Customer Reviews

Ordo Ad Chao

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Whenever Mayhem deliver a new recording, it shakes the foundations of the metal underground. There simply is no band in the field who make music the way Mayhem does; ultra-black, ultra-bleak yet retaining the necessary technical progressive touches. This one, the first to feature Attila since the monumental first full-length, does not disappoint in any way. While Maniac will always be missed, Mayhem remains the greatest metal band and is actually just improving upon their reign here.
Mayhem. The only band that matters.

In the evolution of Mayhem, at least since "Grand Declaration of War," when they transformed from just another excessive black Norwegian metal band into something darker and more intriguing, there has been a constant blending in their music of their usual viciousness and what one wants to call experimental artiness. This artiness, of course, adds to, rather than detracts, from the general nastiness, so those who put "art" and "raw power" at opposite ends of the spectrum might want to hear what they sound like when merged instead.

Released one day before Dimmu Borgir's fantastic "In Sorte Diaboli," one can safely say that it is Mayhem who still carry the spirit of Norwegian black metal in its "pure" or "original" form. Partly, this comes across with a deliberate lack of variation in how the instruments sound, and subsequently their distinctive "garage metal" sound, which Dimmu Borgir have long since abandoned. But it comes across as well in sheer speed and thrash, aided, twisted and warped by a very conscious desire on the band's part to touch deeper chords of metal than metal usually mines.

The album opens with "A Wise Birthgiver," crashing along on ponderous chords. At a momentary pause, something like a dental tool being dragged across teeth accompanies distant, dissonant sawing and heavily echoed drums. Things then ooze around through a cloud of overdrive, and it becomes genuinely unclear where all the sound is heading. In fact, it turns out the whole thing is sheer, gugly ambience, as a build-up to the next song.

"Wall of Water," at 4'40", opens with more ponderous chords, but this time with cascading drums. A tweaky guitar line is then smashed to bits by drums, until typical howling, drilling mayhem starts up. On the face of it, one wants to say this is just the usual sort of thing, but it largely does not sound like it--90% Norwegian black metal plus 10% something else. Two thirds of the way through the song, things calm down considerably, without sacrificing creepiness--again, another example of creating an uneasy musical mood through more than just straight over the top thrashing. Given how the structure of both this song and the opening track break down and constantly fragment into pieces, one suspects the disc's title "Ordo ad Chao" (order to chaos) suggests a very deliberate approach to song-writing.

"Great Work of Ages," at 3'52", again opens up with racing guitars and drums, but almost immediately spins out into something satisfyingly odder. The dental implement seems to return as well and, in fact, the first three songs do all tend to blend together. Sawing, relentless guitars get buried in the background under gasping vocals-- more "buried alive" than "lost in the mix". Another would-be riff rears its head, then almost as quickly dies away again. It emphasizes how there has been nothing on the album so far that resembles a song, not even a chorus or verse, but gestures, pounding drums, sawing, jittery guitars, and many vocal moods. If this sounds unpromising, suffice to say that partly the tension of waiting for a song to come along, and even more so the unsettled mood of all the music, makes for a tense, but weirdly appealing disc.

"Deconsecrate," at 4'07", begins in a very similar vein again, a total wig out on all instruments, including the vocals. After a few seconds, this settles down more or less, with vocals in a sort of preacherly-bellowing register, and the drums clanking along "funkily" on high-hat. In the middle of the song, there is a massive slowdown on heavy drums, but this proves to be a red herring, as the thrash returns with a vengeance. Again, it's this kind of contrast that sets Mayhem apart from the general run of such metal, and even their own earlier albums. The whole thing ends on all-out screaming, and finally brings the whole disc to a full stop, once again making it seem that the album so far is one piece.

