It is considered one of the most influential black metal albums of all time.
Songwriting for this album began in 1987, but due to the suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead") and the murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth ("Euronymous"), the release was delayed until May 1994. This is the band's only studio album to feature Euronymous and Varg Vikernes ("Count Grishnackh").
Vocalist Dead started to write the lyrics when he joined the band in 1988. In 1990 studio versions of the songs "The Freezing Moon" and "Carnage" were recorded, appearing on the CBR Records compilation album Projections of a Stained Mind
Drummer, Jan Axel Von Blomberg "Hellhammer", claimed that the lyrics of "Freezing Moon" were "meant to make people commit suicide".
Dead said in a 1989 interview by Marduk guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson ("Evil"), published in Slayer fanzine, that by then he had written the lyrics for "Funeral Fog", "Freezing Moon", "Buried by Time and Dust" and "Pagan Fears"
Finished versions of these songs appeared on the album Mayhem - Live In Leipzig, a concert recording from November 1990 which was released in 1993.
It is considered one of the most influential black metal albums of all time. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas as 40th on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.
The title De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is a Latin phrase meaning "The Mysteries of the Lord Satan", with "Dom" being an abbreviation of "Dominis", often used as an honorific prefix for ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church.
The album cover is a monochrome photo of the east side of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway.
![Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas 1994 [Full Album]](media/video-thumbnail/90452-hqdefault.jpg)
