De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is the debut studio album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.

Songwriting began in 1987,[1] but due to the suicide of vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin and the murder of guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, the album's release was delayed until May 1994.

[5] Mayhem's drummer, Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, claimed that the lyrics of "Freezing Moon" were "meant to make people commit suicide".

[6] Dead said in a 1989 interview by Marduk guitarist Morgan "Evil" Håkansson, 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".

[11] To record the new album, Euronymous recruited Attila Csihar (from the Hungarian band Tormentor) as vocalist and Varg Vikernes (who performed solo as Burzum) as bassist.

[13] Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch (who performed solo as Thorns) wrote some of the riffs for the album and finished some of Dead's song lyrics, according to himself and Hellhammer.

In 2009, Mayhem released rough mixes of five songs from the De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas recording session as the EP Life Eternal.

There are many who would say it is the single most important album in black metal's broad and ever-growing catalogue, and very few who would argue that it is not, at the very least, a strong contender for that accolade.

[31] Loudwire named it the 8th best extreme metal album of all time, writing that "The riffs are unforgettable and the atmosphere is caustic and suffocating with Attila Csihar's twisted, throaty cries sending it all to hell.

[33] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas as 40th on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.

[35] His style was somewhat atypical for Nordic black metal then, and provoked a mixed reception from fans; for example, Metalreviews.com gave him the nickname "Attila 'Fingernails' Csihar" (although a subsequent review by the website praised his later Ordo Ad Chao-era performances).