MAYHEM

Reviewed:

- Deathcrush (1987, EP)

- Live in Leipzig (1993, live album)

- De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

- Wolf's Lair Abyss (1997, EP)

- Grand Declaration of War (2000)

- European Legions (2001, compilation)

- Chimera (2004)

- Ordo Ad Chao (2007)

- Esoteric Warfare (2014)

- Daemon (2019)

- Atavistic Black Disorder (2021, EP)

DEATHCRUSH (EP)           1987          (Deathlike Silence)

The first commercial release Mayhem put out was this EP way back in '87. I'd still call this black metal, but it sits firmly within the realms of all that first-wave black metal stuff more than it does the later style that they would perfect and other groups would follow. Bands like Venom, Bathory and those early Sodom releases seem to have more in common here. There's even a Venom cover here, with 'Witching Hour'. Still, even though Deathcrush has a different tone and style to the second-wave Norwegian black metal sound they would pioneer in years to come, I still find any track from this EP to be instantly recognisable amongst it's rivals. Vocalist Maniac sounds like, erm, well - a maniac!! Seriously, his vocals are kind of an illiterate, high-pitched mess, yet they really nail the whole vibe that the band were going for during this early period. Strangely enough, they actually managed to influence death metal with this release.

Just read the lyrics to 'Chainsaw Gustfuck' - there is no way in hell you'd ever get lines such as "Maggots crawling in her cunt, I just love to lick that shit" or "Chainsaw in my bleeding hands, as I start to cut in two" on any later Mayhem records! This is the kind of stuff you'd expect to hear on an Autopsy album back in the day. But musically it's definitely much more in-line with the old-school '80s black metal as I explained before. Deathcrush is a product of it's time; the lyrics were totally extreme for the time (this was still pre-Cannibal Corpse...) and as a result come off unintentionally goofy. But you know what? This might be Mayhem, but it's also '80s extreme metal - and the goofiness is part of it's charm.

As amateurish and silly as the lyrics can be, I kind of separate Deathcrush from any of their full-length studio releases that came later. Venom's Welcome to Hell and Black Metal are also goofy as fuck and kinda primitive by today's standards, but they're also still freaking awesome. Deathcrush's lyrical stupidity doesn't take away from it's enjoyment. The music is unsurprisingly raw as hell, but the instrumentation can easily be deciphered and it wouldn't have worked any other way. The riffs are heavy and crushing on songs like 'Necrolust' and 'Pure Fucking Armageddon', match the intensity of the frantic drum-work from original drummer Manheim. Speaking of drums, I really love the opening instrumental 'Silvester Anfang' - the cool thing about this track is that it was actually a random archival recording from German musician Conrad Schnitzler. Euronymous essentially tracked down and stalked Schnitzler's address, and sat outside his house until he was let in. Anyhow, there's something wierdly unsettling about 'Silvester Anfang' despite being a percussion piece and not much more. It works perfectly.

There's no doubt that Deathcrush is an important piece of extreme metal music. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece; for instance, Death's Scream Bloody Gore came out the same year and feels much more accomplished musically. But as far as underground metal bands of the mid-to-late '80s go, Mayhem started a revolution and only got more notorious in the years to come. 

Adam's rating: 8.3/10

LIVE IN LEIPZIG          1993          (Peaceville)

An important and classic live album in the black metal genre. Of course, it has Dead on vocals - Dead is easily the most famous and notorious Mayhem frontman despite never actually appearing on any of the band's full-length studio albums. The dude shot himself in 1991 and the rest is black metal history that I'm sure your all aware of.  Anyhow, he was instrumental in building the legacy that is Mayhem. Live in Leipzig - recorded at the Eiskeller club in 1990 - is raw and nasty as fuck... just as it should be then. The performances are chaotic, and the band were really one-of-a-kind at the time. No one else was doing what Mayhem were doing in 1990. From what I understand, black metal was developed as a response to the precise technicality of death metal. Sure, death metal was brutal, but the bands themselves weren't giving you a show. Mayhem on the other hand, were throwing pig heads into the audience, Dead was slicing himself and bleeding onto concert goers and the band were adorning themselves in corpse paint. It was theatrical, and people liked it.

