Who was Pelle Ohlin?
This post has been edited as i've received new information and to clarify some points!
Early Life
Per Yngve (Pelle) Ohlin was born on January 16th,1969 in Västerhaninge,Sweden, he was a quiet, introverted child, and most considered his interests weird as he was intrigued by horror, comics and war. His parents split shortly after their third child was born. He is the older brother to 3 younger siblings.
Information on Pelle’s early life has been made known through interviews and statements made by his brother and are available in more detail online.
Throughout Pelle’s early life he also suffered from Sleep Apnea, a condition which causes breathing interruptions in sleep.
One critical point in his childhood has been made aware to the public, when he was 13 years old, he ruptured his spleen which caused internal bleeding, an injury so intense his heart stopped and he lost consciousness for multiple minutes until he was eventually resuscitated by paramedics.
Pelle himself claims this was from an ice skating accident but his brother, Anders, stated in a book, where he revealed that Pelle was severely bullied as a child. After one attack by the bullies so extreme he ruptured his spleen, which led to him being rushed to the hospital.
This incident is what led to Pelle’s fascination and obsession with death and inspired his stage name, Dead.
Teenage Years
As Pelle entered his teenage years, he grew interested in heavy metal and the music scene as a whole, with Venom, Bathory, and Sodom being some of his favorites.
In 1986, when Pelle was 17 years old, he founded the Swedish death metal band Morbid, he recorded the debut demo album named ‘December Moon’ which was released in 1987. Pelle’s feelings towards Morbid were complex, he was passion driven, and had an artistic connect to the band, though with the loss of his guitarist, he decided to move on.
Mayhem
In 1988, the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem needed a new vocalist after their previous one ‘Maniac’ left the band. This led to Pelle being interested and sending Euronymous and Necrobutcher a package, a crucified rat, and a tape with his vocals on it. While they lost the crucified rat, they made sure to save the tape with his contact information. Euronymous was impressed, this was exactly who he wanted as his vocalist.
So, Pelle packed his belongings and moved to his sister country, Norway to join Mayhem as their newest vocalist.
Dead and Euronymous
The Dead Persona
Pelle’s stage name throughout his musical career was ‘Dead’, a nickname chosen by himself due to his intense morbid fascination with death. During his time with Mayhem, he cultivated a persona, around darkness and being corpse-like.
Mayhem as a whole held an image of being a part of the darkness, being anti-christian and satan worshipping. Dead helped drive this image as for him, the lines between his Dead persona and him as a person blurred.
Pelle suffered from depression for a big portion of his life, this was shown with his self harm, him both doing it in private, but as well as on stage. He’d cut himself during performances to put on a show of ‘evil’. It was stated by Emperor’s drummer Faust that after one performance Pelle injured himself so badly he was supposed to go to the hospital afterwards but didn't, leaving Pelle sick with blood loss.
Pelle would bury his stage clothes in the ground so they would develop a grave-like rot smell, so he could further his corpse-like appearance, Pelle wanted to be as similar to a corpse as he could.
To further the look into being corpse-like, Pelle would wear corpse-paint, and he popularized it within their band. The origins of corpse paint are complicated and has mixed interpretations, but Dead did popularize it within the immediate scene and popularized the name of ‘Corpse-Paint’
Photos of Pelle during a recorded video and him wearing corpse paint
He would also self-isolate. This was made easier by the fact some of the members of Mayhem decided to live in a remote house in the woods. He would lock himself in his bedroom, and go days without speaking to anyone.
Necrobutcher would state that the house situation could be tense, Euronymous and Dead often got on each other's nerves, they’d agitate each other. With one situation being stated by Hellhammer that Dead would sleep outside in the woods because Euronymous would blast music that he hated, and that Euronymous would go outside with their shotgun and shoot it into the air.
The Death of Pelle Ohlin
By April 1991, his persona of Dead became intertwined with who he was as a person even off of the stage. He continued to suffer from depression and ultimately on April 8th, 1991, Pelle killed himself in his bedroom while alone in the house. He left a suicide note which started with the line “Excuse the blood…”
Euronymous returned home to find the door locked, and with that he had to get a ladder and climb inside through a window. This led to him finding Pelle’s body. Euronymous then left the house, going to a closeby store to buy a new disposable camera. He returned to the house, and posed Pelle’s body moving the objects around him and the way his body laid. He then took multiple pictures of him. After this, is when he decided to report the suicide.
One of the photos that was taken that day was used as the cover of Mayhem's bootleg live album named “Dawn of the Black Hearts” which was released in 1995.
Pelle Ohlins Legacy
Following Pelle’s untimely death in April 1991, the black metal scene went through many very drastic changes in a very short amount of time. People who knew Euronymous have stated that Pelle’s death, and him finding his body affected him more than he showed, and that it led to him taking the ‘dark’ and ‘evil’ persona to a more personal level, beyond the show it was before.
Emperor’s drummer, Faust once stated "[Dead] wasn't a guy you could know very well. I think even the other guys in Mayhem didn't know him very well. He was hard to get close to….”
Occultus, who took over as Mayhem's vocalist for a short period after Pelle’s passing stated “"He [Dead] didn't see himself as human; he saw himself as a creature from another world. He said he had many visions that his blood has frozen in his veins, that he was dead. That is the reason he took that name. He knew he would die."
Many fans or people who knew who attempted to sensationalize his death, which in the decades following his death, has led to much misinformation and rampant theories we cannot confirm.
Pelle Ohlin's passing was tragic, and should’ve been preventable if he had the proper support system that he needed during his times of struggle. His life was a foundational part of the early Norwegian black metal scene, and his legacy has continued to live on in the 3 decades it has been since his passing, with people still enjoying the music he created, and finding comfort in the person he was.
