After listening to "The Great work of Ages" and reading the general contempt people have for Grand Declaration of War in the Worst albums thread, in the four years that have elapsed since Ordo Ab chao- how do you think the next album will sound? As the band has been continuing their experimental phase for quite sometime now, what do you think the album will sound composition wise, will it included those oddly timed riffs again? How have their newer experimental albums such as Chimera treated your ears in the past, and do you see yourself buying this album just to see how it sounds?

While I thought Ordo Ad Chao was a really interesting album I hope they will go back to making more simple, headbangable black metal. In all honesty Blasphemer wasn't a good replacement for Euronymous and hopefully his leaving the band will result in a more simple album. And I don't mean that in a bad way.

Like shit.

Grand Declaration of War is the only decent Mayhem album.

Attila is one of my favorite vocalists in metal period. Having said that, I don't really have high expectations for the next Mayhem album. Ordo had its decent moments, but the band has too many member fluctuations to be anything great on a consistent basis.

With Blasphemer gone there's no way of telling. I'll get it for Attila and Hellhammer greatness.

I've liked all the albums from the band right from the start.
Grand Declatation starts to lose me near the end with the digital wankery and slow noise parts or whatever you want to call it, but the album itself I would still call awesome and a success.
That last one could have had slightly better production, although it still was pretty decent in presentation, the method worked.

I think the next one could be the last album but with that better production. That will be the success gimmick to make the new album sell and have the critics loving it.

I hope they make the production even more unusual, the riffs more dissonant, and the compositions more abstract. I'd love to see them take this completely wonky and delightfully wrong-sounding brand of black metal they've created and run with it as far as they can. The more open-heartedly disdainful of everything "right" about music the better. It's great seeing a band throw caution to the wind and decide they're just going to show the world all the demons they feel the world needs to experience.

As for what WILL happen, who knows? They've only ever backtracked once with a main release but they've been putting out a lot of nostalgia supplements lately... Here's hoping.

Who knows... once they really found their sound on DMDS, they've stepped high above and far beyond their strange, creepy, dissonant roots. I've enjoyed all eras of Mayhem post-DMDS, and I'm certain I'll enjoy whatever they come up with next (with a hearty dose of skepticism kept firmly intact, of course).

Almost don't care what they do. I generally enjoy just about everything. I think it would be pretty awesome though if they did another album like Grand Declaration.

Lots of other bands doing weird and whacky stuff out there, would be cool to just get a straight up ferocious BM album from these blokes again too. Something like Wolf Lairs Abyss, violent BM attack.

Just go for the throat. Kinda like how Marduk reinvented themselves with Arioch, for the better. Blazing black metal again, but with a modern creative edge that so much of their prior stuff lacked.

I want another wolfs lair abyss. Best shit they ever did next to DMDS. And now i just found out Necrobutcher is getting an excorsim from tv preacher Bob Larson on national tv, that should be great to watch.

I disagree. There's plenty of new retro bm for the retrobmer, and genuinely old-school bands attempting to play their own retro style have a terrible track record.

Whaaaat ?
Seriously ? haha

Is this a turn my life around gimmick by Necro or what ?

I was going to say exactly this. Their last album was absolutely horrible, I thought.

I thought Ordo AD Chao was a fucking masterwork. Loved the paranoid Khanate atmosphere on that album. With one of the best vocal performances of recent times by the great Attila.

However i have no idea what to expect from a new release, but i hope its good.

This and only this.

No idea what to expect. I'm interested though, as I liked Ordo Ad Chao but, being a big Blasphemer fan, I'm skeptical. I love Attila as much as the next Mayhem fan, but I wouldn't mind hearing more Maniac-era stuff. I love them both equally, and Maniac's last album (Chimera) was fucking awesome in my books.

They always do something new and interesting with every album, I have faith that the new one will surprise and divide us further. Although I'm a big fan of Blasphemer and am disappointed to hear he's leaving, if that is true. The break-up guitarist could make or break the band, especially if they bring in a "celebrity".

He left already a few years ago.

True.

Cancelled the Australian tour because of it.

Yeah. Band is still going but let's be honest, I doubt there will be a new album.

Today's Mayhem is a joke. Hellhammer and company are just living off of the name of the band that Euronymous made famous back in the underground/tape trading days in the early 90's.

Your funny.

Tell me why

I actually would take Chimera and Ordo Ad Chao over Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

Like some here, I don't hope for a DMDS worship album. There are other bands that do it better anyway. Part of me is like John_Sunlight and wants to hear them take the last album route to the extreme, but in reality, I would only like it as a curiosity. I'd also want awesome riffs to be included. Shame that the band hasn't been able to write anything very special since the early days. I won't expect that much.

Yeah, Mayhem was Euronymous' band. Now it's like Sodom without Tom Angelripper. They made some decent stuff since De Mysteriis, but nothing that I care much about. Still, I'll be curious to see what they'll do with the name.

They played Wacken a few days ago with Blasphemer on guitar.

Mayhem's new album is hopefully a mix between Ordo ad Chao and DMDS but with an own touch ,a rip off would be nonsense .

Eh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaihfTSP ... re=related

Wait is this thread pure speculation or did they announce they are working on one?

I'd be surprised if they just up and quit. The name alone is worth some money.

Ah, fuck my life Hellhammer's drums sound like asshole again. Everything else sounds cool, especially Attila who sounds basically like on record. Even though this line up isn't "The True Mayhem", they're still on my need-to-see-before-I-die list of bands. One of the only ones left, actually.

It'll be a gospel album, mark my words.

I'll listen to it if and only if Snorre Ruch comes back and plays guitar on it. Mayhem's one of my favorite bands, but the charade needs to end. It's not the same band whatsoever anymore, sonically or in spirit.

Because you could say the exact same thing about every "classic" band from the 80's. So why bother?

Pure speculation. There is no assurance that a new album is in the works now or ever.

Not really, considering Mayhem doesn't have its founder/leader/the dude who wrote the music in it anymore. At least most of the 80s bands still going retained their core musicians. Continuing under the name "Mayhem" after his death was completely tasteless. In the very least, if they wanted to use that name, the guys who were actually in the band Mayhem should have written the music, not Blasphemer. Some of the post-Euronymous stuff is really good, it's just not Mayhem.

Hellegion has a point. However, Hellhammer has been in the line-up since the very early days, and although Necrobutcher doesn't appear on DMDS, he was a part of writing a lot of those songs, and one of the original members.

I love Grand Deceleration of War. Hell, all the albums were great - although Chimera is a bit hit and miss.

I'm really not so sure what Necrobutcher ever wrote beyond the lyrics on Deathcrush. I've heard it both ways, so I'd say it's somewhat hearsay. Regardless, it's not like he's writing anything for current Mayhem- hell, he wasn't even on the last album. He's more or less a live session member at this point. Totally agree about "GDoW", by the way. It's a fantastic album, minus the late-90s electro track that really dates the album in hindsight.