MAYHEM — Wolf's Lair Abyss (review)

MAYHEM — Wolf's Lair Abyss album cover EP · 1997 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
This is my kind of black metal. Fury and fire all the way through. Although track one is somewhat of an atmospheric antecedent to what follows, the rest is an incredible step up from MAYHEM’s debut album “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” which was interesting in its making around the circumstances that went into its creation, but this next release WOLF’S LAIR ABYSS is a much more satisfying listen on a musical level combining the fury and bleakness of the debut full length with a new direction taking on a progressive touch.

Although this is the technically the first part of “Grand Declaration Of War” this EP blows that one away and actually is more akin to the technical fury found on “Chimera” and beyond. The music is absolutely erupting on fire with buzz saw guitars hammering away at your soul while myriad vocalizations pull you back and forth between semi-spoken declarative speeches and raspy screaming frenzies with Ulver inspired Gregorian chants subtlety appearing in the subdued the mix. The intensity is extreme and the brevity of 24:42 is a welcome relief.

Personally this album delivers everything i love about black metal. Intensity, speed, depressive motifs and furious intense tempos and the deranged vocals of Maniac who was famous for cutting himself on stage to the point where the paramedics would have to rescue him. This is intense stuff with troubled souls afoot and although i can’t relate to this personally i find this music intriguing as it lets me vicariously experience some of the most messed up music to ever exist. This is music to appeal to the innermost apocalyptic visions of our dying planet. It truly embraces the vision of Earth in a hell state. It is scary and electrifying. The true sonic equivalent of a horror film recorded and gracing my cochlea.
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