THIS PRODUCTION IS WHAT? // Mayhem - Illuminate Eliminate // Composer Reaction & Analysis

[@liliIiliIilil]

I really liked this album. I don't think it gets talked about enough. I saw them live for this era -- great show.

[@patrickbertlein4626]

Its the only post-Dead era Mayhem I care about. Still don't own it but I know I eventually will.

[@Nelly666x]

Prob my fav song from Mayhem! thanks to the requester and thanks for the reaction!🤩

[@cbn6635]

Hellhammer showing why he is one of the best drummer around...

[@lokihammerfall7781]

The purpose was to create one of the "darkest" songs ever and in my opinion this is one of the darkest songs ever.

[@heenymeety406]

Attila’s vocals genuinely disturb me and the production on this album just makes it that much sinister

[@TheTrveMothlord]

This album is a compositional masterpiece

[@fransisigos]

Great analysis! I think the moments where the detail is obfuscated is used to create a sense of urgency and anxiety before the inevitable release. Really enjoyed your breakdown of the lyrics and how it connected to the stylistic choices.

[@ambassadortourettes753]

The timeliness of this video is awesome and almost psychic I almost thought Google was listening in and noticed all my live videos of them playing last night and somehow commanded you to drop a Mayhem video 👌🤣🤣🤣Literally saw them last night in Tacoma WA and they still utterly slay live and is of course the preferred manner to listen to them... production levels of quality simply do not apply when it is 1000 decibels of greatness!(Recovering from the Pit) Necrobutcher gave me a discount of their Mayhem Jacket👌Yea, you heard me correctly 🤣THEY HAVE A LEATHER JACKET!!! TALK ABOUT AWESOME 🤣NOBODY WILL QUESTION MY DEDICATION AS A FAN!!!

[@CriticalReactions]

Glad you had a blast! I don't think I could handle them live but more power to the people who enjoy it

[@ambassadortourettes753]

@@CriticalReactions I just thought it was hilarious because I rolled up to the Mayhem show with three friends that since have been watchers and subscribers because of me and we all tuned into checking for any drops from you literally on the way back from the show…✍️ Laughter filled the car🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@CriticalReactions]

@@ambassadortourettes753 That's awesome and hilarious! Sounds like y'all had a blast

[@machomarty8238]

Loved this album. Somehow their most underrated work.

[@Ca11mero]

Bryan, after all the black metal stuff you have analyzed. I suggest looking at the Norwegian Documentary "Helvete: Historien om Norsk Black Metal" (can be found on youtube), it's made by NRK (Norwegian State Television), if you haven't done so already that is. It's basically a less dramatic version of explaining the early days and it may give you some insight to the reasoning behind their musical decisions..There are a lot of documentaries about black metal out there, but sadly most of them are just fueling "urban legends", this is the only one I can recommend. In the end they are showing/talking about Grieghallen, a very fancy concert hall/studio where a lot of the early classics were recorded. And of course, very interesting to hear your thoughts about the song in question :)

[@CriticalReactions]

Sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out

[@lokihammerfall7781]

Yeah it's a good one but have you watched Until The Light Takes Us? if not I strongly do recommend.

[@thegrimner]

This is curated lo fidelity. As in, they more than likely just wandered into a top studio and asked to sound this "badly". Then again, many of the biggest Norwegian classic were recorded at the Grieghallen , which is a very prestigious venue. So, it's kind of a thing. Mayhem eventually would revert into a safer sound, but they did have some experimental phases, like, again, most of the second wave. It's good that you're re-experiencing how willing to break the mold some of this stuff was, it's still to be shown how musical some of it could be. Cue some rant about Emperor et al.

[@immortalx50]

it was recorded at Arcturus guitarist Knut Magne Valle's studio Mølla, Knut did mixing and engineering, and they definitely made Ordo Ad Chao sound this way on purpose

[@patrickbertlein4626]

I was just listening to Emperor, and after 25 years I am still amazed how good they were. Its legit modern classical music. Thou Shalt Suffer is an interesting side project as well. Ihsahn really should be mentioned next to Vivaldi or Beethoven. And yes, I have always argued that era of Black metal in general was very much into experimentation, from the obvious like Ulver and Arcturus to MZ 412 and Nagelfar.

[@AA-ou2ye]

This one of your best and balanced reactions in my opinion you give a full understanding of the art they they to express here without just slashing on the production. I was sure you would not like it or see thru the lo fi production. For me personally I think the very unconventional and primitive production adds to the atmosphere. They all did this on purpose there is all options to sound digital if they want they wanted to sound analogue and lo fi and psychedelic. I would recommend to listen to the song esoteric - circle. One other recommendation would be evoken - Atra mors.

