Dead (musician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dead
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Per Yngve Ohlin |
| Also known as | Pelle Ohlin |
| Born | 16 January 1969 Västerhaninge, Stockholm County, Sweden |
| Died | 8 April 1991 (aged 22) Kråkstad, Akershus, Norway |
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| Years active | 1986–1991 |
Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin (16 January 1969 – 8 April 1991), better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish musician who was best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem from 1988 until his death in 1991. Before Mayhem, he also performed as the lead vocalist in the Swedish thrash metal band Morbid. Dead was a popular figure of the Norwegian black metal scene, and his legacy persists in the genre to this day. Roadrunner Records ranked him No. 48 out of 50 of The Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time.
Dead was known for his morbid personality and obsession with death. Acquaintances and peers described Ohlin as difficult to befriend or understand. Already intensely introverted and depressed, Dead's personality and demeanor would only become more withdrawn leading up to his death, a progression marked by such patterns as harming himself offstage among friends and isolating himself for long periods in his bedroom.
Dead died in April 1991 at the age of 22.
Early life
Per Yngve Ohlin (sometimes called "Pelle") was born on 16 January 1969 in Västerhaninge, Stockholm County, Sweden, to parents Anita Forsberg and Lars Ohlin, who divorced soon after his birth. As a young child, Ohlin suffered from sleep apnea. At the age of ten, he suffered internal bleeding when his spleen ruptured after what he claimed was an ice skating accident. However, in the Swedish metal book Blod eld död (English: "Blood Fire Death"), his brother Anders stated in an exclusive interview that Dead was frequently bullied in school and one day sustained a ruptured spleen as a direct result of a severe beating by bullies. Because of the injury, Ohlin had to be rushed to a hospital, where he was, for a time, declared clinically dead. After a few years, the incident resulted in a fascination with death, and later inspired his stage name.
As a teenager, Ohlin developed a taste for heavy metal and rock music, citing bands like Black Sabbath, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Motörhead, Venom, Metallica, Bathory, Sodom and Mercyful Fate as his favourites. Despite his love for Bathory, he was very displeased after their change in musical style and consequently referred to Quorthon as "a wimp".
Career
Morbid and Mayhem
In early 1986, Ohlin founded the Swedish death/thrash metal group Morbid, with which he recorded a demo tape called December Moon. Disappointed that the band wasn't "going anywhere", he decided to contact members of Mayhem as he was aware the group were in need of a new frontman following vocalist Maniac's departure. According to Mayhem bassist Jørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud, Dead initially sent the band members a small parcel containing a demo tape, a letter detailing his ideas for the future and a crucified mouse. Although Necrobutcher lost the package itself, he kept the tape which had Dead's contact details. At that point, Dead moved to Norway in early 1988 and became the new official vocalist for Mayhem.
Performances
For concerts, Dead went to great lengths to achieve the image and atmosphere he wished. From the beginning of his career, he covered his face with black and white makeup. According to Necrobutcher, "[i]t wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used makeup. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool". To complete his corpse-like image, Dead would bury his stage clothes and dig them up again to wear on the night of a concert.
Dead made a brief appearance in the 1986 music video for Candlemass' "Bewitched".
Personality
In interviews, fellow musicians often described Dead as odd and introverted. Hellhammer described Dead as "a very strange personality […] depressed, melancholic and dark." Likewise, Euronymous once said, "I honestly think Dead is mentally insane. Which other way can you describe a guy who does not eat, in order to get starving wounds? Or who has a T-shirt with funeral announcements on it?" Former Mayhem drummer Kjetil Manheim later likened Dead's personality to that of Marvin the Paranoid Android. Some authors have speculated that Dead may have had Cotard's syndrome, a very rare condition that manifests in believing one's body is not that of a living human but instead a corpse.
According to a longtime pen pal known as "Old Nick", Ohlin disliked technology. He would only ever write letters to himself or others using longhand style and would never resort to the use of a personal computer. Old Nick concluded "technology in general made him [feel] uncomfortable. He just rejected it altogether, finding refuge [instead] in a world made of forests and woodlands." Dead also had an unusual interest with porphyria due to its connection to the mythology of vampirism. In his letters, Dead expressed a fascination with the occult, even stating that his great grandmother practiced white magic before. Dead stated that for a time, specifically to better understand his near death experience, he had attempted before to perform his own rituals but was ultimately unsuccessful in his practices.
Discography
Ohlin contributed vocals to all of the following:
As a part of Morbid
- Morbid Rehearsal (1987) (Demo album)
- December Moon (1987) (Demo album)
- Live in Stockholm (2000) (Live album)
- Year of the Goat (2011) (Compilation album)
As a part of Mayhem
- Live in Leipzig (1993) (Live album)
- The Dawn of the Black Hearts (1995) (bootleg live album)
- Freezing Moon/... (1996) (Single)
- Out from the Dark (1996) (Demo album)
- Live in Zeitz (2016) (Live album)
- Live in Jessheim (2017) (Live album)
- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas: The Dead Files (2017) (Compilation album)
- Deathcrush: The Dead Version (2018) (Compilation album)
- Live in Sarpsborg (2019) (Live album)
Split albums
- A Tribute to the Black Emperors (1994) (Morbid and Mayhem compilation album)