This album is a fan favourite, and I really dig it too. It's kind of a shame that Necrobutcher's bass is buried in the mix however. I mean, this is early Mayhem, so expecting clean production is silly. But I've never been entirely down with the way this live record sounds - it's a little too bootleg-ish if you ask me. It needed just a little bit of studio tampering/trickery to really go down as an all-time great extreme metal live release in my opinion. Of course, Hellhammer explains in the CD booklet that the master tape was recorded using a ghettoblaster, so that explains things!

That said, it's really cool to hear songs from De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ('Funeral Fog', 'Freezing Moon', 'Pagan Fears',  'Buried by Time and Dust') being played way back in 1990, nearly 4 years before the release of the actual studio album they'd eventually appear on. It really goes to show just how innovative and influential the band were. It's also cool to actually have a 46 minute recording with Dead on vocals. His voice was drastically different to either Maniac or Atilla's. More aggressive and thoat-shredding, but less evil and sinister. I'm not saying he's better, I'm just saying he's entertaining for different reasons. I don't think the actual DMDS album would have sounded better with Dead singing on it, but I think he has far more energy as a live frontman.

So basically, I think the actual music and performances here are awesome - even if they do sound kinda sloppy and unprofessional at this point still. I'm still not entirely convinced by the way it sounds however - I rarely want to turn it off, but it's not perfect in this respect either. It's not a CD I reach for all that often when I'm in the mood for some Mayhem, yet it's still kind of essential listening for those exploring this band. I guess I find it to be a tad overrated is all... make of it what you will. What I will say is that the 2015 Peaceville reissue (at least I think it's from 2015...) I have is great - the booklet features written interviews with Hellhammer, Necrobutcher and Fenriz from Darkthrone, plus loads of photos.
Adam's rating: 8.1/10

DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS          1994          (Deathlike Silence)

- Standouts: The entire album.

Well, here it is - the most recognised and notorious black metal album of all time, and also one that is often stuck right at the top of peoples' top 10 lists. Now, I'm not a huge black metal fanboy by any means. I love the early first-wave stuff from the '80s, but that was more of a darker take on thrash/speed metal, and not what most people consider black metal to typically sound like these days. When it comes to black metal as it is largely regarded as these days, I like and even love some of the classics; I have all the Mayhem studio records, all the Emperor albums, and there's a few releases from other bands like Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir and Burzum that I love, but I don't collect BM CD's to the same extent I do traditional heavy metal, thrash, hardcore etc.. For me it's a genre that has some absolute top-tier shit, but at the same time not a genre I feel the need to keep actively seeking out new bands and material. I love it, but only in small doses.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, the first full length Mayhem studio album however, is one of the finest extreme metal albums of all time in my opinion. It has atmosphere of it's own that is very difficult to recreate. Yet there's no keyboards or ambience thoughout the entire record, the atmosphere is created almost entirely through all those tremolo-picked riffs, blastbeat drums and Atilla's twisted vocal performance. The music is extreme, and so are the vocals - but not in a harsh guttural or screaming kind of way that is typical of black and death metal. No, he goes for this unpredictable, throat-shredding speech - it's almost like some demonic spoken word performance. If you removed the instrumentation and just listened to the vocal performance on it's own, it'd sound fucking terrible - he's all over the place, not even singing in time with the riffs... and yet somehow, when you listen to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas there is never a moment where the vocals don't fit with the music.

There is structure to these songs musically though. My favourites are 'Freezing Moon' and 'Pagan Fears'. They may come across as a barrage of fast-paced tremelo-picked riffs and endless blastbeats, but there's a lot of structure in those riffs too, and the music even slows down when necessary, treating us to some doomy, crushing riffs. To be honest, I find it difficult to talk about a lot of these songs individually - I always do when it comes to writing about extreme metal records. Whenever I put this record on, I often find myself looking back at the tracklisting to remind myself which song I'm actually listening to, but it doesn't actually matter because I enjoy every second of it. I get lost in this album, and treat the entire thing as one big experience, if you will. I very rarely listen to any songs individually from it, it's the kind of LP that I prefer to hear from start to finish every time. I will say that the title track is very distinctive vocally however with Attila's haunting, almost moaning vocals.