"Illuminate Eliminate," at 9'40", is one of the stand-out tracks on the album, and not simply for its length. Opening with one big chord, a few jangly guitar notes, and then a deep cackle that is arbitrarily chopped off, an oozing, Melvins-like riff that seems intent on not letting the ear make sense of it comes in, then breaks off to slow, guttural whispers, and blasting chord contrasts that themselves then melt away into a repeating drum cascade and rising-sun-like note. More semi-random start-stop chords finally usher in what feels like the most conventionally song-like bit so far, held down by a rolling, deep bass death march. In short order, however, the march breaks up into alternating riffs that finally succumb to temptation and simply rip out into another all out assault. Another unsettling "breather" section follows, and then probably the closest thing to a guitar epic that Mayhem will allow themselves. Nevertheless, it is suitably grand. Again, if this all sounds like it could not possibly hang together in any kind of coherent way, then it is to Mayhem's credit that they make it seem inevitable.

"Psychic Horns," at 6'32", like many of its brothers on this album, starts with heavy opening chords that are allowed to die away, but instead of turning into a frenzied avalanche, a downtempo wall of chords are hammered out instead, as the drums in the background (and foreground) gradually become faster and crazier. And once again, in the middle of the song, a full/false stop as seemingly a gateway into one mood then splits open into something else entirely. This new riff then morphs and cranks the thumbscrews tighter and tighter into a strangled, claustrophobic howl of music to end the song. It might be surprising how this disc keeps one on their toes and riveted to the music, but it is precisely such unpredictable changes in direction, tempo and timbre that make it hard to drift off during a song. It generally doesn't make for sustained bouts of head banging; if that's what you're looking for, the "artiness" that the song structures reflect may well be displeasing.

"Key to the Storms," at 3'52", does not necessarily provide any insight into the storms of music Mayhem has provided here, and starts again in the same vein as almost every other song on the disc. The cartoonish wails of someone suffering, alternating with cackling and high-pitched gurgling mostly set this song apart from all the rest.

"Anti," at 4'33", provides no surprises at the outset, while also being blisteringly serious. While the whole disc does not suggest a beginning that is characterized by order, so that "Anti" is the very opposite nadir of that order, even so, it is certainly one of the more chaotically pieced together pieces. However, suddenly, and obviously just to be perverse, at 3 minutes into the song, it ends and seems over, before a low, gurgling vocal note growls out, and gives way to one last semi-epic progression of chords to end everything on a Mayhem-style gesture of black grandeur.

Mayhem has lived up to its name in terms of the antics of its band members (one member murdered another, the self-mutilation the original singer performed onstage ended finally in suicide), but not always musically. With this disc, and their previous (perhaps even better) disc, Chimera, they do indeed over and over provide a musical mayhem that takes positively demonic glee in shattering and tearing to pieces each instance of musical order that temporarily gels in a song, and scattering its pieces all over your speakers in a chaos of sound. The result is surprisingly effective, and surprisingly interest-sustaining. Perhaps since no song ever really seems to quite start, none ever really quite seems to end either, so that the listener suspended and left to be buffeted all sides by drums, vocals, guitars and mayhem.

It may well be, if you are looking for "songs" in a usual sense of the word, or if a wide variety of sounds from a band's instruments (and especially the guitar) is what you really like in a disc, then this may well not be your cup of tea. The whole effect of the album, it seems, is in the unhinged variations away from a few core ideas, with the vocals providing the widest range of variation. As such, it seems like the album is meant to be listened to in its entirety every time. At only 40 minutes, this is very doable, but the shortness of the disc may also put some off.

NOTE: Amazon says this disc is "Ordo ab Chao"; in fact, it is "Ordo ad Chao"

In the evolution of Mayhem, at least since "Grand Declaration of War," when they transformed from just another excessive black Norwegian metal band into something darker and more intriguing, there has been a constant blending in their music of their usual viciousness and what one wants to call experimental artiness. This artiness, of course, adds to, rather than detracts, from the general nastiness, so those who put "art" and "raw power" at opposite ends of the spectrum might want to hear what they sound like when merged instead.

Released one day before Dimmu Borgir's fantastic "In Sorte Diaboli," one can safely say that it is Mayhem who still carry the spirit of Norwegian black metal in its "pure" or "original" form. Partly, this comes across with a deliberate lack of variation in how the instruments sound, and subsequently their distinctive "garage metal" sound, which Dimmu Borgir have long since abandoned. But it comes across as well in sheer speed and thrash, aided, twisted and warped by a very conscious desire on the band's part to touch deeper chords of metal than metal usually mines.

