Bad news for the fans of Death Metal scene. Swedish heavy metal musician Jon Nödtveidt, 31, was found dead on Wednesday, August 16 at his apartment in Hässelby, a suburb of Stockholm. He shot himself in the head and was surrounded by lit candles, Expressen reports. Shortly before the ritual suicide, he had sent farewell letters to his father and his girlfriend and explained to a friend, "I'm going away for a long, long time. I'm going to Transylvania."

Sometime between Monday (Aug. 14) and Wednesday, Nödveidt, vocalist and guitarist in the popular Swedish black metal band DISSECTION, chose to take his own life.

At 7:21 p.m. CET on Wednesday, a police patrol reported to the police communication center in Stockholm that a man had been found dead, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to several of Expressen's sources, the singer had placed an open copy of "The Satanic Bible" in front of him before pulling the trigger.

"He shot himself in the head and lay dead in a ring of lit candles," says a police source.

At 5:44 p.m. on Wednesday, the police received a 911 call from Jon Nödtveidt's family who hadn't been able to establish contact with him for a couple of days.

The suicide is believed to have been planned for a long time.

"At the scene there was also a will and a suicide note," a police source tells Expressen.

In December 1997, Jon Nödveidt was arrested for the murder of Josef Ben Meddaour and served seven years for accessory to murder and possession of an illegal firearm. The highly publicized murder in Gothenburg is depicted in the movie "Keillers Park". What has come to be known as "the Satanic murder" in Sweden has led to both a movie and a book.

In 1997, at the time of the murder, Jon Nödtveidt explained that he lived in a world where Satan was God and that they drank blood and sacrificed animals. On DISSECTION's web site he revealed that he was a member of MLO — Misanthropic Luciferian Order.