The Dawn of the Black Hearts - Live in Sarpsborg, Norway 28/2, 1990/ Live in Lil le Hammer, Noray 1986

If you know anything about Mayhem, you'd know how this bootleg album came to exist. But for those who don't know, here's a summary: The band's vocalist Pelle "Dead" Ohlin decided to live up to his name by killing himself with a knife and a shotgun. Euronymous came across his body and then proceeds to buy a disposable camera from a convenient store, returns to the house, and then takes pictures of his body. He later got the photos processed and sent them out to his friends to show off how dark and edgy they were. While most of the photos were destroyed, one somehow managed to survive and eventually became the cover for this album.

Whenever I discuss the album to my friends, they'd all say that it was awesome simply for the album cover. However, when I ask them if they even listened to the album, they admit they haven't. I decided to go out my way to buy the CD and listen to it myself to see if there's any musical value in it. While it's definitely not the worst live album Mayhem released (I'm looking at you, "Live in Zeitz"), at the same time, it's nothing I would want to get excited about.

One of the major drawbacks of this LP is the production. I've listened to plenty of black metal demos and bootlegs to know that the quality isn't gonna be the best. Even then, this bootleg is extremely distorted. Dead's vocals are barely audible, and are sometimes drowned out from the loud guitar. The drums just barely keep up with the more fast-paced songs like "Necrolust", and the bass is virtually non-existent. If the bootleggers had taken the time to at least remix the audio to make it more clearer, then it would probably be a lot better.

The songs themselves also sound a bit bland. Yes, it's cool to hear Dead sing the ghostly, epic song of "Freezing Moon" and the lyrically gruesome song "Chainsaw Gutsfuck". But as I've stated before, the quality of this bootleg is garbage, so the songs are all a distorted mess. Not to mention that they sound similar to their other projects like the "Deathcrush" EP. I would've loved to see the band go for a slightly different sound like in other live albums, but they took a lazy approach and didn't offer anything new in this album. Not that the songs are terrible, but if I was gonna hear Dead sing, I'd probably go for the more clearer "Studio Tracks" demo or the superior "Live in Leipzig" album.

My CD also comes with bonus tracks, which are Celtic Frost and Venom covers. However, these covers are completely forgettable. They are nearly similar to the original songs, and Messiah's vocals are a bit drowsy and bring down these already mediocre covers. Also, for some reason, the quality in these tracks are even worse. I assume that this was recorded earlier in their career since Dead isn't present in these songs.

Overall, this bootleg album isn't as amazing as a lot of people make it out. Sure, the album cover is something to talk about, but these songs are like the others we've listened to in better releases, and they don't bring anything new to the table. And that's not including the fact that when Mayhem finally gave the LP an official release in 2017 titled "Live in Sarpsborg", they pretty much took this album and gave it a different name and cover. I love Mayhem, but I'd rather use this CD as a display item.