Mayhem from the North

Infernal Hails My Satanic Bretheren,

Welcome to the second incarnation of “Storms from the Northern Wastelands”. My demonic eye falls upon one of the most prevalent, if not infamous, Black Metal bands to ever drag itself from out of the fiery pits of the underworld, MAYHEM! Having such an expansive history I shall be separating the article into two.

Formed in 1984 in Oslo by Oystein Aarseth, better known by his famous stage name “Euronymous”, Jorn Stubberud also known as Necrobutcher and Kjetil Manheim they are often credited with creating the modern form of black metal. Taking heavy influence from Thrash metal bands such as Slayer, Venom and Celtic Frost Mayhem is often credited with creating Black Metal as we know it today. They released their first and highly influential studio album in 1986, the infamous “Deathcrush”. By this time they had recruited a new singer Maniac (Sven Erik Kristiansen) who would later rejoin the band. This was the first major release by any of the Norwegian Black Metal bands and paved the way for what would become the 2nd Wave of Black Metal. In the wake of “Deathcrush” Mayhem would form what would become known as their classic lineup. Vocalist Dead (Per Yngve Ohlin) and the now legendary Hellhammer (Jan Axel Von Blomberg) joined the band. While recordings from this part of Mayhem’s history are few they are often considered to be the bands pinnacle by older fans. “Live in Leipzig” and the infamous “Dawn of the Black Hearts” live albums are the best known recordings from Dead’s stint in the band. On April 8th 1991, the first of many controversial events occurred among the band, the singer Dead committed suicide with a shotgun blast to the head. Guitarist Euronymous discovered the body and before calling the authorities took pictures of Dead’s corpse, usingone for the cover of “Dawn of The Black Hearts” and as legend has it, took pieces of his skull and mailed it to bands he felt “worthy”. This put a halt on the recording of Mayhem’s first true album and until new singer Atilla Csihar was recruited for recordings. As the album neared completion the studio bassist for the album, Varg Vikernes, allegedly murdered Euronymous over a dispute involving unpaid debts. His murder, and Vikernes subsequent conviction, left Mayhem with only one member, Hellhammer, the drummer. Despite this Mayhem’s first album “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”

Out of the most well known 2nd Wave bands like Burzum, Emperor, Enslaved, Darkthrone and of course Mayhem, Mayhem’s focus was mostly on brutality. While Emperor employed some orchestral backing and more melody, or Burzum’s attempt to create “magic”, Mayhem was all about the shock factor and anger that came with the black metal genre. While Deathcrush had a strong influence from Thrash Metal from the early ‘80’s, this influence declined until “De Mysteriies Dom Sathanas” was a completely different genre from thrash. One of the first true full album releases of Black Metal.

The music on “De Mysteriies Dom Sathanas” is fast and furious, everything you would expect from a Mayhem release. They avoid the pitfall of being repetitive with just enough tempo changes and variation to make the album worth listening to. The production qualities were, at the time, some of the highest quality given to a black metal album, something they have met some criticism for. The production though gives the album a full sound and brings out every instrument, the guitars wail and screech, the bass hums along and the drumming is some of the most impressive work you will find on any CD. The guitars, by none other then the famed Euronymous, are impressive black metal fair, wickedly paced tremolo picking abounds, but is mixed in with some impressive doomy parts, case in point the “Freezing Moon” intro. The bass guitar has its moments but is often left out like in most black metal. They were recorded by Varg Vikernes, Euronymous’ murderer and were supposed to be rerecorded but were mixed further back rather then being rerecorded. Drums…well what we can say about the drums, it’s Hellhammer manning the skins. His prowess is well known in Black metal circles and he doesn’t disappoint. This album is a clinic for any aspiring drummer as Hellhammer pours in blast beats quicker and longer then any human should, with some complex beats and ferocious drum rolls. Now the vocals, probably the most controversial bit, as Atilla Csihar does NOT have your atypical Black metal vocals. It ranges from ear splitting shrieks to an almost Gollum-like guttural half singing. Most of the vocals consists of the deep guttural singing which at times verges on almost operatic levels. More then most black metal vocals though it conveys a sense of extreme hate, like he is spitting upon mankind. As a whole the album is Mayhem’s overall strongest effort to date as it is near impossible to pinpoint favorites other then the absolute classic “Freezing Moon”. The title describes the album perfectly, Frozen and bleak with hatred seeping from every pore.