It's difficult to really point out anything I take major issue with. I love the production... you can't really hear the bass all that well overall, but at the same time I feel if the low-end was boosted in some way, the foreboding atmosphere would be lost. I guess my main complaint is simply the fact it's not an album I can listen to everyday for any occasion. I can stick on other metal albums like Judas Priest's Painkiller or Metallica's Ride the Lightning anytime, anywhere for example... because despite the heaviness, there's melody in those records. But there's almost like a time and place for extreme metal album in my world. So by default De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is not a go-to metal album for me in general, even if it is a go-to extreme metal album for me.

I hadn't heard this album for a very long time until recently. I've had it since my late teens, but I span it again a couple of months ago and since then I've listened to it about 12 times - and I genre-shift a lot in a short space of time these days. So I guess I have been finding that time and place for it a lot recently! Like I said, as soon as I hear 'Funeral Fog', I basically have to hear this album in it's entirety. Yeah it's a predictable choice for a black metal favourite, but De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is legendary for a reason. It's light years apart from the Deathcrush EP, and if it was the only full-length album they ever made, I'd still be happy.

Adam's rating: 9.5/10

WOLF'S LAIR ABYSS (EP)          1997          (Soulseller Records)

There was a lot of scepticism surrounding the reformation of Mayhem minus Euronymous in 1995, but in my opinion they killed it with their first release, this 1997 EP, Wolf's Lair Abyss. Maniac is back on vocals, and new guitarist Blasphemer was a great fit for the band - (spoilers) everything this lineup released was awesome. This EP is awesome too, the music is nasty and bleak as it ever was previously, only now the instrumentation is tighter and more technical... and while the production is more mechanical-sounding and modern next to the distinctive sonic sounds of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, it's necessary for the nature of the music here. Like I said, there's a little more going on here than before, so I think a really raw-sounding, predictable production job would've made things worse somehow.

Lyrically the satanic themes are gone, but the music's still evil and dark as ever. It's just not as stereotypically black metal anymore - at least for the time anyway. There's 4 normal songs here (plus an opening instrumental) and they're jam-packed full of tremelo-picked riffs, blastbeats and an overwhelming sense of doom and dread - just like a Mayhem record should sound. My favourite song is 'Fall of Seraphs', which is the most atmospheric and features Maniac screaming and providing clean, spoken-word vocal elements. I also really like the franticness of 'Ancient Skin', but really this whole EP is great stuff. My only real complaints would be the fact that it being an EP feels kind of incomplete in a way, and leaves me wanting more. There's no real flow to the entire disc considering it's over in less than 25 minutes. I know what I'm talking about here, trust me! But whatever, the music's more than enjoyable enough while it lasts.

Really, really solid EP then - and definitely one of the essential Mayhem releases outside of the main full-length studio records. It almost feels like a taster for 2004's Chimera... yeah I know, a taster for the album they'd record after the next one. Read my Grand Declaration of War review below to find out why I say that.

Adam's rating: 8.3/10 

GRAND DECLARATION OF WAR          2000          (Season of Mist)

- Standouts: 'A Grand Declaration of War', 'View from Nihil' (both parts), 'A Bloodword and a Colder Sun' (both parts), 'Crystalized Pain in Deconstruction' ,'To Daimonion'

A full 6 years on from the legendary De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, and Mayhem return with Grand Declaration of War in 2000. This record is drastically different by comparison, musically and even visually (it's even notably different next to the Wolf's Lair Abyss EP, which featured the same lineup); the corpse paint was gone and the lyrical themes revolve almost entirely around warfare and post-apocalypse to the point where you could probably label it a concept album. And musically, the riffs and playing from the band still sit quite firmly within black metal, only the songs are played in a much more progressive manner. The repetition and atmosphere of De Mysteriis is gone, in place are a fuck-ton of riffs, tempo changes and spoken word vocals. Progressive black metal? I think so.

