Band:	Mayhem
Album:	De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 24, 1994
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Funeral Fog
02. Freezing Moon
03. Cursed In Eternity
04. Pagan Fears
05. Life Eternal
06. From The Dark Past
07. Buried By Time And Dust
08. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

This is one of the most respected albums in Black Metal History, Why is that? Beats me actually, but I can assure you this album is uncommon and very original for the genre it stands for, the music is aggressive and very raw, the execution towards this album is not complex or actually talented, but it's multi-faceted and layered, I think this album deserves all the credit it has, now lets take a closer view...

This "new" vocalist is somehow better than Dead, the tone of Sven is more high-pitched oriented, the vocal work sounds like an actual beast out of hell screaming some impossible to understand lyrics. The album per-se is very good, some might say it's repetitive, but well most times straight Black Metal or Raw Black Metal sounds that way, when you hear a band like Mayhem or Darkthrone or whatever you must know that the band is not "new wave" oriented, Mayhem(even though this album has some melodic approaches) and such bands make pure shots of aggression and music that most times sounds like an improvisation (in a good way of course), so clearly if you are a fan of Dimmu Borgir, Susperia, Old Man's Child, etc... You will hate or simply won't bare bands like early Mayhem.

Every track in this album is over the average Black Metal sound, this time Mayhem added a lot of cold passages to the music and even some slow tempo riffs, this transition made this album almost perfect, the raw elements are still there but now the music sounds a little bit more layered, this new feature gives a chance for the audience to sit back and actually enjoy some tracks in the "not so aggressive" way; the fourth track for example, "Pagan Fears", starts with the usual rapid and violent music but then in the middle the music starts to change and finally we can even hear one incredible guitar solo.

The production is muddy as always, but it only gives the music a colder feeling, so I can't complain about the production, actually the way it is done gives the music a whole new environment, which is good by the way. Either way the instruments can be appreciated nicely and sometimes clearly.

I love this release, sadly I can't assure you will too, Black Metal nowadays has become a fusion of genres that have nothing to do with "original" black metal...I'll just say, if you are a fan of early Mayhem, Darkthrone, Von, Beherit, and early Black Metal in general you'll find in this album a Masterpiece, but if you worship Dark Funeral or Carpathian Forest you will find this album unbearable and noisy.