Quite an underrated album. Respect has to be given to Mayhem for releasing full lengths that are time and time again very unique and quite different from each other. Some have given the band flak for attempting something Deathspell Omega-esque and while I do see where they are hearing those sounds, I feel Mayhem have instilled much of their own original flavor into the brooding mix to earn a high score from this bum.

Not a fan of Mayhem without Dead and Euronymous, but I love this album. Pure fucking Mayhem!

Written by Got Mayhem? on 30.04.2010 at 03:18

Quite an underrated album. Respect has to be given to Mayhem for releasing full lengths that are time and time again very unique and quite different from each other. Some have given the band flak for attempting something Deathspell Omega-esque and while I do see where they are hearing those sounds, I feel Mayhem have instilled much of their own original flavor into the brooding mix to earn a high score from this bum.

Fully agreed on everything you said , especially the brutal brutal mix
I was just looking up my collection and I was amazed that 2007 had a LOT of stand-out BM albums
Wolves in the Thrones Room - Two Hunters
Mayhem - Ordo ad Chao
Rotting Christ - Theogonia
Chaos Moon - Languor Into Echoes, Beyond
.
.
.

and back in 2007 I didn't know about most of these albums it must have been HARD to pick a favorite

Truly underrated, especially among the voters on here.... and I can't understand the reason...

Written by Uirapuru on 04.10.2010 at 19:45

Truly underrated, especially among the voters on here.... and I can't understand the reason...

Don't know about the others "low-voters", but I can give you my two cents. There is a vast difference between chaos and randomness, visualy you can represent them as fractal for chaos (order by equation VS chaos by endless iteration) and no-signal-tv-screen for randomness. This music is way too close to randomness, while for exapmple DMDS was somewhere on the path to chaos. Randomness doesn't have inherent beauty, and so (for me) doesn't this album. I feel there is ten times more evil in early works of Mayhem/Emperor/Darkthrone than in this one, because evil too has structure.
Hope the explanation is not too weird .

Written by Cryzpin on 10.10.2011 at 18:33

Don't know about the others "low-voters", but I can give you my two cents. There is a vast difference between chaos and randomness, visualy you can represent them as fractal for chaos (order by equation VS chaos by endless iteration) and no-signal-tv-screen for randomness. This music is way too close to randomness, while for exapmple DMDS was somewhere on the path to chaos. Randomness doesn't have inherent beauty, and so (for me) doesn't this album. I feel there is ten times more evil in early works of Mayhem/Emperor/Darkthrone than in this one, because evil too has structure.
Hope the explanation is not too weird .

I detect nothing random about this album whatsoever. It's extremely dense and textured but very structured in its finality. The step up from this into true "randomness" would probably be Blut aus Nord's 'MoRT' - try that on for size.

This is also a hook-free album (and practically free of melody) which is why people don't like it, if you ask me. Not to mention completely free from the constraints of black metal cliches, like the now-overdone "evil" old-school riffs of earlier black metal. It's totally perfect for what it is and what it sets out to achieve.

Written by Guest on 10.10.2011 at 19:47

Written by Cryzpin on 10.10.2011 at 18:33

Don't know about the others "low-voters", but I can give you my two cents...

I detect nothing random about this album whatsoever. It's extremely dense and textured but very structured in its finality. The step up from this into true "randomness" would probably be Blut aus Nord's 'MoRT' - try that on for size.

This is also a hook-free album (and practically free of melody) which is why people don't like it, if you ask me. Not to mention completely free from the constraints of black metal cliches, like the now-overdone "evil" old-school riffs of earlier black metal. It's totally perfect for what it is and what it sets out to achieve.

