Mayhem: Pure Fucking Armageddon
Given metal’s underlying aesthetic to be as extreme, controversial and evil as possible, the story of MAYHEM borders on beyond the realms of possibilities. Despite a career that extends beyond three decades, a string of events in the 1990s pushed the envelope of what it means to be extreme in metal to harrowing and downright shocking results, and the Norwegians were at the heart of it. We don’t need to re-address what exactly happened, that has been documented to death. Decades later, MAYHEM remain as one of the most influential bands within the black metal sphere.
Partly, this is due to extensive reach that 1994’s seminal De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas has had on the black metal world. Hailed as a landmark and hugely influential record, their debut full-length is a masterpiece of what black metal represents; and in the decades since, wave after wave of emerging bands attempt to channel the raw and visceral energy that record displays.
Sure, some bands channel the essence of MAYHEM better than others, but what of the actual band themselves? Well, MAYHEM today is a very different incarnation of the band that crafted that iconic release. This year saw their explosive return with their sixth studio effort, Daemon, and it’s one of the most visceral output we’ve heard from the Norwegians for many years. In a strange sense, Daemon channels the essence and raw nature of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and this is something that founding member Jørn Stubberud, aka Necrobutcher, has noticed himself. “Some people have said to me that some parts sound like De Mysteriis and I was thinking to myself that when the two guitarists were touring in the album entirety shows that maybe it leaked into their songwriting process unconsciously,” he says. “Some people have picked it up and as I’ve been in the middle of process, it’s been hard to see it in there. I hear it from other people. This is our best album in my opinion, so to be compared to that, then great!”
To have comparisons to arguably your most revered release is surely a great thing, but Daemon can stand on its own two feet in its own right. A defiant, confident and unrelenting listening experience, Daemon catapults MAYHEM back up the pecking order and serves a reminder that they can just be as explosive and audibly violent as they once were. Upon pressing Necrobutcher as to why their new opus is so audibly vicious, he says, “it’s more of a team effort in the band now, not like when there was egos from two members that shit on the rest of us. This time, we did it together. The cool thing is that I got more involved now. I’d been pushed out a little bit because people have problems with strong personalities in this band. Even though I’m an original member, they tried to piss on me every time they could. They’d fuck my girlfriends, they’d be assholes, they were like dogs! But now, everybody had their moment with the songwriting, it’s a hell of an album and I’m particularly proud of how many good bass hooks that I put in there. To compensate for the last two albums where you can’t even fucking hear the bass at all as I wasn’t there when they mixed it.”
There’s a real sense that the pride Necrobutcher has in the new album is genuine, rather than the expected false excitement we have seen when bands of such a stature have released albums in the past. One look at the bassist and you know he believes every word he says. It seems that by getting more involved in the song-writing process and creation of a record, Necrobutcher has reaffirmed his passion and strive for creating music, all the while flinging middle fingers to those who have wronged him in his past. “Since this was not a concept album, I also wrote some lyrics myself. I wrote all the lyrics in the 80s, I also have Cursed In Eternity from De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, that was the last lyrics I wrote for MAYHEM. The rest have been concept albums, basically it was bullshit. Ego maniacs writing the music of MAYHEM and didn’t want me to write anything. So, this time I took the opportunity to write the song Bad Blood and it is about those fuckers.”
One of the key things we’ve picked up across our time with Necrobutcher is of his insistence that Deamon is the product of a team effort. Rather than being the product of a singular big personality, this body of evil is the result of five men who have enjoyed a period of band stability for nearly a decade now. For a band who have such a coloured and eventful history, this period of stability has allowed the band to tour relentlessly and Necrobutcher doesn’t hold back on the grim realities of touring in the modern age. “We’ve had this lineup for seven or eight years, and I think by the time we finish this album we’ll be in our mid-fifties. I can tell you straight up, I’m not counting down the shows, I’m counting down the fucking disgusting shower rooms and walking around in other people’s piss and shit! Now, I’m down to 23 shitholes in a shower, some of them don’t even have a shower, there’s no fucking respect for any artists any more. We’ve always been like ‘maybe it’s better next time’ but you know what, I’ve had it with this bullshit. I’m starting to want to kick ass and throw bottles in people’s faces.”
The realities of touring in the modern age is tough, there’s no understating that, and it’s a situation most extreme metal bands face in 2019. But, despite this, one can look to MAYHEM in 2019 and see a band who stand as one of black metal’s most iconic names. But did Necrobutcher ever expect MAYHEM to achieve the reputation they have? “Why are you asking a question that you already know the answer to?” he demands; his intimidating reputation clear as day. “I can give you the answer that you already know, if we didn’t believe it in ourselves do you think we’d be here 35 years later? Do you think we did it for the money? You see, it’s my destiny. ‘Luke, I am your father.’ I couldn’t see myself doing anything else, I was born to do this. I’m going to do this until I die.”
It’s a confident and defiant response from someone you wouldn’t expect anything less of. Necrobutcher and MAYHEM itself built their infamy on resilience and the very fact the band exists in 2019 is testament to the fact that the band, their energy and spirit, is still very much alive and kicking. Years after their violent and tabloid striking origins, MAYHEM remain. Pure fucking armageddon will reign forever.
Daemon is out now via Century Media Records.
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