Slipknot’s Joey Jordison was one of modern metal’s greatest drummers. His heroic drum work didn’t just define the sound of the Iowa band during his time with them from their formation in 1995 to his departure in 2013, it reshaped the whole of metal. Albums such as their self-titled 1999 debut, 2001’s Iowa and 2003’s Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) brought death metal extremity and blastbeats into the mainstream.
Joey’s own taste in music ran deep and wide. He was a huge fan of everything from classic rock bands such as Kiss, Alice Cooper and Rush through 80s thrash giants Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer up to the extreme metal scene of the early 1990s. He folded all those influences into his own music, whether it was with Slipknot, his horror-themed side project Murderdolls or his post-’Knot bands Scar The Martyr and Sinsaenum.
But there was one extreme metal album more than any other that had a huge impact on Joey as a fan and as a musician. During the early 1990s, he had started paying attention to the music coming out of the Scandinavian black metal scene, and one record in particular chimed with his fondness for unholy brutality.
“I remember buying De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem a few months after it came out,” Joey told Metal Hammer before his death in 2021, “and it was the equivalent of when I got [Slayer’s] Reign In Blood. It was such a hugely influential record on me and on music as a whole – it’s a blueprint for so much black metal.”
Formed in Oslo, Norway in 1984, Mayhem were forerunners of the second wave of black metal. Their debut EP, 1987’s Deathcrush, was a lo-fi underground classic that influenced countless of their countrymen, while founder and guitarist Euronymous became a central figure in the emerging black metal scene.
But their music was overshadowed by controversy and tragedy. Singer Dead died by suicide in 1991, while Euronymous himself was murdered two years later by Burzum frontman (and Mayhem session bassist) Varg ‘Count Grishnackh’ Vikernes.
Mayhem’s full-length debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was released in 1994, a year after Euronymous’ death, though his guitar parts remained intact. It was instantly held up as an atmospheric black metal classic by people who were paying attention to the still-underground scene – Joey Jordison among them.
”Of course, with the history of Mayhem and the tragedies that surrounded them, it’s more than just a record.’ he told Metal Hammer. “It’s a book. It’s so tied in with the individuals who made it and the time when they made it. You’re not just listening to music, you’re listening to a lifestyle. It’s not just the riffs or the drumming or the vocals – it’s something more than that. It’s got an atmosphere that’s totally alien, absolutely engulfing. When you put it on, you’re instantly transported somewhere else.”
He went on to compare it one of metal’s all-time great albums – Slayer’s 1986 landmark Reign In Blood, a record which redefined metal when it was released eight years previously.
“Just like Reign In Blood is the ultimate thrash metal record, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is the ultimate black metal record,” Joey said. “People have tried to copy it and rip it off a tonne of times, but no one has come close. No one will ever beat it.”
