Death Metal Underground

Former black metal, now modern metal band Mayhem have announced further details about their upcoming album via Season of Mist. Entitled Esoteric Warfare, the track list can be viewed below:

Watcher
Psywar
Trinity
Pandaemon
Mylab
Six Seconds
Throne of Time
Corpse of Care
Posthuman
Aion Suntalia

The album is set to be released on May 23, with a US release date on May 27. It will be available for pre-order next Wednesday, March 26.

Additionally, the band has planned a European tour to support the album’s release, with two festival dates currently scheduled later in the year:

14 May 14 Hamburg (DE) Markthalle
16 May 14 Bochum (DE) Matrix
17 May 14 Köln (DE) Essigfabrik
18 May 14 Eindhoven (NL) Effenaar
20 May 14 Bruxelles (BE) AB
21 May 14 London (GB) Electric Ballroom
22 May 14 Paris (FR) Le Divan du Monde
23 May 14 Winterthur (CH) Gaswerk
24 May 14 Milan (IT) Factory
26 May 14 Bratislava (SK) Randal
27 May 14 München (DE) Backstage Club
28 May 14 Berlin (DE) C-Club
29 May 14 Warsaw (PL) Proxima
30 May 14 Plzen (CZ) Metalfest Open Air Festival
31 May 14 København (DK) Pumpehuset
28 Jun 14 Lausanne (CH) Les Docks (Inferno Festival)
08 Aug 14 Øya (NO) Tøyenparken (Øya Festival)

The album’s first single, entitled Psywar is scheduled for release on April 26. It contains of an alternate mastering of the titular track (our review can be found here), in addition to a track entitled “From Beyond the Event Horizon”, taken from the scrapped 2012 Budapest Sessions.

3 Comments

Tags: Black Metal, mayhem, nu-black

Commercial black metal. Oh dear.

Advertising agencies would like us to believe that Twilight is a “black metal supergroup”; but looking at the list of musicians involved, there isn’t much to do with black metal, let alone a noteworthy record within that genre. If there was a desire to be accurate, the band would be billed as “a group of musicians without much in common, to whom we rented a studio and told them to make something that we could promote”. It’s here the band succeeds…but not anywhere else.

The only thing (fit for print) in my mind while listening to this was: “How long does it take for something experimental to become established and lethargic?” Really, there is nothing new on this album. Noise rock was done in the 80s, stoner rock spawned as well, caveman moshcore flourished in the 90s, and linear, monotonous, American “black metal” has insulted eardrums for over a decade. We all know what these genres sound like. Mashing them together and adding constipated vocals does not constitute a new art form. It is not experimental or new. Nor is it worth releasing.

The most disheartening aspect of this release is that most of the musicians involved are talented to above-average degrees. Unfortunately, none of it comes through on this release. They (and us) would be better served heightening their unique take on their own art form, instead of limply moving to this unremarkable, bland middle-ground…but that doesn’t pay the bills.

7 Comments

Tags: Black Metal, indie rock, krieg, nu-black, sonic youth, twilight

Mayhem announces details of Esoteric Warfare

Twilight – III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb