7 long years have passed since Mayhem’s last full length sweep of decrepit blackened murk ‘Ordo ad Chao’ hit our speakers, covering listeners in a filthy napalm-like phlegm which ate deeply into the beings of those who were willing to let its dark expanses take hold. Twisted and drenched in its own filth, it was a large step away from the cleanly produced sterility of ‘Chimera’ before it, the return of Attila to the fold not only allowing his darkly toasted croaks to take the forefront once more, but also seemingly bringing back the unpleasantness in measurements of cubic fuckton.
It was a huge blow that so soon after what was widely considered to be one of Mayhems best releases that guitarist Blasphemer decided to step down, some going so far as to begin questioning the bands future (let us not forget that although not part of the ‘classic’ line up, he was actually a member of Mayhem longer than Euronymous). Upon the announcement that Teloch was the man chosen to fill some of the largest shoes in extreme metal, I had a good feeling that Mayhem’s future was in the right hands (as Nidingr, his other band, released one of my favourite albums of recent years with ‘Sorrow Infinite and Darkness’).
The announcement came that the new album ‘Esoteric Warfare’ was due to drop in 2014, with the 2nd track ‘Psywar’ being served up as an aperitif to sate the years worth of hunger for new material. It was a promising beginning, a great song – but nothing was to prepare me for the sheer brilliance that this album contains. The foggy, sick miasma still pervades like a reoccurring nightmare from ‘Ordo ad Chao’, but the songs that make up this album seem somehow heartier, thicker and hard hitting in comparison. Perhaps it’s the sheer factor of time working on this album, with every ounce of each members creativity being crystallised into its purist form, with titrated spite, coldness and bile having been fermented and concentrated into an explosion of jagged chords, foaming guitars and inhuman vocals, all bound by an ever shifting and unpredictable human metronome behind the drum kit.
Opening with ‘Watcher’, you instantly recognise the insignia that is the Mayhem sound, starting with gentle sweeping chords that build quickly into a full battalion of thunderous passages which brim with noxious poison – it’s remarkable quite how much chaotic Deathspell Omega styled churn there is in Mayhem’s tumultuous musical breadth these days, adding further ugliness to their already turbulent outlook. The album crackles with a foreboding energy, feeding an ever threatening swarm of guitars and drumming into your psyche, punctured only by swathes of melody which colourfully sweep across the monochromatic landscape with vigour. The songwriting pulsates with venomous glee, writhing to its own rhythms. Twisting passages weave serpentine spells, blurring and focussing in turn to confound and disorientate.
‘Trinity’ opens with the infamous Oppenheimer quote of “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”, pounding with a martial refrains, machine gun fire and air raid sirens, it highlights the fact that this is in fact a concept album about esoteric nuclear warfare, and it fits the soundscapes like a bayonet in the face. One of the most noteworthy of things with this album is Attila. His vocals have always been primal, inhuman at times – but he has truly outdone himself on this release. His vitriol is ever present, barely concealed even in ‘Mylab’, a track which takes a eerie turn to slower territories and sees his voice seething with a controlled simmer early on, before breaking every chain with some of the most inhuman shrieks and squawks I’ve heard committed to plastic.
‘Throne of Time’ reminds very much of ‘Wolf’s Lair Abyss’, pumping the chill factor up with shimmering discordance and exorcism-born vocals, chiming and ringing to carpet bombed drumming and finger shredding grimy bass work. ‘Corpse of Care’ and ‘Posthuman’ continue the tone with a slow churning aura, breaking into sporadic bursts of speed, irrepressibly schizophrenic and unyielding. All this leads into album closer ‘Aion Suntalia’, packed as it is with spooky alien synth, agitated rhythms and ever disciplined songwriting, building to a satisfactory (albeit, slightly anticlimactic) finish.
Mayhem will always have their detractors. Their influence on the Norwegian scene and the 2nd wave of black metal as a whole is as undeniable as the changes in line up and style are polarising to their fan base old and new. One thing is for sure, ‘Esoteric Warfare’ exudes quality, and is unmistakably Mayhem. Stubborn and uncaring, yet filled with renewed strength and new beginnings, it embraces Mayhem of old, new and everything in between. Darkly arcane and rapt with a frigid non-indulgence, it marks their 30 years of existence with a monolithic exclamation point.
(9/10 Lars Christiansen)
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