The album opens with "A Wise Birthgiver," crashing along on ponderous chords. At a momentary pause, something like a dental tool being dragged across teeth accompanies distant, dissonant sawing and heavily echoed drums. Things then ooze around through a cloud of overdrive, and it becomes genuinely unclear where all the sound is heading. In fact, it turns out the whole thing is sheer, gugly ambience, as a build-up to the next song.

"Wall of Water," at 4'40", opens with more ponderous chords, but this time with cascading drums. A tweaky guitar line is then smashed to bits by drums, until typical howling, drilling mayhem starts up. On the face of it, one wants to say this is just the usual sort of thing, but it largely does not sound like it--90% Norwegian black metal plus 10% something else. Two thirds of the way through the song, things calm down considerably, without sacrificing creepiness--again, another example of creating an uneasy musical mood through more than just straight over the top thrashing. Given how the structure of both this song and the opening track break down and constantly fragment into pieces, one suspects the disc's title "Ordo ad Chao" (order to chaos) suggests a very deliberate approach to song-writing.

"Great Work of Ages," at 3'52", again opens up with racing guitars and drums, but almost immediately spins out into something satisfyingly odder. The dental implement seems to return as well and, in fact, the first three songs do all tend to blend together. Sawing, relentless guitars get buried in the background under gasping vocals-- more "buried alive" than "lost in the mix". Another would-be riff rears its head, then almost as quickly dies away again. It emphasizes how there has been nothing on the album so far that resembles a song, not even a chorus or verse, but gestures, pounding drums, sawing, jittery guitars, and many vocal moods. If this sounds unpromising, suffice to say that partly the tension of waiting for a song to come along, and even more so the unsettled mood of all the music, makes for a tense, but weirdly appealing disc.

"Deconsecrate," at 4'07", begins in a very similar vein again, a total wig out on all instruments, including the vocals. After a few seconds, this settles down more or less, with vocals in a sort of preacherly-bellowing register, and the drums clanking along "funkily" on high-hat. In the middle of the song, there is a massive slowdown on heavy drums, but this proves to be a red herring, as the thrash returns with a vengeance. Again, it's this kind of contrast that sets Mayhem apart from the general run of such metal, and even their own earlier albums. The whole thing ends on all-out screaming, and finally brings the whole disc to a full stop, once again making it seem that the album so far is one piece.

"Illuminate Eliminate," at 9'40", is one of the stand-out tracks on the album, and not simply for its length. Opening with one big chord, a few jangly guitar notes, and then a deep cackle that is arbitrarily chopped off, an oozing, Melvins-like riff that seems intent on not letting the ear make sense of it comes in, then breaks off to slow, guttural whispers, and blasting chord contrasts that themselves then melt away into a repeating drum cascade and rising-sun-like note. More semi-random start-stop chords finally usher in what feels like the most conventionally song-like bit so far, held down by a rolling, deep bass death march. In short order, however, the march breaks up into alternating riffs that finally succumb to temptation and simply rip out into another all out assault. Another unsettling "breather" section follows, and then probably the closest thing to a guitar epic that Mayhem will allow themselves. Nevertheless, it is suitably grand. Again, if this all sounds like it could not possibly hang together in any kind of coherent way, then it is to Mayhem's credit that they make it seem inevitable.

"Psychic Horns," at 6'32", like many of its brothers on this album, starts with heavy opening chords that are allowed to die away, but instead of turning into a frenzied avalanche, a downtempo wall of chords are hammered out instead, as the drums in the background (and foreground) gradually become faster and crazier. And once again, in the middle of the song, a full/false stop as seemingly a gateway into one mood then splits open into something else entirely. This new riff then morphs and cranks the thumbscrews tighter and tighter into a strangled, claustrophobic howl of music to end the song. It might be surprising how this disc keeps one on their toes and riveted to the music, but it is precisely such unpredictable changes in direction, tempo and timbre that make it hard to drift off during a song. It generally doesn't make for sustained bouts of head banging; if that's what you're looking for, the "artiness" that the song structures reflect may well be displeasing.

