Mayhem - Esoteric Warfare

Mayhem! Possibly the most evil band in the world? While there is also murder and arson in the rap world, these guys from Norway had a very messy suicide, a very messy murder and a string of church arsons in their history. And you think Dawn of Ashes or that worthless crapband Psyclon Nine were tough? Think again. This is the real shit.

After their reformation in 1994 they have had a string of very experimental black metal albums with the controversial Ordo Ad Chao as their latest work. After 7 years they return with this new album "Esoteric Warfare" and boy, its an excellent one. Very well produced, so no grimm and necro atmospheres here. I personally really like the aesthetics of black metal, but prefer it well produced opposed to the bad production sported by acts like Xasthur or Burzum. Mayhem delivers in this respect. The album is filled with loads of blastbeats and powerriffing, but also has some very dark dark ambient effects and passages in the music. The scary voice of Attila Czar works very well, and he also wrote some cunning lyrics not only about the glory of Satan, but also about topic like singularity or philosophy and the occult.

No point in picking favorites since all tracks are of high quality. The short tracks are devilish speed monsters filled with blastbeats, and the longer tracks have more variety in moods and tempos. Mayhem delivers for the full 47 minutes the album lasts. I even seem to recognize influences from progressive acts like Rush or King Crimson in the relentless black metal of these guys. Especially on the song "MILAB" Which shows how much depth these original Norwegian Black Metallers have picked up in their history.

"Esoteric Warfare" is a must have for everybody into extreme metal. Possibly in my top 10 metal albums for this year. Mayhem shows they can still rule black metal, and that is a great accomplishment for a band which is already around for 30 years. Jul 22 2014