You're still getting the occasional raspy growls that are typical of black metal from vocalist Maniac (yep, the Deathcrush guy is back), but on top of this he also provides many English spoken-word commentary throughout many of the songs. I wouldn't say he sounds menacing when he does do this, he speaks more like a Lord of the Rings fantasy character... it is sort of cheesy I suppose, yet at the same time it really doesn't affect my enjoyment of the music. It almost sounds like you're listening to the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic movie set in an alternate universe. So, it's still black metal then, just black metal with bells and whistles. I really dig both parts of 'View from Nihil'. It's full of blast beats and razor tremelo riffs as you'd expect... it's just that everything's so much more tight and technical now. You can also hear this from the get-go with the opening track, 'A Grand Declaration of War'. You can immediately hear that they weren't trying to replicate De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. I respect that. 

However, Grand Declaration of War does have it's unusual, experimental parts too. Take for example 'A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun', which again is split into 2 halves. The first part consists of literally just whispered vocals, while the second half makes use of electronic drum beats (!!!) and the same vocal style. The whole thing is atmospheric as hell, while the guitars on the second half are mostly just long, high-pitched notes held for effect. It's not exactly your average Mayhem cut, but for me it really works. It draws me into the music. Generally speaking, the music's very accomplished and professional, more-so than on anything they'd done prior. Only 'To Daimonion' is a little looser in it's performance. The riffs are more straightforward and dare I say it, almost punky in a way. But it's cool.

With all that said, I can still pick a few holes. I own the original release on CD, and the production is a bit thin. I get that they probably wanted to clean up their sound a little to match the tightness of the playing, but it's definitely a little tinny-sounding. I did however, listen to the 2018 remaster on Spotify, and I have to say this version sounds much better to me. It has more of a natural feel, and it only improves the atmosphere of the record. I don't hate the original by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely a flawed album sonically. The other complaint I have is simply the nature of the album itself. It's very much it's own thing; it's different from the rest of the discography, and it's the kind of album I can't casually listen to. I have to really sit down with this one and take it all in, so it's not one I listen to very often.

Just because it's different doesn't automatically make it a black sheep however. I actually really like this! Like I said, it's not your typical Mayhem release, nor is it one that I can hear all that often - but when I am in the mood to listen to it in full, I always get lost in the music and drift off elsewhere. Any album which has that ability deserves respect. They were going for something different on this one, and they largely pulled it off.

Adam's rating: 8.4/10

EUROPEAN LEGIONS          2001         (Season of Mist)

A bit of an oddball compilation release in that tracks 1-7 are live cuts from the Grand Declaration of War tour in 2000, whilst the rest of the songs are all pre-production demos from the GDoW album recording sessions. The live tracks are generally okay - the band's musicianship is on point here and Hellhammer's frantic drumming in particular is awesome. Having said that, if I focus really hard on the drums, I can hear the click triggers and that can be a nuisance for me if I'm in a bad mood. My biggest complaint regarding the live portion of this CD however, is the lack of any bass. Was Necrobutcher ill and missed the gig or something? 'Cos I can barely hear him! Maybe the mixing is just bad... I'm not sure. Either way, there's definite room for improvement in the production department here.

I quite enjoy the live tracks for the most part though. You get 7 songs ranging from all their major releases up until that point (Deathcrush, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Wolf's Lair Abyss and Grand Declaration of War) so I can't complain too much. As for the remaining GDoW demos... again, they're okay I suppose. I mean, I'll take the actual final album versions of them any day of the week, but for demos the sound quality is really not bad at all. But that's about all I have to say about them. I've listened to them maybe twice but normally just end European Legions at track 8, when the demos begin.

Unless you're looking to expand your Mayhem collection, there's absolutely zero reason to actually go out of your way and pick up European Legions. Had they just released the entire thing as a Grand Declaration of War-era live album, I may have been able to recommend it. But as it stands, this is an inessential disc for collectors only. The actual music isn't bad at all, but the mixing is dodgy and the fact that 5 of the 12 songs are relatively useless demos makes it a bit of a weird release for me.