"Key to the Storms," at 3'52", does not necessarily provide any insight into the storms of music Mayhem has provided here, and starts again in the same vein as almost every other song on the disc. The cartoonish wails of someone suffering, alternating with cackling and high-pitched gurgling mostly set this song apart from all the rest.

"Anti," at 4'33", provides no surprises at the outset, while also being blisteringly serious. While the whole disc does not suggest a beginning that is characterized by order, so that "Anti" is the very opposite nadir of that order, even so, it is certainly one of the more chaotically pieced together pieces. However, suddenly, and obviously just to be perverse, at 3 minutes into the song, it ends and seems over, before a low, gurgling vocal note growls out, and gives way to one last semi-epic progression of chords to end everything on a Mayhem-style gesture of black grandeur.

Mayhem has lived up to its name in terms of the antics of its band members (one member murdered another, the self-mutilation the original singer performed onstage ended finally in suicide), but not always musically. With this disc, and their previous (perhaps even better) disc, Chimera, they do indeed over and over provide a musical mayhem that takes positively demonic glee in shattering and tearing to pieces each instance of musical order that temporarily gels in a song, and scattering its pieces all over your speakers in a chaos of sound. The result is surprisingly effective, and surprisingly interest-sustaining. Perhaps since no song ever really seems to quite start, none ever really quite seems to end either, so that the listener suspended and left to be buffeted all sides by drums, vocals, guitars and mayhem.

It may well be, if you are looking for "songs" in a usual sense of the word, or if a wide variety of sounds from a band's instruments (and especially the guitar) is what you really like in a disc, then this may well not be your cup of tea. The whole effect of the album, it seems, is in the unhinged variations away from a few core ideas, with the vocals providing the widest range of variation. As such, it seems like the album is meant to be listened to in its entirety every time. At only 40 minutes, this is very doable, but the shortness of the disc may also put some off.

Mayhem expand their Musical abilities with this release, the tempo goes from traditional schizophrenic BM to a more lucid pace that compliments Attilas vocal style. People are going to bitch that this album is not like De Mysteriis dom Sathanas but remember that was 14 years ago, I think the production hails back to original BM like Darkthrone, old Nachtmystiium, or early Immortal, Bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir have spoiled fans with their clean production and widespread fan following with help of such stores as Hot Topic, Mayhem merely goes back to what they know, ugly, hateful music. To me this is the soundtrack to what is going on inside Attilas mind and he expresses it through his wide range of vocal styles to prove why he is BM top vocalist.

I'm gonna make this short, so I'm not wasting your time or mine. This is metal, REAL metal, TRUE metal. It's shocking, it's disturbing, it's almost painful. If you like Slipknot, Disturbed, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Godsmack, or any of that crap, then Mayhem is not for you.

Mayhem's history is, to say the least, a very long, storied, and complex one. It seems like some sort of deep controversy has surrounded them since day one, and it has snowballed greatly in two plus decades. Therefore, it would not be an overstatement to say that they have long been one of the most infamously evil, feared, reviled, and outrageous groups in the history of music! In fact, some think Mayhem represents everything that's bad about heavy metal; others, however, would argue the exact opposite. (Of course, your own stance on that depends on if you're a fan of said genre, are conservative or religious, and if you have a strong stomach or not.)

Mayhem began stirring up attention in the heavy music underground with a full-length debut, 1987's "Deathcrush" (which was seminal in the black metal scene at the time), as well as overt Satanism, taboo subject matter, and terrifying live shows. And soon thereafter, the band members graduated to unspeakable things (including, but not limited to, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, arson, plans to blow up a church, and talk of cannibalism.) Some might have even forgotten that these four Norwegians even made music if not for the release of "De Mysterious Dom Sathanas" in 1994. This album would soon become legendary, and a standard bearer for extreme metal. It also proved to be incredibly influential, as it would go on to inspire a truly infinite number of black metal merchants to come (most of them blatant rip-offs and/or imitators). Unfortunately, various other controversies, lineup shifts, and record label jumps prohibited the band from releasing new music for quite some time.

