A guide by Metal_fan

Well, as most people know, Mayhem's history is a rather interesting one. So, logically, to fully understand Mayhem's albums, you must then understand how they placed in the band's history.

First, when mayhem was a relatively young band (and still Euronymous, Manheim, Necrobutcher, and Messiah), they released a demo known as the "Pure FXcking Armaggeddon" demo. This was back when the band considered themselves to be a "Total" death metal band. The production was sh*tty, and the songs were poorly written, but it was a start. The lyrics were rather crude, and kind of a joke. But, next year, in 1987, Mayhem released 'Deathcrush'. The production was a whole lot clearer, the vocals were discernable, and the tonality was a lot easier to detect. However, it was far from being able to be taken seriously. The total length of the album was just over 17 minutes long, and for six songs (including an instrumental called "Sylvester Anfang, which is laughable, and the ending song which is half instrumental and half not, and the lyrics were still basically generic gore lyrics with lots of cursing, and that ended in 1988 when, after the old drummer, Manheim, and vocalist Maniac left, and were replaced shortly by Torben and Kittil, respectively. Both left shortly thereafter and Mayhem got fitting replacements with Hellhammer and Dead, respectively. They toured a lot, and in the process ended up in countless bootlegs. One of those bootlegs is 'A Tribute to the Black Emperors', and is considered their best. It features a demo from Dead's old band, Morbid, and two studio songs Dead managed to do before he shot himself, plus a couple of songs from other CD's. Another one is Dawn of The Black Hearts, and features a picture of Dead that is widely circulated, and is a picture of Dead with his brains blown out. Another bootleg ended up becoming a official release, and it's set in Leipzig, Germany, and it's called 'Live in Leipzig'. It's tied with 'A Tribute to the Black Emperors' as the highest quality bootleg Mayhem released. However, in 1991 dead shot himself, and most people thought Mayhem was over. Necrobutcher left the band shortly afterwards, and with the experience of momentary stand in Occultus on Bass and Vocals, people thought that they would never hear from Mayhem again. Boy, were they wrong!!! A year to two years later, Mayhem recorded 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' and it has proved since to be one of the coldest, darkest, and most evil black metal records. The production was considered to be the best in Black metal. However, a half a year after finishing recording, session bassist and rival Varg Vikernes killed Euronymous after a bitter rivalry. The CD was released a year later and dedicated to Euronymous. After this, with no original members left and only one non-session member, Mayhem ceased to exist. Many people thought that Mayhem was for sure, now, dead and over with. But again, they were wrong.

In 1996, Hellhammer recruited Necrobutcher and Maniac back in the band, and recruited Aura Noir guitarist Blasphemer. A significantly more skilled guitarist than Euronymous, Blasphemer proved to be an amazing replacement and took Mayhem to more experimental paths. A year later, in 1997, they released 'Wolf's Lair Abyss' and that has since been considered a letdown by some and a masterpiece by others. Hellhammer was faster, and blasphemer was ripping those strings up. The only thing was... Maniac's voice. It was different than Deathcrush, more of a gutteral inhuman shriek than an outright wail. Many either hate it or love it. Three years later, Mayhem released one of the most experimental and fastest albums yet, 'Grand Declaration of War' and that has since proved to be their most controversial release. It dealt with themes of war and post war fallout and agoraphobia and a general war against Christianity, instead of the more morbid themes of Dead. Four years later, Mayhem said that that was the experimental release, and their new release was TRUE FXCKING BLACK METAL!!! Well, the production on their new release, 'Chimera' was crystal clear, and the guitars still had a progressive edge to them, but it still had a dark and haunting atmosphere. The band, by this time, had shifted from a dark and inhuman atmosphere, to a more depressing and chilling atmosphere. Chimera would prove to be less controversial than GDoW, but it was still only popular among those who embraced the new mayhem.

Since then, Maniac left the band once again, and was replaced by DMDS session vocalist Attila. They haven't released anything with this new lineup, but one should remain optomistic.

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