[@Marc8999]

Really good recommendations, in deed! I would be interested in his opinion. Maybe add "Skepticism - The March and the Stream" and "Mournful Congregation - Monads of Creation" as well!

[@knight-mares]

This album is absolutely held back by the production. A lot of people say it grows on you, but it would have no reason to “grow” if it was just better from the start. I’ve heard covers that reveal how great this music is because of a cleaner production.

[@phantom213]

Ordo ad Chao is the darkest, most vicious and visceral album. It can only be listened to in strictly measured doses.

[@Wild_Open]

Honestly the perfect production job for this album. Anything more high fi or professionally done "right" (for black metal) would break the atmosphere. In my opinion it would morph it from being genuinely creepy and dark to *appearing* to be creepy and dark. You know, like you're watching a horror movie and it doesn't quite hit the mark because the set is too clean or the after effects are too slick.

[@DiiNovensiles]

I actually (often) like the way lofi BM and other wall of sound approaches bury details. It kind of goes hand in hand with the focus on atmosphere and repetition you point out - the band (hopefully) shows something interesting poking out above the noise, something to latch onto, and as you're enjoying that you come across new buried things amongst the repetition. Maybe a single note from the bass, timed a little bit off, becomes emphasized in one measure. But this is definitely something you have to be into, and also that sometimes won't work on first listen. Additionally sometimes I find that a reprisal of an idea, with just a little bit extra added, can be even more powerful if the initial version was repeated a solid amount earlier on the album. Windir is an example you've heard that does this very well. Not to say that's usually the intent or that it always ends up like that. Sometimes you really can't ever pick something out, a common issue as a bass guitar fan...

[@annodomini1991]

Really disturbing Mayhem song.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Mayhem were always one of the Second-Wave BM bands I just didn't jive with (Burzum and Darkthrone were the other two), but they were very important innovators in terms of that super raw style in both playing and production so I can at least respect their influence. This is indeed a later track that I've probably only heard the once when I was going through their discography. It's definitely more experimental than their usual stuff, but it's more "arty" experimental than "proggy" experimental. Still not really my jam, but I do appreciate them branching out from their roots.

[@thegrimner]

Also, I thinkbthe jazz reference might have come due to the drummer. But I'd wager Arcturus is a better showcase of his talents.

[@liamperkins2821]

You need to do the grand declaration of war album specifically the title track or crystallized pain in deconstruction. It is mayhem at their absolute peak production and song writing wise it is 100% musicians music super great experimental stuff will a nihilistic alien like atmosphere

[@zigzag8162]

Blasphemer is one of the best black metal musicians who existed! Great riffer and composer. Most can come not get close to his skills

[@johnseward2934]

Humans instrumentalists as machines. And damn that vocal whistle halfway through is insane and so emotionally human. Couldnt believe what I was hearing. Its like the instruments/machine portion is lofi and the vocal/human portion is hifi. The ending potion felt very NIN inspired

[@ToonamiAftermath]

I was really surprised to see you did this record its intense.

[@YogDodoth]

They didn't mastered the drums in the recording... (Maybe on purpose to make It sound more chaotic, in an order as the name of the album)

[@vladdracul8827]

Amazing fucking album 🤘

[@AllonBakuth]

Love your deconstruction of songs helps me imo so very much. Ty.

[@dantredogborsa7048]

There's no bad or good production, but there is correct and incorrect production. For this algum this production is perfect, the correct one.

[@luiz_sickboy]

My favourite song from their most experimental album

[@MMasterDE]

This is definitely Mayhem in their experimental period.

[@branlopgar]

And the funniest part is, this is not their most experimental album. Grand Declaration of War is still their most experimental record. They even had a full (as, not an intro like Silvester Anfang, or the joke outro of them singing about happy flowers at the end of Deathcrush) on trip hop track in that one. With that said, Mayhem has a track record of having the least typical black metal sound among the founding fathers of the genre. Mysteriis is really clean and polished (for what they could do with all the insanity happening in Bergen and Oslo in 1993), Grand Declaration is... let's just call it unique. Chimera is their most typical black metal album. Ordo and Esoteric Warfare go full ambient black, and then Daemon goes back to "classical" black.

[@ImHir0]

Would love it if you could give Oblations for the sun from Tideless a listen, they just released their second album a couple of weeks ago. Their genre is a mix of shoegaze with death/doom kind of like Dream Unending, a lot of ambience and a lot of crushing moments.

