Kjetil Esten Haraldsson Manheim might not be a name immediately recognizable to you in its base form, but the surname resonates for long-standing fans and followers of the Norwegian black metal underground. Known as 'Mannheim' in the formative years of Mayhem, Kjetil was the drumming talent on the Pure Fucking Armageddon demo and the Deathcrush EP, seeing firsthand the formative years of both his own band and the burgeoning black metal movement that left as much controversy in its wake as it did tremendous music. Kjetil agreed to talk to Metal Psalter about the early days and what he's been up to since leaving Mayhem so many years ago.

Chris: Hello Kjetil! Thanks a lot for talking with us, my friend. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 25-years since Deathcrush was released. Did you think recording the EP back then that it would be the legendary recording it has become? It has set the standard for what was to become the current black metal wave.

Kjetil: Hi Chris, I guess we couldn’t know back then what we know today. But it’s great that it has made a difference for many people. What we did know, however, was that we had something special we needed to finish and publish. I’m glad we did.

Chris: Can I get some background on you, Kjetil? How long have you been playing drums? What influences did you have growing up, and how did you meet the rest of the guys in the band? Were you all childhood friends, and what made you decide to start Mayhem?

Kjetil: Lots of questions in that one. I’ve played drums since I was a kid at 9 or 10 in the school’s brass band. Influences at that time were different rock bands, but I didn’t find the main stream music interesting. It was metal, progressive music and synth that caught my attention. Even more so, as we moved towards the teenage years. Jørn and I were in the same class at the children’s school and we started playing together in a band. After a time we had kicked everyone out, and stood alone looking for a singer and a guitarist. That’s when we met Øystein, and what later became Mayhem started.

Chris: Any true Mayhem fan knows well the history of the band’s progression, but may I pick your brain as to what it was like recording with Mayhem from Pure Fucking Armageddon into Deathcrush? Was there a particular sound that Mayhem was going for since the typical ‘black metal’ style had yet to seep into the music?

Kjetil: We were constantly looking for a particular sound. That was the project: to find the right composition, expression and soundscape. The time you refer to was fun, but it was a lot of rehearsal and small steps and adjustments. I think of the years as some of the best in my life, but I guess that is how it should be.

Chris: I’ve seen some people credit Snorre with really introducing that speedy tremolo picking that Aarseth made famous, yet I’m fairly certain that early fragments of that style were already evident in Deathcrush, particularly in “Necrolust”. How long did it take to record the EP and were there any unreleased songs left off of it that I’ve heard rumors about over the years? 

Kjetil: Well, I have to agree with you, but I’m not that interested in who invented what. The recording was pretty fast - we had rehearsed the material so many times, so it was basically not much that was decided and changed in the studio. There are no unreleased songs from the studio recordings, but there were a lot of song material left to be worked on. And some of the material ended up in the next record. 

Chris: I’ll be honest, when I first heard Deathcrush back in about 1990 (we always got things late here in the U.S., as usual) I wasn’t exactly impressed at first. It took a few months for the EP to grow on me, and when it did I found it to be primitive, yet strong and unlike anything I had heard at that point. I still feel that way today and understand why it’s so revered, even more so than De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. Do you find yourself listening to it today and wishing some things could have been done differently or do you feel it’s fine as it is?

Kjetil: Oh, I do listen to it from time to time. Lots of things I would do different if I was to record it today. But I wouldn’t do that. It is a creation and recording from its time. Outside that time it doesn’t have the same effect I guess. Your experience of Deathcrush has been told me from others too. I guess there is something that makes that record still stand out.

Chris: I’ve seen the two documentaries about the band, Pure Fucking Mayhem and Once Upon a Time in Norway, and I must say I really liked the latter much more if for nothing else just being better produced and pieced together. However, the segments of interviews with you and Necrobutcher were by far the most interesting as to get a true inside view of the early days without all of the hype or posturing. Can I ask if you’re still friends with the guys in Mayhem today and what do you think of the band as it is now? For that matter, what do you think of the current black metal scene as it is some 20-plus years later? Do you even follow it at all?

Kjetil: I meet Jørn and Billy from time to time, and we are still friends. I have no contact with the others. Can’t say I’m following the current scene, but I do listen in on it. My new passion is noise, and I guess I spend more time on that than with metal. There’s not much innovation happening in the metal scene at the moment, I guess, but there’s plenty of good music production. I’m still waiting for the big ‘wow’ in the metal scene, and I’m confident that it will come one day. Mayhem’s releases are ok, but in my opinion I don’t think they’ve moved so much ground with them.

Chris: In the constant swirl of stories, rumors, flat-out lies and garbage about the events between 1992-93, what I find really illuminating is how you gave Oystein a positive face in Once Upon a Time in Norway. It seems all the press and ‘fans’ want to do is paint him the villain, and while you admit that he may have gotten caught up in his image, so to speak, you manage to give an honest view to who he was outside of Mayhem. At the end of the video you said you feel he’d have gotten into producing music, even outside of metal. Do you think you two would have ever worked together again?  

Kjetil: Most definitely.

Chris: So what has Manheim been up to post-Mayhem? Are you still involved with music at all? How have you been spending the last years away from Mayhem? You’re a family man now, yes?

Kjetil: Oh, I do collaborating concerts from time to time, within the noise genre, together with different musicians. Done a few with Lasse Marhaug, and recently I’ve been playing with the Norwegian noise duo Maranata which I released an album with this winter. I love playing with that band. I haven’t been doing any concerts in the U.S. so far, but who knows? Suddenly there’s someone who wants that kind of aggressive noise on stage over there as well. Hehe.

I’ve also done some work with Big Robot and Conrad Schnitzler, something completely different, but great fun. Last year the collaboration ended up with two album releases.

So I guess I’m a bit into music still. But yes, I am a family man with two lovely daughters I have every second week and believe life is treating me fairly good in that sense.

Chris: If there’s one thing you would like to offer about the early days of Mayhem that maybe the fans and readers might not already know, or even something you might want to set the record on, what would you be willing to share with us?

Kjetil: Ah…that would be a lot of things, better let things be I guess, and save it for the face to face meets that are so much more fun. Hehe

Chris: Kjetil, I thank you once more for speaking with us; it’s been a great pleasure to talk with you and I hope we stay in touch! Would you care to end this with a few words to the fans that will be reading this?

Kjetil: Thank you, Chris. To the readers I guess I should thank them for showing interest in this, so many years after the events. And if I can recommend something aggressive and intense in today’s music scene, I suggest you check out some noise.

Kjetil Esten Haraldsson Manheim

Interviewer: Chris

June 20, 2011

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TO THE TOP

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Drums (1984-1988)
Oslo,  NORWAY
Genre: Black Metal (early) /
Noise (current)

Drums (1984-1988)

Pure Fucking Armageddon
                                             Demo (1986)
Deathrehearsal Demo  (1987)
Deathcrush EP  (1987)
Dawn of the Black Hearts Live
                              (Tracks 9-12) (1995)
The Studio Experience
                                 (Boxed set) (2002)

DISCOGRAPHY (With MAYHEM):

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)