Mayhem

The sordid affair involving the Norwegian black metal scene in the early nineties, replete with murders, church burnings, and the like, is a story that has been well-documented over the years, and Mayhem was in the center of it all. This is the band whose guitarist (Oystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous) was murdered by its then-bassist (Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh) over jealously regarding leadership in the so-called Inner Circle. Musically, early Mayhem was shunned by much of the mainstream metal press but revered by the underground, and their works such as Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, as raw and primitive as they were, are regarded as early landmarks in the field of black metal. Much of Mayhem's early discography is patchy at best, befitting a band with such a chaotic past (in addition to Aarseth's death, vocalist Per Ohlin (aka Dead) committed suicide while in the band). Somehow the band managed to remain in business through the 90's, and in 2000 released the very surprising A Grand Declaration Of War, an album that sought to push the boundaries of black metal in similar ways to bands such as Arcturus and Satyricon. This is really the first cohesive work the band has ever done, a fitting culmination to their career thus far, though some older fans were put off by the experimentalism. The band have followed Declaration with Chimera in 2004 and Ordo Ab Chao in 2007.

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Discography

Studio Live

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