A diamond in the rough.... from my vinyl vault: Mayhem's, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"

Mayhem's, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"

I picked up this incredible reissue of Mayhem's debut black metal classic today at Skinnie's Records. It was re-released a little while back by Back On Black records in 2013 on 180 gram and on a limited 500 copy press of purple splatter vinyl.

This album came third in line after Burzum's first two albums and Darkthrone's first three albums; and the Mayhem debut along with these albums are the three quintessential bands that created the second-wave black metal sound that would spawn countless of other bands to follow in their footsteps and make it known beyond the borders of Norway and as a new subgenre of its own.

Mayhem have always had lots of controversy surrounding them with the suicide of their original vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin (better known by his stage name, "Dead") and the murder of Øystein Aarseth (a.k.a, "Euronymous) by Mayhem's own Varg Vikernes, whom is also the one-man band behind the Burzum moniker. However, plenty of media coverage/silly hype and documentation is rather over-saturated on this angle. This review, and the reason for my personal interest in the group is strictly for musical purposes only and for its historical importance within the context of heavy metal.

Back of, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathans"

There are a lot of interesting things happening musically around the creation of this album, and there was virtually almost nothing else quite like it with the main exceptions of Burzum and Darkthrone (of course some first wave black metal such as Bathory also applies-- the bottom line is that its a very short list of a small handful of groups mostly in Norway all contributing to an entirely new extreme form of metal).

Key characteristics of the album and of Mayhem's early sound are part of what made this album and the early era of the second wave of black metal so unique. Hellhammer's drumming is arguably totally the most impressive display of talent up to this point within the genres early releases; effortlessly blastbeating away, excellent tom rolls, with pummeling double bass on the kick drum. The fuzzed-out guitar effects created the icy distortion the genre is so known for-- the tonality of it was so distinct and different from the classic death metal tones of the time, particularly from that of the Swedish death metal scene. Tremolo picking pulls and breaks apart minor chord progressions, along with thrashy pulverizing riffs, coupled with melodic chunky bass lines. Varg Vikernes (though not a permanent member of Mayhem's lineup) did fill in to play bass on the album, the bass lines are well executed-- but its the drumming and the guitar work that takes the spotlight on this record. I would argue the most addicting track is the legendary, "Freezing Moon"-- the song showcases an incredible riff and a sense of memorability to it, while also displaying all the trademark characteristics of the bands sound.

Attila Csihar took over vocal duties after their original vocalist Dead shot himself. There are recordings of demos and live concerts with Dead--- but this was the groups first studio/official LP recording, and Attila took over after Dead's suicide. His style is unique to the genre at the time-- he intentionally did very strange moans and deep eerie chant-like voices, he sets a very haunting atmosphere appropriate for Mayhem, and his performance matches the music well. 

Reissued on purple splatter colored vinyl.

Originally released on Euronymous's Deathlike Silence label, the record has now been re-released a total of 31 times on various formats. An original copy of the first LP pressing (cataloged as Anti-Mosh 006) has up to date sold at the highest at $453.14 on Discogs (too rich for my blood-- I will just enjoy this reissue!). So the reissue of this historically important and also timeless classic of the Norwegian black metal scene is now affordable and a neat addition into the collection of diehard metal fans. I imagine it will only be a short time before it gets reissued time and time again, as a record so ahead of its time is bound to have people looking back and listening to it over and over; as black metal continues to evolve, and even the newest and most groundbreaking bands within the genre carrying the torch today are undeniably influenced by Mayhem.

A diamond in the rough.... from my vinyl vault: Burzum

Burzum's 1st album

I was lucky enough to scoop up a good deal on this particular record at Skinnies Records in Norfolk. There were also some really nice re-releases of Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum there as well that hopefully I'll get around to picking up eventually. It wasn't an easy process of elimination that day between those choices-- as each of these groups helped start an entirely new style of heavy metal, but I figured why not start off with this intriguing classic as a very first for the Black Metal section of my collection.  Rather than be redundant of other blog and/or site that has spoken of Varg Vikernes controversial past and points of view (none of which are what interests me in him), I have chosen this record because of its importance to the history of heavy metal. Its significant for its rather large role in supporting the creation of the black metal sub-genre, and especially for the concept of the one-man black-metal band.