[@BrianYates-ue8hf]

Mayhem has been around forever..Their first singer Dead killed himself early on and they used photos from the suicide scene for an album cover and made jewelry from his skull...Very gruesome...They were one of a handful of bands that started the Norwegian Black Metal scene and all the death and destruction that followed...If this was mixed just a bit differently this could've been an epic...Don't change the overall production just open things up a bit ✌️🤘🧐

[@MaaZeus]

That album is a bootleg, not an official release. And band members, now that they are adults, are not particularly happy about the existence of that either. Necrobutcher especially is pained to see his former dear friends image used like that in shirts and such. There are a lot of urban legends about this band but not all of them are true. You should also watch Helvete documentary that was mentioned in the comments of this video.

[@BrianYates-ue8hf]

@@MaaZeus I didn't know that was a bootleg very interesting...And I agree with you using a friend's image like that is very disturbing and sad and speaks to the mindset of the entire Black Metal scene at that time...Yes I saw that documentary and it is very eye opening 🧐🤘✌️

[@MaaZeus]

@@BrianYates-ue8hf I admit that is an easy mistake make. Black Metal scene was ruled by... well... bunch of edgelords and that album gained a lot of notoriety among them and is one of the reasons (among many) Mayhem became famous even though they did not record it, let alone officially sanction it. Still some people consider it a sort of "semi-official" record for the band. Metal-Archives states that this is the only bootleg album allowed on the site because of its notorious historical significance. *edit* Speaking of edgelords the photo was indeed taken by Mayhem's Euronymous, being one of the worst of them, but IIRC the rest of the band were not exactly cool with it and told him to throw the pictures out. He did throw them into the trash but some fan found them and they began circulating and finally ended up as a cover of that infamous bootleg recording. *Edit2* Correction, he was asked to destroy the images but he did not and actually sent one of the images to the guy who ended up making the bootleg recording. The rest of the pictures were eventually found and destroyed.

[@BrianYates-ue8hf]

@@MaaZeus alright very cool thx for all the info I love learning about music history... I'm sure there were regular non violent bands around at that time but it only takes a few bas apples to spoil the bunch Much appreciated 🤘✌️

[@c.t.7450]

The point of listening to Black Metal for me is overcoming this -hurdle-!If its was easy it would be mainstream forgetable music easily digested for the masses. The point of creating this type of genre is the complete opposite!To create something unique that goes beyond and against mainstream music and the music industry in general. So it is not just an aquired taste as some people its so much more.If you ever step upon the song Key to Gate by BURZUM i believe that you ll understand what i want to say here.From the start the song just dont want you to listen to it!you have to strive to achieve that! But if you do theres so much reward..

[@CriticalReactions]

I think you give too little credit to mainstream music. If it were easy to digest then everyone would like it. But it's a genre that only a majority of people like and, in fact, plenty of people hate. Now if the only point of Mayhem is do "the exact opposite of what's popular" then that's simply contrarian and boring. Being contrarian is one of the most common perspectives in any culture or scene and isn't unique in any way. I'd argue that you're doing Mayhem a disservice by stating that this was their intent. As for that Burzum track, I'll never listen to it. Maybe you have an example from another artist?

[@noneofyerbeeswax8194]

How is Black Metal unique when most of it sounds exactly the same? A wall of noise, a construction yard with pterodactyl shrieks. It's no different to the mainstream music in the sense that it follows the same simple, basic structure most of the time, and it commits the ultimate sin of the music industry, compressing the shit out of everything to make it sound louder. I find it the most poseurish genre, despite all the pretentions to be "trve". Re: this particular song, I'm not sure how "black" it actually is. It begins as a funeral doom track, followed by some avant-garde death metal sh!t (really reminds me of Ad Nauseam at some places). Not that I care much about it anyway...

[@nathanclack720]

it's a good album but sounds like you're listening through a pillow and it didn't have to ....alas

[@paravarium]

Just never going to be my kind of vocals. I understand the roots of the scene well enough and all the oppression and yadda yadda.. but at the end of the day I just don't want to hear it 😂. Now there are a lot of black metal adjacent things I do enjoy, but often the really early first wave stuff is just a miss for me. I do love Bathory for some reason lol

[@thegrimner]

Bathory, especially in the viking days, will always have a place in my heart, not in spite of how flat his singing sounds, but because of it. The guy had trouble carrying a tune, but didn't really let it affect him in the slightest and that's very endearing.

[@Ca11mero]

Bathory is a special case in my book. He may not have been the best singer around (sounds flat) but he was creative as hell and that makes up for it. In my opinion there are far more good singers than there are creative singers. Also why I like black metal in general, there is a big DIY aspect to it that I enjoy. Modern black metal feels kinda lost as many just recorded it in a studio the same way as a power metal band.

[@Gubbins_McBumbersnoot]

Pretty much my exact reaction to most of Mayhem's music. Confusion, and boredom.