Adam's rating: 5/10

CHIMERA          2004          (Season of Mist)

- Standouts: 'Whore', 'Dark Night of the Soul', 'My Death', 'You Must Fall', 'Slaughter of Dreams', 'Chimera'

Unlike Grand Declaration of War, this album isn't particularly full of any surprises - but that's okay! It's the band returning to the black metal sound they crafted on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, only with more sophisticated musicianship, tighter playing and a crisper production. Come to think of it, all these points are also sort of true when talking of it's predecessor, but Chimera is no concept album, nor is it full of spoken-word vocals and proggy experimentation; this is a pure black metal album through-and-through. 

As soon as this nasty beast kicks off with 'Whore', your senses are assaulted with fast riffing, pounding drums and raspy, demonic vocals. Like a more modern take on De Mysteriis. It's a short but sweet opener that lets you know exactly what you're getting into. The second track, 'Dark Night of the Soul', is fucking awesome. Best song on this album if you ask me. The riffs are so twisted and heavy, yet they flow together surprisingly well. Many of the faster riffs resemble the atmosphere of De Mysteriis, but this album still manages to sound fresh in it's own way, probably because of the higher technicality in the playing. The pummelling 'My Death' is another favourite of mine, and in general this album feels like a combination of the dark atmosphere of '90s Mayhem and the technicality of Grand Declaration of War. You can hear this on 'You Must Fall' and 'Slaughter of Dreams'. The lengthy title track has some sludgy doom elements too, at times.

I don't have any big problems with this record, but as always I can gripe about a few little bits and bobs. Maniac's vocals complement the music just fine as always, but he's not doing anything special here. No big, epic spoken word segments like he did on Grand Declaration of War then. For many fans, that's probably not a bad thing. Nor is it for me really, it's just that I find his vocals to be just fine, and certainly fitting for the nature of the tunes... it's just nothing all that special or impressive either. This was to be his last album with the band. 

And once again the production is rather modern-sounding and cleaned up when compared to the raw '90s stuff (though definitely stronger this time). You really can't call albums like this or Grand Declaration of War 'raw' sonically, which is typically something I consider to be a trait of black metal. But you know what? It doesn't really matter. The instrumentation is far more technical on these records compared to their earlier material that a rough production simply wouldn't have done the music justice. It's not that De Mysteriis was sloppy and amateurish - that's not true at all. But calling it 'tight' or 'technical' is a bit of stretch too. They really upped their game with Chimera in this sense. Whether or not this a good thing is purely dependent on how you like your black metal. I don't have a problem with it, nor do I have a problem with an under-produced sound that is also common in the genre.

I'm gonna stick this one on par with it's predecessor. I like both albums for different reasons. I liked the proggy songwriting and spoken word elements to the former, but I also like that this is the band returning to the straight-up black metal sound they are known for whilst retaining the more technical feel of the previous album.

Adam's rating: 8.4/10

ORDO AD CHAO          2007          (Season of Mist)

-Standouts: Pretty much all of it.

This is a standout album in their discography if you ask me. There's plenty of twisted and unsettling-sounding metal albums out there, but Ordo Ad Chao (which is Latin for 'Order to Chaos) is most definitely the creepiest Mayhem record. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is the most atmospheric for sure, but this one is the most fucked-up if you ask me.

A huge contributing factor to Ordo Ad Chao's twistedness is the incredibly lo-fi production. It almost sounds as if the band were playing in an entirely different room when the producer hit record. And yet somehow, they struck gold in doing so - well, for some people anyway. I love this album's sound, you might not. Because of the lo-fi style of the record, the guitars are very muted-sounding and even kinda muffled in a way. Well, pretty much everything here is muffled, save for maybe the vocals. It also means that the music and overall texture of this album is much more bass-y than usual, which isn't really all that common with black metal. So it's definitely unorthodox sonically then, and it's definitely a marmite album in this regard. Like I said though, it definitely works for me. As good as the predecessor Chimera was, it doesn't quite have the same unique selling point that this one does. Of course, if I didn't like the way Ordo Ad Chao sounded so much, then it would probably ruin a lot of the songs for me.

