Mayhem

Live at The House of Blues

Hollywood, California

November 27th, 2011

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Mayhem is a Black Metal band from Norway and are considered one of the progenitors of the genre and scene.

The band has been steeped in controversy since their early days with one of their early vocalists blowing his own head off with a shotgun and their guitarist and founder Euronymous collecting pieces of his skull to make necklaces out of as well as photographing the body.

Two years later, bassist Varg Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. Varg went to prison for many years for murder as well as involvement with the now famous church burnings that were going on at the time. (Varg eventually formed the band Burzum upon release).

The band has been up and down and ceased to exist for some time as well, but the legendary drummer, Hellhammer has kept it afloat and they have now made their way to Los Angeles as headliners.

The lead singer, Attila Csihar utilizes corpse paint to cover his face in black and white markings, he carries a mic in one hand and a golden skull scepter in the other. He sings in either a shrieked, distorted growl or a hoarse serpentine-like whisper.

They opened the set with "Deathcrush" off of their debut release from 1987. They have a fairly raw sound live, especially when doing the older material.

One audience member near the front was wearing a Burzum shirt and when the bassist saw it he pointed at him and gave him a look of death. The person quickly moved away from the front of the crowd.

They played "Cursed in Eternity" followed by "Ancient Skin" and "My Death" from 2004's "Chimera" album. On this song Csihar had a more hissed, softer style to his vocals and a nearly spoken chorus, very different from their earliest material.

The set continued with "A Time to Die" and "View From Nihil" before coming to "Illuminate Eliminate" off of their latest album, "Ordo Ad Chao". The singer would hold up the skull scepter and sing to it, as if contemplating it or communicating with it. He also had a cape and a pope-like bib on.

"Buried by Time and Dust" was up next, then "Carnage" moving into "Freezing Moon" and "Funeral Fog". The later songs were more atmospheric with dark, Gothic moods while the older stuff had a more frenetic sound.

They did "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" from their debut followed by "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" from the 1994 album of the same name before finishing the night with the first demo they every recorded, "Pure Fucking Armageddon".

It was a crazy show, with the singer's appearance, the dark, moody lighting, the other members' brooding stares, the insane audience... it was definitely something to remember just by visuals alone and they gave us a long set, filled with songs throughout their career. They definitely lived up to their legendary status.

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