Holy shit, now THIS is fucking Mayhem. Frankly, I heard about Attila Csihar’s return to the Norwegian fold, but I had no idea they were in the midst of production. And frankly even then I wasn’t expecting much: sure, Chimera was leaps and bounds an improvement over the shit-tastic experimental mess that was Grand Declaration of War, but in all honesty Chimera really wasn’t that great. I thought the band’s better days were behind them.

And for once, I’m wrong. I’m not just wrong, I’m dead fucking wrong. I’m so wrong, it’s a crime against humanity. I practically committed genocide I’m so wrong. Ordo ad Chao isn’t simply a return to form for Mayhem, it’s hands-down their best work in over an entire decade. Fuck Chimera, fuck Wolf’s Lair Abyss, and it goes without saying to fuck that certain other album, too. Not since their legendary De Mysteriis dom Sathanas has Mayhem crafted such an amazing black metal album. It’s as if the last 13 years never happened well sort of. There’s a distinct contemporary influence here that will jump out at any fans of the French black metal scenes.

Ordo ad Chao possesses an aesthetic feel not unlike Mayhem’s classic De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. The rough, archaic-sounding production makes the record sound like it came from those same production sessions, eliciting a feel of dark dread not unlike the early morning fog within a WWII concentration camp. What furthers the reminiscent feeling of that classic album is the return of vocalist Attila Csihar, who was tapped to do session vocals on De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. Originally I was never a fan of Attila’s vocal style; his earlier performance could be best describe, according to my friend Donn, as the black metal Popeye the Sailor Man. However, Attila has definitely grown since then, infusing his trademark sound with low, creepy growls, and deeper bellows that possess a distinctly Anaal Nathrakh feel from time to time. Attila, for once, actually sounds foreboding, menacing, and just plain fucking evil.

However, the riffing is hardly a rehash of De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. On the contrary, it possesses a distinct Blut Aus Nord feel. Guitarist Blasphemer weaves in and out of the songs with guitar work that is baffling and obtuse, and not too far removed from the riffage heard of the last two Blut Aus Nord records. The guitars are confounding, bizarre, and obfuscating in such a way that it could only feel at home on a black metal album. Hellhammer aptly drums in a similarly obscure manner, maintaining this feeling of bizarre darkness that Ordo ad Chao is bursting at the seams with. When combined with the raw, primitive production and Attila’s torturous vocal performance, Mayhem has created a record that sounds like the musical embodiment of a Zdzisław Beksiński painting: a gloomy, hopeless apocalyptic world full of abandoned edifices, sandstorms, and molten corpses. Not even the orthodox black metal kiddies touch this kind of feeling of hatred and despair.

I’m going to risk what little credibility I have and state flat out that Ordo ad Chao is not only Mayhem’s best album since De Mysteriis dom Sathanas but is also just as good as De Mysteriis dom Sathanas. It’s harsh, dark, and mind-numbingly bleak, and it’s a hell of a lot more frightening than most other black metal albums hitting the market right now. It also eclipses everything Mayhem has done since 1994.

Written By: Necro-tron