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Mayhem - Grand Declaration Of War [Season Of Mist - 2000]This legendary cult black metal band who were one of the founders of the whole black metal soundand generation of bands starts a second youth with this "Grand Declaration of War". Now I wonīt argue with you that the old Mayhem records were good or bad, thatīs just a matterof taste but I thought that these Norwegian musicians were not good enough on theirinstruments to get me even remotely interested and enthusiastic with their music.I agree that itīs a part of the whole black metal sound, those distant guitars andhypnotizing riffs and beats, but I want more to keep me interested.Now with this album Mayhem starts from scratch again, leaving their 'famous' history behind and theyīve gone where no other black metal bandhas gone before.Itīs hard to describe in words in which direction Mayhem went with this record butI will try ofcourse. The whole album is a concept and divided in two parts,part 2 and 3, now you might think where did part 1 go, but you can find that one onthe Wolfīs Lair Abyss mini album which was released in 1997. Itīs not hard to figure outwhat this "Grand Declaration of War" is about. The whole concept is a war against humanityas we know it right now (ofcourse itīs more detailed in the lyrics) which ends with a war(a big bang on the album, and the end of part 2) and then the rebuilding of a new world(the start of part 3).Now the interesting part for me was that the production is crystal clear and Mayhempractised a lot since the album is really, really technical. Hellhammer, the drummer did a greatjob on the drums. They are so fast and technical that itīs almost impossible to believe heis human and not a computer. I hear vague infleunces from the Norwegian technical metal bandSpiral Architect in Mayhemīs sound and compositions. Maybe itīs not a huge surprise that Øyvind -Spiral Architectīs vocalist- does some guestvocals on the track "Completion in Scienceof Agony", which is Mayhemīs longest and slowest song ever, but also one of the best tracks onthe album. The whole album sounds really modern and fresh, they even used a vocoder to give Maniac, the vocalist, a futuristic, robotic voice in parts of the songs. Now Maniacalso does some other new tricks on the album, since on some songs (most of them in part 2)he narrates a lot. Itīs like he is telling the listener a story, a great effect if you ask me.Ofcourse he didnīt ditch the black metal screams, there are a lot of them and they sound reallygood and agressive. I canīt skip talking about one part of the album, namely the track "A bloodsword and a colder Sun",which might surprise a lot of people since itīs Mayhemīs most experimental track up to date.Yes, itīs not metal, no itīs not techno either, like some people tend to believe, but itīs a really smoothtrip-hop song. Itīs clearly that Mayhem listened a lot to the English band Massive Attack since you can hear that they were inspired by this band. Still, inspired is not bad and the song fitsthe whole concept of the album perfectly and sounds really good for a metal band doing a trip-hop song.As a conclusion I can say that not every old Mayhem fan might like this album, as you can read they changeda lot during the years, for me itīs only positive and Iīm glad Mayhem went for a new kind of sound insteadof doing what almost every new black metal band on the block does. Itīs fresh and Mayhem might starta new musical revolution again with this album. Progressive black metal? Post-black metal? Well, justcheck this album out, whatever style it is, itīs GOOD!  Niels van Rongen
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|  | | Mayhem - Grand Declaration Of War | This legendary cult black metal band who were one of the founders of the whole black metal soundand generation of bands starts a second youth with this "Gran...
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| | | The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H... | Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
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