Speaking of the songs, the music's not hugely different to what they were doing on Chimera, but the production and the addition of some unusual songwriting ideas (check out that disturbing high-pitched sound that rings out on the 9 minute plus 'Illuminate Eliminate') makes for one of the best Mayhem records. You've also got other neat and unsettling tricks of the trade, like the cool stop-start intro to 'Pyschic Horns'. Also, Attila Csihar's back on vocals and in my opinion does a better job here than Maniac ever did (not to belittle the guy, I just prefer Attila). His performance is inhuman at times, croaking and gargling his way through the songs whilst also providing spoken-word when necessary, chanting at others and even some weird pig-like shrieks and death metal-style gutturals sometimes. The whole performance makes for an unpredictable one that complements the music perfectly. Just makes the whole thing that much more savage and grim to sit through, but in the best way possible. And the instrumentation itself is composed of a nice variety of slow, sludgy doomy riffs as well as the usual fast tremolo stuff combined with frantic, blastbeat-drenched drums, but everything just sounds so much dirtier this time around I can't help but love it.

I don't have a lot to complain about here, but I will admit that I wasn't always the same fan of this album that I am these days. I'm struggling to remember exactly when I bought this record, but I know it's been in my collection for at least a decade. But I remember listening to it a few times, liking the songs but struggling with the production and then just returning to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas or Deathcrush whenever I wanted to hear some Mayhem. I played it again for the first time in years a couple of months back however, and I've been coming back to it over and over again since. It's crazy how fresh something can sound upon returning to it after a long time of absence. I guess my biggest complain would be that the music is just too demanding to sit through if I'm not in the mood to hear it, and like a lot of Mayhem releases, I can't just play an individual tune from this CD and enjoy it. I have to hear the whole thing in it's entirety, and that's if I can be arsed in the first place.

With all that said however, this is easily my favourite Mayhem album behind De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. I mean yeah, it's not as good as said record, but then there's not many extreme metal albums that are. And anyway, Ordo has it's own flavour of twisted evilness that sets it apart from DMDS which almost every black metal album under the sun is compared to. It's also shorter than all their other full-length albums, at just over 40 minutes. And this is good because I feel when music is as extreme as this, I don't need much more than 40 minutes to enjoy it properly. I might not be a black metal boffin, but the Mayhem studio discography (discounting their live albums because there are far too many of them...) is ideal for me; it's nice and compact at just 6 albums thus far, and consistently strong because of it.

Adam's rating: 9.1/10

ESOTERIC WARFARE          2014          (Season of Mist)

- Standouts: 'Watchers', 'Psywar', 'Trinity', 'Milab', 'Throne of Time', 'Corpse of Care'

I've had Deathcrush and all the other full-length studio stuff up to Ordo Ad Chao in my collection for years, and I've thoroughly enjoyed revisiting them for this post. I honestly think I enjoy all of them more nowadays than I did when I first acquired them more than a decade ago, or whenever it was. And that surprises me, because in my late teens and early '20s, I was obsessed with the heaviest shit I could find. I wasn't listening to a lot of the stuff I also enjoy nowadays. For instance, you'd never have found a Dire Straits album in my collection back then. Or Bob Dylan. Or U2. Or whatever really. It'd just be metal, some punk or classic and hard rock. But it's nice to know that I can still really dig black metal, or death metal in my '30s. Of course, I still attend metal concerts and festivals, so that obviously has something to do with it, and a lot of my favourite bands still sit within classic heavy metal territory . But as for extreme metal, I don't listen to it as much as I used to (generally speaking) but I can actually enjoy it even more-so now when I'm in the mood for it.

This album is testament to that rambling paragraph I just wrote. I missed out on 2014's Esoteric Warfare and it's 2019 follow-up, Daemon - so I bought copies of my own recently for this blog post. Anyhow, Esoteric Warfare is another fine Mayhem record that I'm diggin' a lot. It sounds like a mixture of Chimera and Ordo Ad Chao, in that the production is definitely lo-fi, just not to the same extent as it's predecessor, while the songwriting and instrumentation is comparable to Chimera. The music isn't quite as harrowing as OAC, but it's still twisted enough to comfortably (or uncomfortably) remind the listener that this is still very much a Mayhem record. Back to the production though. I really like the way this album sounds, once again. Like I said, it isn't as unconventional as OAC, but is still muddy and dark; but it's not muddy and dark enough to the point where it's unlistenable. Far from it. I actually prefer the way it sounds to the crisper Chimera. There's a lot of low-end, but the guitars are still perfectly audible. The only real complaint I have is Hellhammer's surprisingly thin-sounding drums, but this is a minor issue overall. 

