Sunday, August 7, 2016

Mayhem "deathcrush"

I read the book "lords of chaos" in 2004.  It a biographical look at the birth of the modern black metal culture. The book recounts all the music, murder, arson and misanthropy of the culture.  I was fascinated.  Here was the culmination of what our parents feared about heavy metal.  It's extreme almost cartoonish end game. I started avidly buying black metal CDs  while reading the book.  A huge chunk of the book is dedicated to the band #mayhem and it's circus of murderous arsonist members.  I ordered the "deathcrush" mini lp online since I couldn't find it at any local record stores (man, how I miss Home of the Hits). At first listen I was a little disappointed, the legend of the release was already so infamous that it was a real tall order to fulfill my expectations.  I was immediately impressed by the diversity of the tribal drum intro and the spooky keyboard passages.  The problem was I was listening to this album 17 years after it's 1987 release.  Music had gotten much more extreme.  Once I found that perspective I grew to love this release.  If I had heard this in high school I would have been enamored instantly.
I was hooked on the black metal. I approached it in an archival manner.  I was determined to listen to all of its essential releases and find the new strains of grimness.  In an event of pure synchronicity I walked into Record Theatre around this time and someone had traded in their black metal collection. It was a dark treasure trove.  I begged the staff member I was familiar with to save the CDs for me and I returned with more money than I should have spent.  The quest that had begun with the book and this disc was now in full insatiable swing.

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