 What true black metal fan doesnt know the name of these unholy masters of mayhem? For their past stained in blood, and the legendary sounds and songs they made filled with hatred and beauty, this band has joined back together to continue the onslaught and preachings of Pure Fucking Armageddon.Formed in 1984 by guitarist/vocalist(at the time) Ostein Aarseth(Euronymous),drummer manheim, and on bass Jorn Stubberud(Necrobutcher) mayhem first released their first demo in 1986 titled "Voice of Tortured Skulls" and limited to only 1000 copies,shortly after that they released their second demo "Pure Fucking Armageddon", because of the terrible sound quality both demos had most critics just past them off but the bands fuck you i dont care attitude kept them alive and drove them to what they are today.In 1987 they found a real vocalist in Sven Kristiansen(maniac) and they recorded their third demo "deathcrush" limited to only 1000 copies again this is, in my opinion, not necessarily a good thing(for the genre is now infested with the pathetic sickly trendy wannabes), the demo that opened the doors to black metal.Shortly after "deathcrush"(recorded on euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Promotions)maniac and manheim left the band for reasons i dont know.Which paved way for the coming of in my opinion again the 2 greatest "rockstars" in black metal history;Dead and Jan axel von blomberg(hellhammer). The lineup was now set and they began to write songs that dead provided with his hellish nightmare visions and screams.but it was all for not after only recording 2 albums(released later Dawn of the Black hearts and A tribute to the black emperors)and "live in Leipzig" Dead gained his fame and place in black metal history by taking his own life.It was said he did it because he was fed up with the scene and people polluting it but looking around now at the scene who could blame him? rumors which i dont know are true are not is that hellhammer took parts of deads skull and made it into a necklace and euronymous took parts of his brain and cooked and ate it.Anyway,After the death of dead, Necrobutcher,one of deads good friends, left the band because he was sick of it all.This left only euronymous and hellhammer with the job of carrying on the band.They recruited Varg Vikernes(count Grishnack) for the job of bass and Atilla for vocals on their first full length album title"De Mysteriis Dom Santhanas".After this is were the story gets even deeper and people set to jail but if you are a true fan youve heard the story thousands of time, but if you havent click here for a little short new clip pretty much summarizing it all. For a couple of years after that everything was silent hellhammer went to do projects such as arcturus and covenant, but the fans wouldnt let mayhem die that easily. Numerous bootlegs were relased and this might of proviked hellhammer into calling up maniac and necrobutcher and getting the band back together.WIth new guitarist Rune Erikson(blasphemer) they realesed their latest mcd "Wolf's Lair Abyss" and begain touring again,playing shows in us(including milwaukee metalfest)and mexico the resurrection of mayhem was now complete.They are now working on their new cd title"a Grand Declaration of War" which will be released sometime soon. 
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