As for the songs, they deal with conspiracy theories, mind control and warfare - some dark shit then, which is what you want of course! Like all these records, it's hard to really dissect most of these songs as I find most Mayhem albums to be more of an experience that have to be sat through in full to be enjoyed properly. Like, the songs kinda flow in and out of each other seamlessly. But there are definitely some moments that do stick in my head. For instance, the haunting sirens in the background to 'Trinity', the slow croaking vocal introduction to 'Milab'... and the rest of 'Milab' for that matter. This song is crushingly heavy and brooding all the same. The atmospheric 'Throne of Time' is excellent too, while the single 'Psywar' is also a standout. But none of these songs come anywhere near patchy. The reverb-drenched riffs vary from fast and ripping to slow, haunting and twisted while the drums are as frantic as ever. Atilla's vocal performance isn't quite as memorable as his last effort, but is still as consistently unpredictable as ever. He's doing the old-school black metal thing of raspy screams, throaty, croaky speech and also full-on death metal gutturals when necessary. 

It should be noted that this was the first album to feature guitarists' Teloch and Ghul. Not entirely sure how having 2 guitar players benefits the band in the studio compared to when Blasphemer handled all the 6-string work himself, but the music certainly hasn't gotten any worse. Well, except maybe 'Posthuman' bores me a little with it's slow repetition... repetition is obviously commonplace in black metal, but it's not even a proper riff that's repetitive here, more like a 3-note guitar lick played up and down the fretboard, and it just drags on far too long at nearly 7 minutes. Also, as much as I like this record, it's still not top-tier Mayhem to me, even if it is still very strong. I enjoy the hell out of it, but like Chimera, I don't love it.

I really don't know what else to say. I like this, Chimera and Grand Declaration of War equally. They all sound like Mayhem, yet they all sound different and they're all great for different reasons. I've noticed online that Esoteric Warfare doesn't seem to get quite as much love as most other Mayhem records amongst fans. I dunno, I'm a fan and it does it for me. I totally recommend this.

Speaking of fans, everyone else seems to absolutey love Deathcrush and hold it in such high regard. I respect it's importance, and I like the songs, but I just can't enjoy it to the same extent as the majority of their later, more accomplished works. Also, Ordo Ad Chao is my second favourite album of theirs. What sort of fan am I?!

Adam's rating: 8.4/10

DAEMON          2019          (Century Media)

- Standouts: All strong, but 'Falsified and Hated' is notably excellent.

What I like about Mayhem is that they didn't just try to re-record De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas over and over again throughout their career. They're far more creative than people give 'em credit for. I think black metal is sometimes thrown into one basket as this genre where every album is raw as hell, the music is repetitive and kinda simplistic and the lyrics are always satanic. But every Mayhem album sounds different to me. Even 2019's Daemon manages to shift quite heavily in tone next to 2014's Esoteric Warfare. This album did really well with the critics when it dropped, and I can understand why. They've returned to a sound and image that definitely takes a lot of influence from DMDS, but has a lot of the instrumental characteristics of Esoteric Warfare. This is probably due to the fact they still have Teloch and Ghul  in the band, and also that Teloch is a huge part of the songwriting process on both records. And this is what I mean when I say that each record has their own charm. Daemon is visually and sonically influenced by classic Mayhem, but the songs are played in the technical style that the band have developed over time.

