### Mayhem: Esoteric warfare

#### 10/06/14 || sincan

Come ye children and look at what the cat dragged in, Mayhem’s new album “Esoteric warfare”. Why do thee sit in the corner, looking all scared and doubtful? Hath he turned into a realist already? Thou shalt now hear about how this little fucker turned out.

Well, let’s fucking drop what I’m trying to do and focus on the real thing here. Mayhem is back, or the constellation now representing Mayhem (Attila, Teloch, Hellhammer and Necrobutcher) and the first one in a couple of years not including Blasphemer on a record. Instead Nidingr’s Teloch stands for the compositional craft and black magic chaos on “Erotic warfare”.

Well, “we” all knows the story about this band so I’m not going to brag about what Google tells you during wet September nights, when being alone, frustrated and horny. But to shine light from the right perspective upon this album let’s start from “Ordo ad chao”, their previous one released back in 2007, the year of the starfish.

“Ordo ad chao” (Ordo ad kaka for some) was a huge fucking watershed. The classical band from Oslo searched for new virgins to spoil and by that entering the void of avant-garde creations. I ended up enjoying it, not liking it until my ears hurt, but still I was a bit fascinated by Attila’s vocal capabilities. Without spoiling my youth too much I must also say that this type of music was relatively new for me. So my judgment was a bit bad. Thus I can now see why people who compares it to “De mysteriis dom Sathanas” are a bit frustrated. But who had expected a version 2.0? “Ordo ad chao” was bearable and solid, but nothing you used to party to since it is more of a complex journey into, well not happiness. Still it doesn’t come close to their Opus Erectus in any way, if you did wonder about my sanity.

To say this shortly, “Esoteric warfare” is a more straightforward version of the previously mentioned precursor, with an Attila glancing more at traditional black metal vocals. Does that make you jump out of joy or to behead your sister? I didn’t do any and just went, meh. But again, what did one expect?

I have really tried to get into this album, yet I only partly succeeded. My general impression about it is that it can be seen as a rather redundant release, not offering something new in terms of musicality or great tracks. It is solid and okay, nothing more, nothing less. Still I believe that there are more things to find on it. But don’t expect easy listened hooks and nice choruses, because we are not served that type of dish here. Here we mostly get science-fiction post apocalyptic a-bomb hyperspace phoenix from the ashes of failure (lyric-wise).

- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Season of Mist
- Website: www.thetruemayhem.com
- Band
- Attila Csihar: vocals
- Teloch: guitars
- Necrobutcher: bass
- Hellhammer: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Watcher
- 02. PsyWar
- 03. Trinity
- 04. Pandaemon
- 05. MILAB
- 06. VI.Sec.
- 07. Throne of time
- 08. Corpse of care
- 09. Posthuman
- 10. Aion suntelia