Mayhem: Grand Declaration of War (2000)

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is quite possibly the greatest black metal album of all time.  So the big question is: how the hell do you follow it?  Do you try to replicate its success?  Do you try to top it?  Or do you do something completely off the wall and weird?  Well, Mayhem tried the last one, releasing an album completely different than the previous album.

Anyone with a general knowledge of Mayhem knows that a lot of things happened with the band after their landmark release.  Guitarist Euronymous was murdered by bassist Varg Vikernes.  Vikernes went to prison for his crimes.  The band was embroiled in controversy after controversy.  It is unsurprising that it took six years before the band was able to release anything new.  And of course by that point, for obvious reasons, the band looked significantly different.  Only Hellhammer remained from the lineup that released the previous album.  Blasphemer and Necrobutcher took over on guitar and bass respectively.  Maniac returned to the fold as the vocalist.  And with a new lineup, the band's sound changed as well.

The change is evident from the beginning of the album.  The music is slower and doomier.  The vocals are the biggest change and likely caused a lot of "What the fuck?" reactions.  There are some typical black metal shrieks, but they are mostly relegated to backing vocals behind spoken word vocals delivered in an almost campfire horror story tone and cadence.  These take the form of dramatic speeches about warfare and philosophy.  It takes some getting used to, but these are generally the better parts of the album.

There are some major missteps along the way.  "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" is almost completely worthless.  Featuring menacing whispers over an electronica beat, it sounds completely out of place with everything else that is going on in the album.  There are other moments where the experimentation goes off the rails as well.  The use of robotic vocals in a few places sounds ridiculous and off-putting.

Despite the weirdness, missteps and the unexpected general sound, this is a decent enough release.  It does not hold a candle to what came before, but Mayhem still put out an intriguing release.  Perhaps it is better to think of this as a completely different band, or to acknowledge that some bands are not content staying in one place musically.  That definitely seems to be the case with Mayhem after the issues with Dead, Euronymous and Varg.