Friday August 10th marked the 14th anniversary of Euronymous death. I remember the news coming via written letters with then tape-traders/pen-pals in the scene I was in touch at the time. I remember in particular a letter written a few months prior of his death, Euronymous had stated in a letter to friend Kyle(who was involved with me at the time in the making of the Diabolical Netherworld comp tape series) that he felt like Count Grishnak was "up to something". That hunch proved correct.
Personally, the event never drove me to choose sides. In my eyes both good and bad came of the event. Euronymous died for his art and his cause by the hands of his creation. Funny, cos as much as Euronymous fought to keep black metal underground and non commercial his death seminally helped catapult it's popularity. Resurrecting thrash, death, black metal to the rather healthy state it is in now. Ah, I said healthy. Mind you I did not say necessarily good. There's no rebellion, nothing to fight against, nothing dangerous about extreme metal anymore. Did it die somehow along with Euronymous? I'm not saying the man was a genius nor a hero of sorts but he did have a vision and a plan. That plan and vision was realized via the first "black metal label" Deathlike Silence Productions. Euronymous would come to sign the likes of Merciless, Burzum, Abruptum, Mayhem, Enslaved, Sigh and had a few more releases up his sleeve as evident in a letter he had typed up to me in the spring of 1993(see below).
Euronymous rest in piece. You wouldn't believe how much the original DSP vinyl is selling on E-Bay my friend. Enough to make you roll over in your grave!
