Album
Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 6/6/2014
Label:
Season of Mist
Mayhem - ‘Esoteric
Warfare’ track listing:
1. Watchers 06:19
2. PsyWar 03:25
3. Trinity 03:57
4. Pandaemon 02:53
5. MILAB 06:03
6. VI.Sec. 04:12
7. Throne of Time 04:06
8. Corpse of Care 04:06
9. Posthuman 06:55
10. Aion Suntelia 05:25
2. PsyWar 03:25
3. Trinity 03:57
4. Pandaemon 02:53
5. MILAB 06:03
6. VI.Sec. 04:12
7. Throne of Time 04:06
8. Corpse of Care 04:06
9. Posthuman 06:55
10. Aion Suntelia 05:25
The Band:
Review:
Mayhem,
back on my radar with their recent pre-emptive single, return with this full
length of spite and hatred. The sun is shining outside, it's the weekend...
time to crank some frost bitten black metal.
Watchers opens with
some reliably spiky guitar work. Hellhammer ratchets up the pace with double
kick skills very much intact and Attila brings some suitably necro vocals. Psywar (the “single”) is mostly
lightning fast and brutality displayed aurally. Trinity is quick and
sinister at the same time and the album is shaping up to be a lesson in black
metal horror. Pandaemon takes
things down a blasting road of stop start riffs and drums that really does not
let up. No vibe here, per se, just out and out filth.
Milab slows thing
down by several gears and is as unpleasant as it is disparate from what has
gone before. The black metal vibe is very much still there on this unusual
track of fragmented guitar and chugging riffs. There are some quick bits too,
of course...
VI
Second
starts slow again with some horrible vocals, the pace does increase momentarily
and then blasts. Hellhammer's performance... what can I say?! Incredible
drummer, incredible technique and skill around the kit.
Throne
of Time
has a creepy intro that then blasts into the stratosphere- utilising the
stop/start dynamic again to good effect. This is pure black metal of the hate
filled variety. No saving the planet, just pure hatred. If that sounds like
your thing, well, Corpse of Care is up next ready to keep you in the
depths of despair with its downbeat refrain and funereal tempo giving way to
machine gun like rhythms and some intelligible spoken lyrics.
Posthuman also has vocals that you can make out, with
nice bass work from Necrobutcher and Hellhammer playing it straight, for a
couple of minutes at least before the madness sets in and the band bring the
noise. The opening refrain is returned to, and it highlights Mayhem's
songwriting- not a term used a lot in BM circles, but they write good stuff-
memorable as well as horrific. The longest track on the album sounds better and
better after repeated listens and is a great piece of music.
Aion
Suntalia
finishes with changing tempos, horrible vocals and lots of BM vibe and riffing.
There may be new members in Mayem, but they acquit themselves very well over
the course of the album and deliver with riffs, guitar lines and atmosphere.
Overall,
this is a very strong black metal album- or should that be Mayhem album, as
they are perhaps bigger than the genre itself. If you ever liked the band, you
owe it to them to check this out. You also owe it to yourself, as this is metal
of the highest and most visceral quality.
Words by: Richard Maw
