Mayhem Announces Special 40th Anniversary Tour

True Norwegian black metal stalwarts Mayhem are set to commemorate their 40th anniversary with a series of exclusive performances in six cities across North America this November! The unique production will decimate theaters in Montreal, QC, Toronto, ON, Queens, NY, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, and Denver, CO from November 12-23. The full itinerary can be found below! Tickets are available here.

Mayhem’s 40th anniversary show promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans, featuring a setlist that spans their illustrious career, from their groundbreaking debut album, Deathcrush, to present day. This concert will celebrate the band’s legacy over four decades of musical evolution and boundary-pushing performances. 

This electrifying live performance showcases a retrospective of Mayhem’s 40-year career as pioneers of black metal and will include rare footage and iconic photos.

Formed in 1984 in Norway, Mayhem has been at the forefront of the black metal scene, known for their controversial history, groundbreaking music, and unparalleled live performances. Over the years, they have cemented their status as one of the most influential bands in extreme metal, continually pushing the boundaries of the genre.

Now, as Mayhem reflects on their 40 year legacy, they celebrate their triumphs over tribulations and tragedy with a-never-before-seen performance, featuring their biggest production yet and other special surprises! When this seminal year concludes, Mayhem will lay this special production to rest, so this is the only time fans will have to experience this celebratory and rare era of the godfathers of black metal.

Mayhem XXXX North American Dates:
11/12/24: Montreal, QC @ Olympia
11/15/24: Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
11/17/24: Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
11/18/24: Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theater
11/21/24: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
11/23/24: Denver, CO @ Ogden Theater

About Mayhem:
Preeminent black metallers Mayhem ready their newest live strike with Daemonic Rites for Century Media. The 16-track effort captures the frightful efficiency and utter lethality of the Norwegians as they close the chapter on their exalted sixth album, Daemon (2019). Throughout Daemonic Rites, Mayhem impressively nail newer tracks like “Falsified and Hated,” “Malum,” “Bad Blood,” and “Voces Ab Alta” to the proverbial cross, while offering pure fucking mastery of classics like “Freezing Moon,” “Buried by Time and Dust,” “Deathcrush,” and “Carnage.” The devilish quintet also add mid-career haunts like “To Daimonion,” “Symbols of Bloodswords,” and “My Death,” making Daemonic Rites a genuine career-spanning offering.

“We wanted to document how great the band and set sounds like after almost 40 years of playing live,” says founding member Necrobutcher. “As a treat to our fans, we decided to release this live recording.”

“We released the live version of De Mysteriis [aka De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive] a few years ago,” Ghul adds. “That was received very well. We have been playing together for so long now with this lineup that we feel we have reached a point where we are a seriously well-oiled machine. It seemed like a natural step to try to capture this moment in the band’s history, with the same setlist we have been using for a while.”

Mayhem have nearly 1,000 shows to their name. Since their formation in Langhus, Norway in 1984, the band — now comprised of Necrobutcher (bass), Hellhammer (drums), Attila Csihar (vocals), Teloch (guitars), and Ghul (guitars) — have brought their brand of bellicose, preternatural black metal to over 60 countries. From the United States and Germany to Australia and Brazil, Mayhem have stunned, bewildered, and turned rabid a global legion, dedicated as much to the band’s infamous legacy as they are staunchly in support of Daemon. Much of that respect and devotion started in the early ’90s, but persisted to the present day on the strength of official live albums Live in Leipzig (1993), Mediolanum Capta Est (1999), Live in Marseille 2000 (2001), and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016). Mayhem continue their on-stage assault with Daemonic Rites.

“I knew from day one back in 1984 that this band was going to be outstanding—one of the best bands ever!” Necrobutcher says. “I guess that’s a big reason why we still are here after 39 years—and counting.”

“Well, for the first time in a long time, we felt again like a unit, musically,” continues Hellhammer. “That’s something we haven’t felt in a long time, and that shows in the live recording.”

Daemonic Rites wasn’t pre-planned. Rather, they had sound engineer/producer Tore Stjerna (of Necromorbus Studio fame) record everything — just for posterity, in fact — during the group’s Northern Ritual MMXXII and Thalassic Ritual tours of 2022 and early 2023. Mayhem and Stjerna pilfered the gems, resulting in gigs from London (“Life Eternal,” “Malum”), Manchester (“My Death,” “Silvester Anfang”), and Gothenburg (“Pure Fucking Armageddon,” “To Daimonion”) coming out on top. The penultimate Mayhem live album wouldn’t be complete without “Freezing Moon” and “Pagan Fears” — both from Csihar’s hometown of Budapest, Hungary — as well as newer tracks, “Falsified and Hated” and “Bad Blood,” from Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. Daemonic Rites showcases the two-time Norwegian Grammy (aka Spellemannprisen) winners at the pinnacle of their live potential.

“We play the songs that feel the best live,” Hellhammer says. “We have in the past tried out a lot of different songs from former eras, but when you play live for an audience, the songs must have IT. If they don’t, even if they are good songs, they won’t fit in a live setting.”

Adds Teloch: “We have a vast catalog by now with so many different types of songs. It’s interesting to make them all work together in a full concert.”

Daemonic Rites comes off the heels of Mayhem’s incredible Beyond the Gates 2022 performance, where they uncaged cult classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas not far from where it was originally recorded by Eirik ‘Pytten’ Hundvin (Enslaved, Emperor, Immortal) in Grieghallen during 1992/1993. The live album, however, was mixed and mastered over in neighboring Sweden. Stjerna, who also assisted with Daemon, took the phantasmagoric collection of tracks to his lair at Necromorbus Studio, where his sole job was to preserve Mayhem’s raw, unbridled energy and ghastly electricity. From “Falsified and Hated” and “My Death” to “Buried by Time and Dust” and “Carnage,” they’ve never had the quality of a live album quite like Daemonic Rites. If the past is always alive, this is a live album on par with Venom’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Emperor’s Emperial Live Ceremony, and Gorgoroth’s Black Mass Krakow 2004.

“It fits with where we are now, or more precisely, where we were at the time of the recording,” says Hellhammer.

“[The live recordings] capture the spirit and energy,” furthers Ghul, “of where we are as a band right now.”

Indeed, Mayhem have been and continue to operate at a level not yet witnessed. While atavists will always relish the Deathcrush or Live in Leipzig lineups, Hellhammer’s drum performance against the twin terrors of Teloch and Ghul is the purest black magic on Daemonic Rites. Similarly, Csihar’s hair-raising caterwauling and spectral snarls atop Necrobutcher’s seventh-hell low end is witching-hour great! To support Daemonic Rites, Mayhem have videos for Daemon-era masterpiece “Malum” and late-’80s Killjoy dedication “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” lined up. Daemonic Rites is the perfect guillotine while the group craft new songs and conspire with others on what the group’s 40th Anniversary next year might entail. Mayhem are likely in their final form, and they’ve never been deadlier.

Lineup:
Necrobutcher – Bass
Hellhammer – Drums
Attila – Vocals
Teloch – Guitar
Ghul – Guitar

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