Album Review: Mayhem – Daemonic Rites (Century Media Records)

Preeminent black metallers Mayhem ready their newest live strike with Daemonic Rites. A 16-track live album with songs taken from shows across Europe and Australia. It will be released on September 15th, 2023.

Now this is how you do a live album. Raw and rough sounding, but with clarity, and the sound of a hungry, desperate crowd prominent. Mayhem’s legendary sound and style is on wonderful garish display here, as they trawl through their impressive history, all the way up to their latest opus, Daemon.

Existing in some form or another for nearly 40 years, Mayhem continue to show that they are on the form of their lives and to really experience their spiteful blackness, you must hear and see them in the flesh.

From the golden oldies like Freezing Moon, Buried by Time and Dust, Deathcrush, and Carnage. To the less exalted, but still beloved horrors of To Daimonion, Symbols of Bloodswords, and My Death. To the modern classics that are filled with bile and fury, Falsified and Hated, Malum, Bad Blood, and Voces Ab Alta. There is plenty of Mayhem ‘bang for your buck’ on this release.

It’s a highlight reel of blackened noise, furiously intense and ferociously emphatic. If you were part of these shows, you’re going to feel like you’re back in the sticky and sweaty darkness that comes with a Mayhem show. There’s nothing quite like it, and love or loathe them, they always leave an impression live. Which is exactly what this release captures. The feel, the smell, the taste, the chaos, and the carnage, both from a sonic and visual standpoint. Putting it simply, it’s an assault on the senses.

Making the live crowd a prominent feature is something we’re champions of. No one wants a live recording to sound like it was done in the studio. We want it to capture the moment in time and transport us there. Daemonic Rites certainly does that, with an unexpected stopover in hell along the way.

Daemonic Rites is a must-listen for Mayhem fans.

Mayhem – Daemonic Rites Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Falsified and Hated
3. To Daimonion
4. Malum
5. Bad Blood
6. My Death
7. Symbols of Bloodswords
8. Voces Ab Alta
9. Freezing Moon
10. Pagan Fears
11. Life Eternal
12. Buried by Time and Dust
13. Silvester Anfang
14. Deathcrush
15. Chainsaw Gutsfuck
16. Carnage
17. Pure Fucking Armageddon

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