Band:	Mayhem
Album:	Chimera
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	March 2004

01. Whore
02. Dark Night Of The Soul
03. Rape Humanity With Pride
04. My Death
05. You Must Fall
06. Slaughter Of Dreams
07. Impious Devious Leper Lord
08. Chimera

As you are reading this I take it you have some prior knowledge on the phenomenon that is Mayhem, therefore no introduction is needed here. Mayhem's previous release, Grand Declaration of War, was received with a ton of negative criticism (most of which was justifiable) which left hope among fans for future albums at an all-time low. Four years later, Maniac and his three fellow Norsemen came back on the scene and proved them all wrong with the release of 2004's album Chimera.

Mayhem has chosen to step away from their experimental stuff and return to the ear-aching black metal we have come to known them for.First thing one will notice when listening to the album is the production: it's excellent for black metal standards. Yet is this what I want to hear on a Mayhem record? For me, it isn't. The initial low-end production of early-90's black metal records used to help the music tremendously by adding a certain rawness to an already very grim atmosphere. This is something which is missing on Chimera.

Music-wise, though, the album is great. Blasphemer always had a tough job following in the footsteps of the great Euronymous, yet he still manages to play great chilling riffs throughout the album. Various tempos in the songs and the layering of two or sometimes even three guitars also greatly contributes to the overall atmosphere of the album. Something which Blasphemer really has to be credited for. Throughout some parts of the album, however, things can get a little repetitive which is something I found a problem throughout this record. A pleasant surprise came on tracks such as "Dark Night of the Soul" and "Impious Devious Leper Lord" where the bass guitar work of Necrobutcher can actually be heard! Hellhammer's drumming is excellent as always and even Maniac put forth a good performance on vocals.

Lyrically, I have to say, this album is not far behind De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which was of course was written by lyrical mastermind Dead. All the lyrics (maybe except for "Whore") are very mature and are much more focused on the topics of hate and misanthropic thoughts towards mankind as a whole rather than the cheesy 'I HATE U CHRISTIANS!!!' we saw in Grand Declaration of War. That said, where does this leave us?

Well, we're left with an album which is obviously far better than its precursor but which lacks a certain raw-factor which black metal is renowned for. We're left with an album which is musically and especially lyrically very mature, but can get a bit boring at times. Although not even comparable (and one should not compare it) to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Mayhem has provided us here with a more than decent black metal record which is certainly much more enjoyable than Grand Declaration of War.