Mayhem

Preeminent black metallers Mayhem ready their newest live strike with Daemonic Rites for Century Media. The 16-track effort captures the frightful efficiency and utter lethality of the Norwegians as they close the chapter on their exalted sixth album, Daemon (2019). Throughout Daemonic Rites, Mayhem impressively nail newer tracks like “Falsified and Hated,” “Malum,” “Bad Blood,” and “Voces Ab Alta” to the proverbial cross, while offering pure fucking mastery of classics like “Freezing Moon,” “Buried by Time and Dust,” “Deathcrush,” and “Carnage.” The devilish quintet also add mid-career haunts like “To Daimonion,” “Symbols of Bloodswords,” and “My Death,” making Daemonic Rites a genuine career-spanning offering.

“We wanted to document how great the band and set sounds like after almost 40 years of playing live,” says founding member Necrobutcher. “As a treat to our fans, we decided to release this live recording.”

“We released the live version of De Mysteriis [aka De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive] a few years ago,” Ghul adds. “That was received very well. We have been playing together for so long now with this lineup that we feel we have reached a point where we are a seriously well-oiled machine. It seemed like a natural step to try to capture this moment in the band’s history, with the same setlist we have been using for a while.”

Mayhem have nearly 1,000 shows to their name. Since their formation in Langhus, Norway in 1984, the band—now comprised of Necrobutcher (bass), Hellhammer (drums), Attila Csihar (vocals), Teloch (guitars), and Ghul (guitars)—have brought their brand of bellicose, preternatural black metal to over 60 countries. From the United States and Germany to Australia and Brazil, Mayhem have stunned, bewildered, and turned rabid a global legion, dedicated as much to the band’s infamous legacy as they are staunchly in support of Daemon. Much of that respect and devotion started in the early ‘90s, but persisted to the present day on the strength of official live albums Live in Leipzig (1993), Mediolanum Capta Est (1999), Live in Marseille 2000 (2001) and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016). Mayhem continue their on-stage assault with Daemonic Rites.

“I knew from day one back in 1984 that this band was going to be outstanding—one of the best bands ever!” Necrobutcher says. “I guess that’s a big reason why we still are here after 39 years—and counting.”

“Well, for the first time in a long time, we felt again like a unit, musically,” continues Hellhammer. “That’s something we haven’t felt in a long time, and that shows in the live recording.”

Daemonic Rites wasn’t pre-planned. Rather, they had sound engineer/producer Tore Stjerna (of Necromorbus Studio fame) record everything—just for posterity, in fact—during the group’s Northern Ritual MMXXII and Thalassic Ritual tours of 2022 and early 2023. Mayhem and Stjerna pilfered the gems, resulting in gigs from London (“Life Eternal,” “Malum”), Manchester (“My Death,” “Silvester Anfang”), and Gothenburg (“Pure Fucking Armageddon,” “To Daimonion”) coming out on top. The penultimate Mayhem live album wouldn’t be complete without “Freezing Moon” and “Pagan Fears”—both from Csihar’s hometown of Budapest, Hungary—as well as newer tracks “Falsified and Hated” and “Bad Blood” from Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. Daemonic Rites showcases the two-time Norwegian Grammy (aka Spellemannprisen) winners at the pinnacle of their live potential.

“We play the songs that feel the best live,” Hellhammer says. “We have in the past tried out a lot of different songs from former eras, but when you play live for an audience, the songs must have IT. If they don’t, even if they are good songs, they won’t fit in a live setting.”

Adds Teloch: “We have a vast catalog by now with so many different types of songs. It’s interesting to make them all work together in a full concert.”

Daemonic Rites comes off the heels of Mayhem’s incredible Beyond the Gates 2022 performance, where they uncaged cult classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas where it was originally recorded by Eirik ‘Pytten’ Hundvin (Enslaved, Emperor, Immortal) in Grieghallen during 1992/1993. The live album, however, was mixed and mastered over in neighboring Sweden. Stjerna, who also produced Daemon, took the phantasmagoric collection of tracks to his lair at Necromorbus Studio, where his sole job was to preserve Mayhem’s raw, unbridled energy and ghastly electricity. From “Falsified and Hated” and “My Death” to “Buried by Time and Dust” and “Carnage,” they’ve never had the quality of a live album quite like Daemonic Rites. If the past is always alive, this is a live album on par with Venom’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Emperor’s Emperial Live Ceremony, and Gorgoroth’s Black Mass Krakow 2004.

“It fits with where we are now, or more precisely, where we were at the time of the recording,” says Hellhammer.

“[The live recordings] capture the spirit and energy,” furthers Ghul, “of where we are as a band right now.”

Indeed, Mayhem have been and continue to be an unstoppable force. While atavists will always relish the Deathcrush or Live in Leipzig lineups, Hellhammer’s drum performance against the twin terrors of Teloch and Ghul is the purest black magic on Daemonic Rites. Similarly, Csihar’s hair-raising caterwauling and spectral snarls atop Necrobutcher’s seventh-hell low end is witching-hour great! To support Daemonic Rites, Mayhem have videos for Daemon-era masterpiece “Malum” and late-‘80s Killjoy dedication “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” lined up. Daemonic Rites is the perfect guillotine while the group craft new songs and conspire with others on what the group’s 40th Anniversary next year might entail. Mayhem are likely in their final form, and they’ve never been deadlier.