Mayhem is back with an original EP.
In addition to new songs (two of them were actually featured as bonus tracks on the last full-length), Necrobutcher (bass), Hellhammer (drums, Arcturus, ex-Dimmu Borgir, ex-Shining…), Attila Csihar (vocals, Sinsaenum, Tormentor…), Teloch (guitar, Nidingr, The Konsortium) and Ghul (guitar, Imperial Vengeance, ex-Cradle of Filth) offer us some covers that helped to forge their sound. Please welcome Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando.
We begin with Voces Ab Alta, a brand-new song that draws inspiration from Old School unholy and unhealthy sonorities to welcome Attila’s occult voice, which is able to do some morbid howlings as well as dark choirs. Dissonant riffs offer a heady melody that fit as much to blast beat as to slower and more oppressive tones, then the band stays into quite raw tones with Black Glass Communion. The sound is catchy, but it keeps some energetic unholy tones, offering ice-cold harmonics to create a contrast with this solid rhythmic basis that also lives on Everlasting Dying Flame, the next track. Once again, we find this impressive coldness and this dark melting of melodies and dissonance with majestic tones.
Mayhem continues with four cover songs, but also some surprises. On In Defense of Our Future, a Discharge song, the band called Messiah (Cockroach Clan, Order) while they welcome Maniac (Voluspå, Maniac, Wurdulak) for Hellnation, a composition by Dead Kennedys. Those vindictive songs display that the band’s two former vocalists perfectly know how to fit to Punk/Hardcore roots, then Attila comes back to vocals for Only Death, a song from Rudimentary Peni, and Commando from the Ramones. Whether Punk’s energetic roots are still here, vocals are more Black Metal oriented, creating an aggressive coherence and complementarity between the two styles.
Mayhem’s roots are anchored into an Old School sound, and the band wanted to show this. With Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando, the Norwegians offer both their very own gruesome sound they develop for years, but also some interesting covers.
90/100