelity.
