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Mayhem

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Freezing Moon - Guitar Tab

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Band Overview

Mayhem is the Norwegian Black Metal band that essentially defined the genre's guitar sound, founding the blueprint in Oslo around 1984. From the raw tremolo-picked chaos of their early demos to the landmark 1994 album "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas," Mayhem's guitar work is the sonic template that every black metal guitarist eventually confronts. The band's guitar legacy is primarily shaped by two players: Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), who established the foundational approach of icy, dissonant tremolo picking and unconventional chord voicings before his death in 1993, and Blasphemer (Rune Eriksen), who pushed the band's guitar work into more technically demanding and compositionally complex territory from the mid-1990s onward. Current guitarist Teloch (Morten Bergeton Iversen) continues to evolve the sound with a mix of old-school rawness and modern precision. For guitarists, Mayhem is essential because their riffs teach you how to create atmosphere through relentless tremolo picking, dissonant intervals, and strategic use of open strings to generate that cold, haunting resonance black metal is known for. Euronymous favored unusual chord shapes built on diminished, minor second, and tritone intervals rather than standard power chords, which gives Mayhem's music its uniquely unsettling harmonic character. Learning these voicings will expand your fretboard knowledge well beyond typical rock and metal vocabulary. Difficulty-wise, Mayhem sits in the intermediate to advanced range. The tremolo picking endurance required is no joke; songs like "Freezing Moon" demand sustained alternate picking at high tempos for extended passages, which will test your right-hand stamina. The chord shapes are often awkward and require precise fretting to avoid unwanted string noise. Blasphemer-era material adds odd time signatures, abrupt tempo shifts, and more intricate lead work. If you are comfortable with Thrash Metal rhythm playing and want to push into more extreme territory, Mayhem is the perfect next step. The real challenge is not just speed but maintaining clarity and dynamics within a wall of distortion.

What Makes Mayhem Essential for Guitar Players

Euronymous pioneered the use of dissonant intervals in black metal riffing, favoring minor seconds, tritones, and diminished chords over standard power chords. Learning his voicings will fundamentally change how you think about building dark, unsettling riffs.
Tremolo picking is the backbone of Mayhem's guitar style. Songs like "Freezing Moon" require sustained alternate picking on single strings and across string pairs at tempos around 140-180 BPM, making right-hand endurance and evenness a primary technical demand.
Euronymous often used open strings as drones underneath fretted notes to create a wider, more resonant sound. This technique generates overtones and dissonance that a purely fretted approach cannot achieve, and it is a hallmark of the early Norwegian black metal tone.
Blasphemer introduced more complex lead guitar work, including chromatic runs, dissonant bends, and angular phrasing that avoids conventional pentatonic shapes. His solos sound more like controlled chaos than melodic statements, requiring precision in unusual scale patterns.
Palm-muting is used sparingly and strategically in Mayhem's music, typically to accent rhythmic breaks or transitions rather than as a constant chugging technique. This selective approach to muting creates dynamic contrast within the relentless tremolo-picked sections.

Did You Know?

Euronymous famously used a very thin, buzzy guitar tone on early recordings, partly due to scooped mids and partly as a deliberate aesthetic choice. He wanted the guitar to sound cold and abrasive rather than thick and heavy, which went against every mainstream metal production trend of the late 1980s.

The guitar tracks on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" were largely recorded by Euronymous before his death but were completed and partially re-recorded by Blackthorn (Snorre Ruch) of Thorns, whose angular riffing style influenced several passages on the album.

Euronymous ran his own record shop, Helvete, in Oslo, where he would demonstrate his unconventional chord voicings to other young musicians. Many of the signature sounds of Norwegian black metal guitar were literally taught in that basement store.

Blasphemer was largely self-taught and developed his complex guitar style by studying classical and avant-garde composers alongside extreme metal, which is why Mayhem's later albums feature unusual time signatures and harmonic structures rarely heard in the genre.

On the "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" sessions, the guitar was recorded with relatively little gain compared to death metal standards of the era. The producers aimed for a raw, cutting tone where individual note articulation could still be heard within the tremolo-picked passages.

Teloch, the current guitarist, is known for using extended-range approaches and has incorporated seven-string guitars into Mayhem's live and studio setup, adding low-end depth while preserving the icy treble attack the band is known for.

Euronymous reportedly tuned to standard E tuning for most of Mayhem's classic material. The heaviness came from dissonant intervals and aggressive picking rather than drop tunings, which is an important lesson for guitarists who equate lower tunings with heavier sounds.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas 1994

This is the essential Mayhem album for guitarists. "Freezing Moon" teaches you sustained tremolo picking with dissonant chord transitions, while "Funeral Fog" develops your ability to shift between blast-beat-speed picking and mid-tempo groove sections. The entire album is a masterclass in creating atmosphere through unconventional chord voicings and relentless right-hand technique.

