Mayhem: Liturgy of Death, Four Decades of Pure Terror.

 

When people talk about Mayhem, it's easy to hear about everything except the music. Paganism, dungeons, burned churches, stabbings, severed pig heads, human bone necklaces, suicides, and murders. There are books and movies dedicated to the history of this band, but what about the music? There are plenty of bootlegs, obscure limited editions, live albums, and many forgettable records. The truth is that their official discography is slim and not as extraordinary as the reputation that precedes the band.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is more of a documentary than an album. Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous, finally brought order to the chaos to make possible a professionally recorded and massively distributed album, the work that would define the band for eternity. A recording that took him almost a decade. I believe there wouldn't be another album so representative of the band's essence until 2007 with Ordo Ad Chao. Albums like Daemon and Esoteric Warfare are salvageable but not standout.

Of the legendary lineup that recorded De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, only drummer Hellhammer and vocalist Attila Csihar remain. It's worth noting that Csihar, although an official member of the band, is more of an itinerant artist with his own career and collaborations with various experimental artists like Ulver and Sunn O))).

2026 marks a new important date in the band's history with the release of their new album Liturgy of Death. It's astonishing that, despite the lack of consistency, the band maintains such a high level of danger and mysticism as few others do. Mayhem's ability to create chilling soundscapes is a fundamental part of the malevolent aura of these Scandinavian black metal pioneers who always operate close to chaos, whether in their fastest, adrenaline fueled compositions or in slow, dark passages. Something like a sonic black hole that devours everything around it.

It's impressive to think that this emblematic band of the most terrifying black metal has navigated four decades to reach this point. Mayhem sounds fully aware of its strengths and weaknesses, and Liturgy of Death makes that evident. The band focuses on creating a suffocating atmosphere where death is not dramatic but inevitable.

Attila Csihar's vocals remain one of the most unsettling features of the band's sound. He inhabits every song, shifting between chants, growls, and spectral murmurs that give the music a ceremonial weight. On Liturgy of Death, power is built through repetition and immersion, revealing details little by little. Liturgy of Death may not redefine black metal, but it reinforces why Mayhem still matters: they understand how to make darkness feel oppressive.

I would dare to say that Attila Csihar is the absolute protagonist of Liturgy of Death, though it's impossible to overlook the performance of drummer Hellhammer, another of the band's strong points.

Ephemeral Eternity is not exactly a masterpiece, but it has a particular sound thanks to the collaboration with members of Ulver and Hellhammer's all terrain drumming. The vocals handled by Garm from Ulver and Csihar result in something extremely epic. The band doesn't floor the pedal here yet and focuses more on dissonance and showing dense muscle.

With Despair, hell really breaks loose, and we get a sample of that demonic-speed black metal with powerful guttural sounds. Necrobutcher's bass is a weapon of deep darkness, while the guitars of Teloch and Ghul are razor-sharp blades ready to shred anything that moves or gets in their way. This is the sound of black magic in full collision with brutal chaos, all while Csihar seizes the exact moment to unleash his terrifying, operatic vocals.

Weep for Nothing is stellar from start to finish. Hellhammer and Necrobutcher connect like a single gear in a devastating war machine. Powerful guitars displaying various angles and textures. They know how to terrify in many ways, sounding like brutal electric saws or infernal bells, something like a pair of sinister spiders weaving the backdrop to firmly establish the demonic theater in which Csihar is an experienced actor, leading us through his devastating narrative of pure, bestial ritual terror.

Aeon's End is another absolute gem with a rabid sound and Csihar's almost schizophrenic vocals. The guitars take center stage on Funeral of Existence, another great masterpiece on the album where the band once again dares to operate differently, venturing into unexpected passages and creating truly unsettling rhythms. Maturity? Yes, that's what this track sounds like, and the truth is it sounds very good.

Realm of Endless Misery is another gem with different passages that will seriously challenge those who say Mayhem always sounds the same. Here there's well thought out evolution. Csihar helps the band at every moment to avoid falling into the conformity of common black metal, allowing them to delve into something stranger and more avant-garde.

Propitious Death is another big surprise, a display of volatile and corrosive power at the same time. The band pushing their darkest, most unsettling sonic vision to the extreme.

The album closes with The Sentence of Absolution, an impossible to ignore display of Mayhem's musical evolution, impeccably manifested. Pure terror turned into sound, with absolute mastery of the instrumentation and capable of forging an absolutely raw and necrotic emotional connection. Absolute artisans of a very peculiar and inimitable black metal.

Mayhem's legacy remains intact thanks to Liturgy of Death. It's clear that the black metal as this band conceived it more than four decades ago was not something extremely sophisticated but brutal, primitive, and spine chilling. Liturgy of Death is not "the revolution" in the current black metal world, but it is a powerful confirmation of the black magic and chaos behind this band.