So, a full six years after the landmark release of the above-mentioned "De Mysterious Dom Sathanas," Mayhem finally returned with a new full-length. But this recording, "Grand Declaration of War," which had strong progressive and avant-garde influences, was widely panned by fans and black metal purists for being too experimental. Then, in 2004, came "Chimera," a much heavier and more "back-to-basics" effort by the band. But even though this record was quite a bit better than its predecessor, and it met with a generally favorable response, no one can argue that Mayhem got to be where they are today by playing it safe. Well, that is definitely not the case anymore - just one listen to "Ordo Ad Chao," and you'll be sure of that.

Listeners who come to this 2007 recording looking for a memorable melody would probably have better luck tracking down a piece of ex-frontman Dead's skull. Also know not to expect any groove to speak of, catchy parts, keyboards, or "Freezing Moon" sequel. In other words, don't expect anything that isn't pure, 110%, uneasy listening black metal through and through. The new album is easily the band's most experimental work to date. It is also a standout in their discography, and it just might be the crown jewel in their career. Jan Axel Blomberg (a.k.a. Hellhammer) described its production as "necro as (heck)" - meaning it sounds about as raw, dirty, thin, and low-fi as you can get. The production also has a lot of treble, and a really bass-heavy mix, so it seems intent on emphasizing atmosphere over sheer heaviness. Other experimental aspects you will find here include spots of eerie chanting, death grunts, and even clean vocals.

Fear not, though, longtime fans, because this is still Mayhem, after all. Thus, "Ordo Ad Chao" is extremely dissonant, sinister, and brutal. And also on the more familiar side, the songs are chock full of brilliantly epic, unpredictable songwriting and mindblowing musicianship. The star performer is the aforementioned Hellhammer. He is a true living legend among drummers, and his performance here is nothing short of very diverse, organic, devastating, and just plain godly.

The phrase "all killer, no filler" is most appropriate in describing these eight songs. And listening to them is less like listening to an album, and more like a captivating, out-of-this-world experience. The breathtaking opening soundscape, "A Wise Birthgiver," with its discordant, crashing chords, ominous feedback, cascading drums, and positively doomy atmosphere, could send chills up a dead man's spine. "Wall Of Water" opens with some of the same chords, but they are soon smashed to tiny pieces by a furious wall of sound. The guitars race by like a black tornado while frontman Attila Csihar lays down creepy, snarling, spoken-word vocals, and Hellhammer pummels away on his trapkit to create seizure-inducing, inhuman-sounding blast beats that almost trample the guitar lead. But the end of "Wall Of Water" throws the listener for a loop, with a stop-on-a-dime pause, crawling tempo, and creeping guitar noise that makes your skin crawl.

"Great Work Of Ages" works similarly, and also features great dynamics -- it intersperses doomy, haunting, and sometimes nearly silent passages with lightning fast blitzkriegs of thrashy guitar whooshes, and thunderous drums. Also of note in this song are the vocals, which include awesomely evil gasps and lengthy, memorable, glass-shattering shrieks. Next up, "Deconsecrate" features more wicked vocals from Csihar, who sounds like a fairy being suffocated. For the most part, though, this song is Hellhammer's show -- he unleashes wave after wave of cracking, stop-start black metal blasts at truly blistering speeds.

At nearly ten minutes in length, "Illuminate Eliminate," is not only a highpoint for the album, but is also easily Mayhem's finest, and most complex, accomplished, and stunning piece of work to date. It begins on a terrifically spooky note with a rolling, marching beat, ponderous, ambient chords, gloomy feedback, ghoulish, gravelly growls, and a deep, filthy-sounding bass line. But around the 4:10 point, the song adopts a totally unexpected tempo change, and lets rip with breakneck speed, blasting chords, and pounding skins. Track six, "Psychic Horns," is a very foreboding tune with sludgy, endlessly droning guitars anchored by raw, jackhammer-fast drumming.

