MAYHEM – Liturgy Of Death (Album Review)

Embrace the existential darkness

Transcending a cultural phenomenon might seem a fool’s errand, particularly one born of infamy and immortalized by a mainstream media that is, at best, ambivalent to the subject under consideration. Yet this is what Norway’s earliest and arguably most consequential purveyor of black metal, Mayhem, has been doing since the 1990s.

A winding maze of stylistic evolution, lyrical subject expansion, and lineup shifts has left this fold in the unique middle ground between upholding the grim orthodoxy that originally typified the 2^nd wave’s low fidelity production practices and chaotic execution and moving into the more polished and progressive character that the subgenre has largely embraced since becoming a worldwide expression.

Coming in just over 6 years to the day that their sixth studio LP Daemon was unleashed via Century Media Records, their seventh and latest excursion into the sonic world of existential blackness and fury, dubbed Liturgy Of Death, continues this outfit’s stride into darker yet more nuanced territory.

For those who have kept up with things since the beginning of the trifecta of modern offerings dating back to 2014’s Esoteric Warfare, the cast of diabolical characters contributing to Mayhem’s modern sound remains wholly consistent. The rhythm section, rounded out by founding member and bassist Necrobutcher and longtime drummer Hellhammer, lays a cacophonous foundation of shimmering blast beats, thundering machine gun double-kicks, and occasional respites in slower territory meshed with a murky, necrotic bottom end that often bends the boundaries of reason.

The twin guitar assault of Teloch and Ghul seamlessly fills out the middle and upper reaches of the arrangement, often achieving a comparable level of density and frostbitten dreariness to what Ihsahn and Samoth put forth on Emperor’s later studio albums, and occasionally channels some of the technical flourishes that would be more readily associated with the likes of Rotting Christ and Necrophobic. At the head of it all are the sepulchral ravings with intermitted spoken lines and operatic flourishes courtesy of Attila Csihar, painting the atmosphere even bleaker still.

In contrast to the more compact songwriting found on Daemon and Esoteric Warfare, Liturgy Of Death takes a longer and less symmetrical approach that might almost be called epic were it the handiwork of a band like Dimmu Borgir or Immortal. Things begin on a highly atmospheric and arguably cinematic note via “Ephemeral Eternity”, which grows from a haunting ambient prelude to a droning stride, and then finally an explosive blizzard of northern rage. It exists in what can be best explained in a state of moving so fast that it seems to phase while standing in place, then it pulls back to a punishingly slow stride and feels like it’s somehow covering more ground, spearheaded by a truly ghoulish performance out of Attila.

The chaotic storms of fury continue in an extended duration with the even more menacing and heavy blast of arctic night dubbed “Despair”, consisting of fewer breaks in the blinding fury and greater dissonance in the arrangement. “Weep For Nothing” rounds out the opening epic trilogy of philosophical woe with a more complex guitar display out of Teloch and Ghul, delving further into the reaches of auditory oblivion and coming out with something that is both immersive and distinctive enough to almost be considered catchy.

Curiously enough, it is when these songs pull back into more compact territory that things get especially intricate. The sub-5-minute fit of blasting fury “Aeon’s End” matches the usual mix of icy melodic motives with something fairly close to the death/thrashing riff work heard during Immortal’s peak into popularity in the late 90s through early 2000s, complete with a ripping guitar solo and a dramatic clean stint out of Atilla amid a quasi-symphonic backdrop.

“Funeral Existence” leans even harder into the thrashing side of the blackened coin during an explosive middle bridge segment that displays Hellhammer’s ability to seamlessly switch gears at the drop of a warlock’s hat, while “Realm Of Endless Misery” gives Necrobutcher a rather auspicious moment to showcase his bass chops in the midst of one of the most insanely chaotic entries on the album.

“Propitious Death” lands so close to the familiar riffing style of Abbath and the accompanying aesthetic of snow-covered mountains that only Attila’s distinctive growl keeps it from sounding like a smoothed-out lost entry from Battles In The North. The canon of this necrotic musical offering is closed in much the way that it opens, with an extended fit of theatrical blackness in “The Sentence Of Absolution”, throwing just about every decrepit element covered earlier in the album against the wall and exiting to the sound of tribal drums out of a pagan ceremony from a bygone era.

It may be a far cry from the overt occultism and crackling cult trappings that typified their sound from their mid-80s founding through the release of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, but Liturgy Of Death is best described as the quintessential expression of what black metal has been about over the past couple of decades.

More so than even the obligatory bells and whistles in the instrumental and vocal departments, the sum of this album’s parts is a generalized sentiment of darkness and sorrow that is completely becoming of the aesthetic that it carries. It will ring familiar to anyone who has kept up with Mayhem since the early 2010s, and it effectively walks the line between the rawness that most purists require and the more accessible production practices that have made the likes of Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth commercially ascendant.

It might not carry the same mystique as their seminal offerings, but Liturgy Of Death proves a highly formidable and immersive experience for those with the courage to venture into the blackened realm. It’s another brilliant sonic manifesto of existential darkness and rage, showcasing that an infamous past pales in comparison to auditory greatness expressed in the present.

Release Date: February 6th, 2026
Record Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Black Metal

Musicians:

• Attila Csihar / Vocals
• Teloch  / Guitars
• Ghul / Guitars
• Necrobutcher  / Bass guitar
• Hellhammer  / Drums

Liturgy Of Death Tracklist:

1. Ephemeral Eternity
2. Despair
3. Weep For Nothing
4. Aeon’s End
5. Funeral Of Existence
6. Realm Of Endless Misery
7. Propitious Death
8. The Sentence Of Absolution
9. Life Is A Corpse You Drag (Bonus track)
10. Sancta Mendacia (bonus track)

Order the album here.