To outsider ears of heavy metal-- some will struggle to hear the difference between death metal and black metal. Especially since in the time since the original scenes have moved on, newer bands have embraced both styles and infused them. At the time though, these original groups made every effort to musically state that they were separate and a new breed if you will. This album encompasses practically all of the characteristics of black metal: unlike death metal, where the guitarist often did just power chords or even just drop-tuned and played the top three strings to create the deep chugging-riff style typical of that style-- black metal guitarists were often using full bar chords (particularly as minor chords) with tons of distortion. The vocal styles are both screaming yes, but rather then simply write it off, its notably a different technique: death metal was distinct in its low-guttural approach (such as the Swedish death metal band Entombed for example) whereas black metal vocals tended to be not necessarily high-pitched, but not concentrated on achieving a low growl, more of just the most fierce scream of terror the frontman could deliver. The drumming certainly had the most similarities: lots of double bass and often blast-beats as well.

Inside of album gatefold.

Rather than give you a track-by-track detail (as there are more than enough of those reviews on Metal-archives of all sorts of opinion)-- I'd rather sum up the sides of the record and also make note of its overall atmosphere. It's important to realize that black metal is about atmosphere. Both the first self-titled album, and the included Aske mini-LP included are loaded with tremolo-picked blistering icy distorted guitar, pummeling drums, blood curdling eerie vocals. Surprisingly, there are strange creepy ambient noise moments, a bit of calm before the storm. The entire record is a unique blend of heavy metal, that is both haunting and eerie. There is a unique air to this style and sound, it possesses a strangely addictive quality-- it technically should be considered one of the worst things you've ever heard, since it breaks a lot of rules musically and also for recording production. Yet the fun in this musically speaking is much like Halloween-- it's an entertaining form of heavy metal to be sorta scared of at the same time. This might sound strange at first, but historically speaking this is not dissimilar to anything before with say Screaming Jay Hawkins popping up out of a coffin during his songs, or Alice Cooper "executing" himself on stage-- its now just taken on its own form within the realm of heavy metal.

Some other quite interesting and rare things compared to even other black metal acts at this early point in the movement, was that Burzum never played live, and never has played live (and quite possibly maybe never will). This was very rare at the time, as how was a record supposed to draw any attention at all if you never performed it to help make it known? So naturally this struck people as odd. Also, Burzum was simply just Varg Vikernes--- he played all the instruments and recorded it entirely by himself, so unlike Darkthrone and Mayhem- he was strictly a one-man band. Not only was this very uncommon for black metal, but this is extremely not common for metal in general. Quite possibly the most important thing would be the intentional direction of the production of this record. Varg chose intentionally "bad" sounding things. He made the guitar scratchy with too much overdrive, he only has the drums set up to be just audible enough without trying to a achieve the "big" drum rock'n roll sound that most bands aimed for in the studio, and he allowed the vocals too scream and clip over-top of the recording sometimes (apparently he recorded these by screaming into a headset as he stated in the documentary Until The Light Takes Us). He intentionally used the cheaper equipment, and did things not recommended for the "ideal" sound, and sloppily selected reverb and mix settings. Hahaha, can you imagine how weird this was for the recording engineer? Weirdest day at work ever!

Back of record.

Some have argued that this is an overrated album in the vast amounts of black metal now available since its heyday in the nineties. However, before judging so harshly it should be considered that this album created a template in which most bands of this style after Burzum would follow. It should be kept in mind at the time this album came out, other than Mayhem & Darkthrone-- there was virtually nothing else that sounded like this. Though of course Bathory is a huge influence, and there was also Venom before-- while groups such as these made vital contributions to the very existence of black metal-- it didn't truly become its own style until Burzum, Mayhem, and Darkthrone put out their significant releases marking the turning-point of this new music). Everything about this record was musically rebellious to the current thriving thrash and death metal of the time: the style, the production, the theme, the look, and the atmosphere were all unique. This album in particular was not only significant to the birth of black metal, not only a blueprint for the enormous amount of black metal to follow in its footsteps, but also forever put Norway on the map for heavy metal and has wrote a very interesting chapter in the story of heavy metal.