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Grand Declaration of War 2000

Blasphemer's guitar work here is Mayhem at their most technically demanding. Songs like "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" feature odd time signatures, dissonant leads, and abrupt dynamic shifts that will challenge your rhythmic precision and ability to navigate complex arrangements. This album is ideal for intermediate players looking to push into advanced territory.

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Ordo Ad Chao 2007

The murkiest, most chaotic Mayhem production, and a great study in how guitar tone and texture create mood. Blasphemer's riffs on tracks like "Wall of Water" are dense and layered, teaching you how to use dissonance and feedback as compositional tools. The raw, low-fi mix forces you to focus on attack and dynamics rather than relying on pristine clarity.

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Daemon 2019

Teloch and Ghul deliver a modern take on classic Mayhem riffing with improved production clarity. "Malum" and "Agenda Ignis" feature accessible but punishing tremolo riff structures that are great for building endurance, while the tighter recording quality makes it easier to transcribe parts by ear compared to older, rawer releases.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Euronymous was most associated with a Gibson Les Paul Custom, which provided the sustain and midrange body for his dissonant chord voicings. He also used an EKO branded guitar on some early recordings. Blasphemer favored ESP guitars, including custom models with set-neck construction for tighter articulation during complex passages. Teloch currently uses ESP and custom builds, often with extended-range options including seven-string models for added low-end capability while maintaining the classic black metal treble attack.

Amp

Euronymous reportedly used a Marshall JCM800 for much of his career, driven hard for natural tube saturation but with a characteristically scooped mid setting that created that thin, icy black metal tone rather than a thick, chunky sound. Blasphemer moved toward Peavey 5150 and Mesa/Boogie setups for their tighter gain structure, which suited his more precise, rhythmically complex playing. Teloch has been seen using a variety of high-gain heads including ENGL and Peavey models, typically set for aggressive treble presence with tight low-end response.

Pickups

Euronymous used stock Gibson humbuckers in his Les Paul Custom, which provided a moderate output level that retained note clarity within heavily distorted passages. The key to the Mayhem tone is not ultra-high-output pickups but rather moderate-output humbuckers that allow the dissonant intervals to ring out distinctly. Blasphemer and Teloch have used EMG active pickups (particularly the EMG 81 in the bridge position) for their tight, compressed response, which suits fast tremolo picking and keeps note definition clean at high gain levels.

Effects & Chain

Mayhem's guitar tone is famously minimal in terms of effects. Euronymous went largely straight into his amp with just a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal for additional saturation on some recordings, stacking it with the amp's own distortion for that raw, chainsaw-like texture. Blasphemer occasionally used a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor to keep things tight during complex passages but otherwise kept a stripped-down signal chain. Chorus or reverb may appear subtly in studio mixes, but the core philosophy is distortion, guitar, amp, and nothing else. Tone comes from picking attack and amp saturation rather than pedal stacking.

Recommended Gear

Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

While Euronymous favored the Custom model, the Les Paul Standard shares the same moderate-output humbuckers that preserve note clarity within Mayhem's heavily distorted, dissonant chord voicings. The guitar's inherent sustain and midrange body are essential for letting those icy, chainsaw-like intervals cut through without muddiness.

Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Euronymous relied on this guitar for its stock humbuckers and rich sustain, which allowed his dissonant intervals to ring distinctly even under extreme distortion. The Les Paul Custom's midrange-focused character became foundational to Mayhem's thin, icy black metal tone when paired with his scooped Marshall JCM800.

Amp

Marshall JCM800

Euronymous used the JCM800's natural tube saturation and scooped midrange setting to create Mayhem's signature thin, icy tone rather than thick gain. Driven hard with minimal effects beyond the Boss HM-2, the amp's inherent character defined the band's raw, chainsaw-like distortion sound.

Amp

Peavey 5150

Blasphemer adopted the 5150 for its tighter gain structure and precise articulation, which suited his more rhythmically complex tremolo picking. The amp's focused response kept note definition clean at high gain, complementing his shift toward EMG 81 pickups for compressed clarity.

Pickup

EMG 81

Blasphemer and Teloch use EMG 81s in the bridge position for their tight, compressed response that maintains note definition during fast tremolo picking at extreme gain levels. These active pickups suit Mayhem's precision-focused approach more than ultra-high-output alternatives.

How to Practice Mayhem on GuitarZone

Every Mayhem song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Freezing Moon - Guitar Tab