History of Mayhem continues next week, until then,

Lord Of Entropy

Storms From The Northern Wastelands #1

Infernal Hails fellow Creatures of the Satan, The Lord of Entropy welcomes you to “Storms From The Northern Wastelands” your newest source for the very best “kvlt” and “nekro” as fuck Black Metal Satan has ever spawned. Everything from the truest Black Metal demos to those who use Black metal as an inspiration will be profiled here. Hear the history of the genre of music closest to Satan himself. Let the Lord Of Entropy himself be your guide to the most infernal genre of music, the purest example of the inherent darkness of man.

Keeping it kvlt with my first review, a demo from a fantastic Norwegian band called Dies Irae. No one knows who was a part of the band as they only released one completely unknown demo in 1994 then the band split, but what a demo it was. Their demo entitled “Circle of Leth” is probably the best synthesis of low-fi black metal and classical music. Yes classical music, not cheesy symphonic bursts like Dimmu Borgir but beautiful sections of true classical music. The intro track is entirely instrumental with no guitars and is recorded on a synthesizer, or just so low quality we can’t tell, but the atmosphere is thick. A very brooding and almost creepy atmosphere, one of the tracks that, at night lying in your bed, you see shadows in you see shadows in your room conform into distorted evil shapes out of some evil dream. Yet at this same time there is a sense of beauty, these vast soundscapes of classical music not heard in the most fantastic of dreams. The rest of the tracks flawlessly combine the low-fi black metal aesthetics of Burzum with vocals similar to Attila Csihar, but the production focuses on the classical elements. The flutes and synths are at the forefront of the production and dominate the sound. Almost as if the stirring melodies of the classical section is underplayed by the filthy sludge of black metal. The black metal sections, while not at the forefront of the production are still noticeably capable, very impressive for how little the band did together. The production is black metal raw, down on the far end of the spectrum as in Burzum raw. It takes away from some of the technical showings of the band but it brings the focus to the atmosphere, one thing bands take years to find but Dies Irae have perfected in one demo.

As a little treat I am including a download link to this demo, its no longer in print so I don’t feel too bad giving it out for free, but music of this caliber needs to be heard. Theres also a Myspace page dedicated to the band with samples of 4 of the 5 tracks on it so have a listen.

Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/diesiraenorway

Download Link:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4545118-cee


Let’s shift to the more experimental regions of black metal, namely the band Blacklodge from France. From the cover you can see they play a very cold, mechanical industrial black metal, not with just a sample here or there but the music is more or less an industrial background with the black metal riffs and vocals over top of it, even with some techno beats thrown in for good measure. They’ve released two albums “Login:SataN” and “Solarkult”. Solarkult is a fantastic release but I will tell you it is not for every black metal fan. Electronics abound and there really is no organic drumming on the album, a drum machine is used on the entire album. It gives the album a wholly mechanized and icy cold feel, even more so then Aborym. The production is unusual in the sense that it is quite clean. The guitars still have that distinct ripping, heavy sound but the production is clean enough to allow the backing electronics to be very distinct, you never miss out on any of the sounds of the album. The electronics have an extremely caustic feel to them, they are not bouncy techno backing but sound like you are standing in an industrial factory and somehow a discernible beat materializes from the chaos around you. Throw in a guitarist and vocalist on top of that and you have Blacklodge.

They have a myspace with 2 samples from their two albums, all great examples of their industrial black metal style.

Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/loginsatan

Next week I’ll have a history and tribute to Mayhem, the band that defined “kvlt” and “nekro” aesthetics for a whole generation of Black Metal groups.

Infernal Tidings,

Lord Of Entropy