"Key To The Storms" is another great mood-enhancer, and is highlighted by indescribably wicked, schizophrenic, gore-soaked, lung-stretching vocals that seem intent on haunting your dreams for years to come. Finally, "Ordo Ad Chao" closes with "Anti," a ripping and uncompromisingly brutal number that reeks of desperation. This track finds Hellhammer again taking over the spotlight, and putting on a virtual drum clinic full of truly insane and mind-boggling hyper-kinetic blast beats and inventive, head-spinning fills fhat steamroll over the listener's eardrums like a friggin' tank!

"Ordo Ad Chao" is absolutely a must-hear. Not only is it in the top three metal albums of 2007, and easily that year's best black metal record, but it is also one of the genre's best and most memorable and innovative releases of all tine. After all, it might be true that controversies have sometimes overshadowed the band's actual music. But the fact remains that in the world of hellishly evil, nightmarishly dark, and mercilessly brutal black metal, Mayhem are, and will always be, simply untouchable. "Ordo Ad Chao" is further proof of this. What else do you need to know?!

This is the most disturbing recording I have ever heard! Mayhem cannot, and will not, make an album that can top this. When it comes to straight up deprevation, this is the end of the line. It doesn't get any more creepy and nihilistic than this, short of Abruptum, which they're treading a fine line with. BUY THIS ALBUM!

This I never expected. I can't remember the last time an album has captivated me like this one. My litmus test for music the first time I listen to it is that if I like it too much then it's too much like something I've heard before, but if I don't know if I like it but want to keep listening to it then it's probably going to turn out to be amazing. I couldn't listen to anything else for two weeks, and now I can say without reservation that "Ordo Ad Chao" is a monumental work.

What impresses me in particular is the overall cohesiveness of the album. The pace ebbs and flows with a beautiful rhythm. While there little if any traditional verse/chorus/coda patterning, themes return throughout the album, making each track feel like a movement from an overall composition.

Attila's vocals are some of the most expressive I've ever heard. Really exceptional. I'd compare the experience of listening to this album to that of looking at a German Expressionist painting.

When I put this CD in my PC and downloaded the album info for it, the genre that came up was "avant-garde" which I thought was odd, but after listening to it for a while it doesn't seem so inappropriate. While they're certainly quite different, this album reminds me of some of the work done by Mike Patton with John Zorn.

There has been a lot of complaining about the muddy production. While normally I prefer high production values I must say that I didn't find the production on this album to detract in any way from the experience. I think the sound of the album is perfectly suited to the material, and frankly I don't think it's nearly as muddy as many others seem to.

This isn't an easy album to digest, but given a chance it's an extremely satisfying piece of music.

This is a true return to form. This is easily one of the best, if not THE best black metal album in almost a decade. Let me back that up with some proof. The nearly 10 minute "Illuminate Eliminate" contains some of the most disturbing vocals ever recorded for black metal (courtesy of Attila Csihar, known previously from Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", and a slew of other work). It also contains some of the most bleak and depressing passages heard since Burzum's early days, or more recently since doom kings Sunn O))) decided they could make black metal (see "Black One"). Then as always, there's the staple of all things black metal... the speed, the aggression, hate and violence of it all, and man, they're there. Hellhammer's speed and precission on the drums get alot of hype for good reason. And that's just ONE of the songs. I probably can't explain to everyone how this album instantly affected me. I listened to it 7 TIMES IN A ROW the day it came out while I was at work. I tried listening to something else, but I wanted to hear this again, and again. This will easily be in the top 5 for my year, and the year's still got 7 more months. ORDO AD CHOA will not be matched or surpassed in the coming year... probably coming several years.

Seems like I'm listening to a journey into the abyss. Wall of Water is just a cold and brutal masterpiece. Then right there in the middle is Illuminate Eliminate - an obvious monster of a song. Psychic Horns and Anti are good as well. I can see what others complain about as the sound is dulled and mudded (is that a word?) in comparison to other Mayhem releases. As an album its no where near their best (early works) but it is impressive if uneven in terms of quality.