Mayhem - Of Lord Satans Mysteries (2009)

Probably not just everyone knows that there is something like 30+ bootleg recordings floating around out there of ancient demo, rehearsal and live material from Mayhem's classic line-up, (i.e., Euronymous, Dead, Necrobutcher and Hellhammer) many of which boast themselves to contain exclusive and never before heard material. Chances are most of this material is just continuously re-packaged and billed as being new, and in the case of, 'Of Lord Satans Mysteries' that may just be true.

Apparently, the seven songs are taken from a spring rehearsal in 1989 and originally just eleven copies of this material was created and passed out among Dead's friends back in the day, making it perhaps the most rare of early Mayhem rehearsal's out there. Well, after doing a little research I uncovered that the songs are in fact taken from an old bootleg 12" vinyl called, 'Out From the Dark,' but since I don't own it I really can't confirm it for you. What I can tell you is that for well over a decade now I've had an absolute affinity for all things old Mayhem and even if this is a rehash I really don't care, because simply put - It fucking rocks!

The production is about as grim and underground as rehearsals get with Euronymous' guitar being heavily distorted and filled with static and treble, yet the overall volume is surprisingly loud and the riffs are easily recognizable. Hellhammer's drums are but a thunderous repetitious pounding in the background while Necrobutcher's bass lines are pretty much absent. Dead's throaty scathing croaks are the most audible part of this bootleg and if you've heard any other Mayhem rehearsal's or the, 'Live in Leipzig' album then you know what to expect here.

The band rips through seven classics, like, 'Buried by Time and Dust,' 'Deathcrush,' 'Necrolust' and 'Funeral Fog' in under thirty minutes without much pause or even any between song chatter, though Dead does introduce, 'Freezing Moon' with his, "When its cold, when its dark..." speech before the band starts jamming. The version of, 'Pure Fucking Armageddon' is also quite cool and since the original demo is awful its always good to hear a decent version of this song, even more so since when the band reformed they'd just do 30 second blast version of it at gigs.

By no means is the rehearsal perfect, neither is the bands performance, especially Dead who seems a little delayed at times with his screams. Nevertheless, like I said I've got a thing for these old Mayhem recordings and honestly I don't even know why. Chalk it down as just being cool hearing early versions of songs I love or because its just always interesting hearing relentless violent metal aggression from the 80's.

The bootleg also does come as a factory pressed release, which also features various drawings done by Dead in the booklet, traycard and on the CD, as well as all the lyrics and a few rare live shots I don't think I've seen before. All in all, a pretty cool package and said to be limited to just 300 copies, which makes the $10 price tag seem fairly reasonable too. Yet, obviously its not for the timid and only for the most hardcore of classic Mayhem fans, which I guess I must be since I always love this stuff.