The production is excellent, yet again. It sounds nothing like Esoteric Warfare, which was much muddier and murkier. No, Daemon sounds more like a professionally-produced, sharp black metal album with a ton of old-school vibes. The guitars have a lot of bite, and Hellhammer's drum sound is probably the best in years. They sound much more organic and less triggered. Not that they ever sounded bad in the past (in my opinion), you just really get a feel for them on this record. And the bass isn't buried in the mix; it's definitely not as bass-heavy as albums like Esoteric Warfare or Ordo Ad Chao, but it's prominent when it needs to be. To be honest, I think Necrobutcher is an underrated metal bass player in general. In songs like the disturbing 'Falsified and Hated', you get these really cool, slow, plodding bass lines beneath the razor-sharp, tremelo riffs of the guitars and it gives the song a much more unsettling vibe. It's just what Mayhem do, and it works. The music is often fast as hell, with relentless riffs and drums that you've come to expect, but slow and mid-tempo doomy songs like 'Aeon Daemonium' also break up the pace of the album really nicely. It keeps me hooked.

Atilla doesn't exactly disappoint vocally once again, although I will say that this is probably his weakest performance in my books after the last couple of albums. I don't think he's quite as diverse this time around as I don't hear as many of those little death metal-style vocal quips from him here, but given the fact this record is a bit more traditional black metal this time around, he isn't doing anything wrong or poorly either. So while I wouldn't call this his best performance, I'm not really dissing him either.

All in all I like this album ever-so-slightly more than I do Esoteric Warfare or some of the older stuff like Chimera and Grand Declaration of War. I think it's a combination of the production and the fact it had been a while since the band had given us a more evil-inspired black metal album more in the same vein of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas that helps me enjoy Daemon so much (you only have to look at the album cover to know what kind of style they were going for this time around). It just feels right for them to record and release a record like this, at this point in their career. My criticisms are the same as always - I almost never listen to any of these tracks individually because I find them hard to memorise on their own. The fact black metal isn't a favourite subgenre of mine means a lot of the albums I do have in that category aren't favourites of mine... except the really special one's like De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse. 

When all's said and done though, I've listened to this thing numerous times in the last few days and like all Mayhem studio albums, the listening experience as a whole is hugely enjoyable and gripping from start to finish. Yeah I don't listen to the songs individually, but as a complete album it's great once again. Daemon gets another huge thumbs-up from me.

Adam's rating: 8.7/10

ATAVISTIC BLACK DISORDER (EP)          2021          (Century Media)

This EP features 3 tracks from the Daemon recording sessions... 1 exclusive ('Voces Ab Alta') and 2 that were featured as bonus songs if you bought the limited edition of that album ('Black Glass Communion' and 'Everlasting Dying Flame'). Thankfully my copy of Daemon doesn't have those extra songs, so I didn't completely waste my money here. To be frank, all 3 of these tracks are a very good continuation of the previous record;  'Black Glass Communion' in particular sounds very old-school Mayhem to me, but with the same production of the Daemon album. There really isn't a lot to say here about them, as they could all fit in seamlessly.

The remaining 4 tracks however, are all covers. Punk covers to be precise. Extreme metal bands love covering punk rock... Slayer did an entire album devoted covering old punk numbers with Undisputed Attitude, and here's Mayhem giving their take on Discharge ('In Defense of Our Future'), Dead Kennedys ('Hellnation'), Ramones ('Commando') and Rudimentary Peni ('Only Death') cuts. Hearing a black metal band doing this sort of thing isn't quite as strange as I was expecting... mostly because the way they perform these tunes is done in a fairly conventional way. The production is modern and crisp of course, Atilla sings them with clean vocals (well, I mean clean in the punk sense of word) and all in all, there's pretty much zero black metal Mayhem influences within any of them. Honestly, it's kind of disappointing that the band didn't put their own stamp on any of these covers. It'd have made them far more interesting. Stick some blast beats in there, and go nuts with the vocals, otherwise what's the point? It's a novelty, nothing more.

With that said, I can't say that any of the covers are poorly performed, 'cos they're not. And it is sort of cool to hear a band with such dark, serious imagery and tone actually sound like they're having fun. And overall I'm still kinda glad I picked this up - the Daemon songs are great as expected, and the punk covers, while a little silly, are still listenable at the very least. So... Daemon session tracks get an 8/10, the rest gets a 5/10. A package for the fans.

Adam's rating: 6.5/10