An unexpectedly profound reply here tbh, but not surprisingly from you (offtopic - you are personaly responsible for some of the geratest discoveries i've made in metal music, such as !T.O.O.H!, so thx for that). I'm thinking about some more rotations of OaCh regarding the texturing, but right now i can say this: you just can't reduce earlier bm to the cliches/riffs only, it took cyclic structure of all (?) previous genres and elevated it to the linear evolution of motives, eventualy with a conclusion, but they could go on indefinitely spiraling around central principle just like fractal. "Now-overdone"? Man, this kind of structuring will never be exhausted, just look at the nature!
But I think "hook-free" is a very good general answer to the question I have been answering to. (Jeez I would need better English to present my thoughts :/)

Written by Cryzpin on 11.10.2011 at 13:21


An unexpectedly profound reply here tbh, but not surprisingly from you (offtopic - you are personaly responsible for some of the geratest discoveries i've made in metal music, such as !T.O.O.H!, so thx for that). I'm thinking about some more rotations of OaCh regarding the texturing, but right now i can say this: you just can't reduce earlier bm to the cliches/riffs only, it took cyclic structure of all (?) previous genres and elevated it to the linear evolution of motives, eventualy with a conclusion, but they could go on indefinitely spiraling around central principle just like fractal. "Now-overdone"? Man, this kind of structuring will never be exhausted, just look at the nature!
But I think "hook-free" is a very good general answer to the question I have been answering to. (Jeez I would need better English to present my thoughts :/)

Well early bm certainly is by no means cliche but you have to admit that there's a lot of copying going on in modern bands. I think that conclusion was established a long time ago (check out Frost's 'Cursed Again' record, a total DMDS rip-off - though a very enjoyable one) I think Mayhem was always a good example of this 'conclusion'. For me they were constantly trying to reclaim the glory of De Mysteriis in some way or another but only finally succeeded in making another monolith of an album when they gave up on that pursuit and made Ordo, which is a style I hadn't heard before. It cost them a lot of fans but I think they were paving the way to something new (similarly done shortly after by Leviathan with 'Massive Conspiracy Against All Life').

This is definitely an album dependent on the person. For me I was grabbed by the nuts within about 30 seconds and went on to play the album about 6 times in a row, not something I do very often. Whether repeated listens will yield something further I don't know, but I wouldn't approach it in the way you would any other Mayhem release. It trades riffs for texture (though still clinging to structure) so I think needs to be analysed in a different context.

Written by Guest on 11.10.2011 at 13:34

This is definitely an album dependent on the person. For me I was grabbed by the nuts within about 30 seconds and went on to play the album about 6 times in a row, not something I do very often. Whether repeated listens will yield something further I don't know, but I wouldn't approach it in the way you would any other Mayhem release. It trades riffs for texture (though still clinging to structure) so I think needs to be analysed in a different context.

Let me ask one more question - what is an ultimaye yield for you while listening to this record? Emotions (doesn't work for me)? Some inner exploration by imagination?

Written by Cryzpin on 11.10.2011 at 13:44


Let me ask one more question - what is an ultimaye yield for you while listening to this record? Emotions (doesn't work for me)? Some inner exploration by imagination?

I rarely, if ever, get an emotional response from music other than an inert sense of happiness which I get from all good music. More like pure comfort or satiating of hunger or thirst and being completely satisfied. With Ordo it's like Tetris - every block that comes down is a perfect fit and I'm left with no doubts or spaces. Everything works and I approve of every move it makes and I need to make no effort whatsoever. Probably a ridiculous response but it seems to fit how I feel. I'm not a particularly deep person so there's no spiritual exploration or anything of that nature. I can put this album on (which I have now) and I won't notice the transition from song to song, it'll just eventually finish.

You could argue the score which you give an album is defined by how much resistance the music has against your mind. This is a 10 for me as it offers 0 resistance.

Written by Guest on 11.10.2011 at 13:51

With Ordo it's like Tetris - every block that comes down is a perfect fit and I'm left with no doubts or spaces. Everything works and I approve of every move it makes and I need to make no effort whatsoever. Probably a ridiculous response but it seems to fit how I feel.
I can put this album on (which I have now) and I won't notice the transition from song to song, it'll just eventually finish.
You could argue the score which you give an album is defined by how much resistance the music has against your mind. This is a 10 for me as it offers 0 resistance.

Hell, what you describe makes absolute sense to me, and I call it resonance (dissonance for me). As I feel it, every consciousness has it's unique frequency, and overall frequency of this record simply matches yours, and doesn't mine. And by this reason the less rational and more complex the music is, the more inconsistent the voting of different people goes imo .

Written by Cryzpin on 11.10.2011 at 14:14


Hell, what you describe makes absolute sense to me, and I call it resonance (dissonance for me). As I feel it, every consciousness has it's unique frequency, and overall frequency of this record simply matches yours, and doesn't mine. And by this reason the less rational and more complex the music is, the more inconsistent the voting of different people goes imo .

Exactly true, resonance is the perfect word and the frequency analogy is spot on. It's partly the reason I don't bother to write reviews anymore as I've realised that people are attuned to different frequencies and there's little point in trying to appeal to people with different tastes as arguments can been summoned from both sides thus rendering most reviews moot.

Written by Guest on 11.10.2011 at 14:18
I don't bother to write reviews anymore as I've realised that people are attuned to different frequencies and there's little point in trying to appeal to people with different tastes as arguments can been summoned from both sides thus rendering most reviews moot.

Aww c'mon. It's fun to say that your tastes are somewhat better and therefore they get a shining spot compared to the non-staffers
Back on topic. Sick album, only time will tell if it will go up to a 10. I'm yet to listen to an album that sounds like this. Such an amount of chaos while there's a clear and almost inhuman controll al over it.

I still can't keep a poker face while remembering the chat I had with a kid (He's 17 but the way he spoke about the album talked otherwise)...
When I suddenly talked about Ordo ad Chao he immediately shaked his head saying how much that album sucked and that they don't deserve to own the Mayhem name because Euro-something was the real Mayhem and that "this guys" were obviously doing it for the money and the time he saw them on concert he was just all angry about it thinking that they were just a bunch of greedy people taking over a poor man's creation. (I couldn't help myself to had at least one big smile at that point)... The funny thing is that ALL that kid had to say about the album was that... He NEVER commented about the music itself and when I asked him if he would find the album better if it was another band he said yes... The huge amount of hipocrisy obviously passed above his head without him noticing it.

Now this is an underrated album, it took me more than five listens to get into it.

New mayhem did it!! After great works in the past, they peaked the level of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" with "Ordo Ad Chao".

Shame about the crap production,ruins what would be a cool release.

The production on this is absolutely and completely perfect. As is everything about this album.

Written by Guest on 11.03.2013 at 15:54
The production on this is absolutely and completely perfect. As is everything about this album.

A different production would kill this album... But what do we know? We are just poor fools!

This just gets better with each listen, excellent production and truly unique vocal performance.

Now, the music is pretty good, but is it just me or is the production on this album kinda bad? Like it was recorded through a foot-thick foam pad.

Written by gopherhawk2@gmail.co on 16.11.2013 at 21:15
...is the production on this album kinda bad?

It depends on how you like an album to sound. Personally I find the production perfectly suited for the atmosphere, but I can also understand how some might prefer more emphasis on clarity.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 16.11.2013 at 21:22

Written by gopherhawk2@gmail.co on 16.11.2013 at 21:15
...is the production on this album kinda bad?

It depends on how you like an album to sound. Personally I find the production perfectly suited for the atmosphere, but I can also understand how some might prefer more emphasis on clarity.

I think this kind of production suits the drums really well like it served on De Mysteriis, but they should have kept the guitar mix closer to that of Grand Declaration and Chimera.

It's certainly a bold step, for what they wanted to achieve I think they achieved it. Unsettling and raw, plus Attila is in top form.

So far can't say this comes even close to the brilliance of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Going to give it another shot soon.

Written by Erik M. on 11.02.2014 at 23:46

So far can't say this comes even close to the brilliance of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

It doesn't come close, it goes way beyond

Written by Guest on 11.02.2014 at 23:48

It doesn't come close, it goes way beyond

Lol, is this MS page your home page or something?

Written by Erik M. on 11.02.2014 at 23:58

Lol, is this MS page your home page or something?

This and the Lurker of Chalice one

Written by Guest on 11.02.2014 at 23:58

This and the Lurker of Chalice one

Holy shit, that was fast.

Written by Erik M. on 11.02.2014 at 23:59

Holy shit, that was fast.

I hear that a lot...

Written by Guest on 12.02.2014 at 00:00

I hear that a lot...

In some cases it's not a good thing to hear.