Mayhem & Watain with Revenge
MAYHEM & WATAIN
with Revenge
Saturday, January 17 at Mill City Nights
Event Details: Black Metal Warfare Tour feat. Mayhem & Watain with Revenge
Venue: Mill City Nights
Show Date/Time: Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 8pm. Doors 7:45pm. Ages 18+
GA Tickets: $22.50 ($25 day of show)
Tickets will go on sale this Friday, October 17 at 10am at the Mill City Nights box office, at The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, Discland in Bloomington, Down in the Valley in Golden Valley, Into The Void in St. Paul, by calling 1-888-9-AXS-TIX or online at http://www.axs.com/events/254951/mayhem-watain-tickets?skin=millcity.
http://www.templeofwatain.com/
MAYHEM
It has been seven long years since MAYHEM released their fourth and latest full-length, "Ordo ad Chao". In the year of their 30th anniversary the single most notorious and important band in the history of black metal returns with ten venomous and vicious tracks that are true to the Norwegians immense legacy as kings of the underground.
Founded as early as 1984 in Oslo, Norway by the late and legendary frontman Øystein Aarseth aka Euronymous, bassist Jørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud, and Kjetil "Manheim" Haraldsson on drums, the band took its name from the VENOM song "Mayhem with Mercy". Continuing and renewing the Black Metal style heralded by the latter English trio, MAYHEM soon became the instigators of the so called second wave and were at the heart of every controversy surrounding that genre.
The suicide of misanthropic frontman Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin, the murder of Euronymous by guest bass player "Count Grishnakh" alias the notorious Varg Vikernes, church burnings, drugs and prison sentences MAYHEM were always at the centre of the storm. Yet not even death could stop the Norwegians, who released one musical milestone after another.
The incredible rawness of the "Deathcrush" EP (1987) was followed by the still iconic and genre defining "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" (1994), which featured devilish drummer Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, who had joined in 1988. The vocalist on this album was the Hungarian Attila Csihar of TORMENTOR fame, who returned later in 2004 to take over from his meantime heir, the enigmatic original singer Sven-Erik "Maniac" Kristiansen. The latter was featured on the "Wolf's Lair Abyss" EP (1997), which was written mostly by highly talented guitarist Rune "Blasphemer" Eriksen, who scored a massive artistic success with the highly controversial "Grand Declaration Of War" (2000). This was followed by the more classic "Chimera" (2004) and that masterpiece of utter darkness called "Ordo Ad Chao" (2007) with Attila singing again, which inspired many bands to follow in its tracks.
MAYHEM had always witnessed many line-up changes due to the circumstances described above. Therefore even the loss of Blasphemer, who decided to focus on his other band AVA INFERI in 2008, did not stop the band. Activities mainly revolved around live shows, until the right balance was found again with the recruitment of Morten "Teloch" Iversen. The guitarist had already made a name for himself with NIDINGR, which is highly regarded amongst black metal enthusiasts yet remained mostly an underground phenomenon. Now his first compositional work with MAYHEM is unveiled and demonstrates how perfectly Teloch has captured the essence and spirit of the Norwegian legend by clearly linking the band back to its roots, while at the same time taking a step forward into the spearhead position of the genre instead of dwelling in nostalgia.
"Esoteric Warfare" is finally ready to be unleashed. This full-scale assault of total dark savagery of freezing riffs and Attila's inhumane vocals is entirely based on a concept dealing with the esoteric experimentations of the nuclear powers during the cold war. The album proves once again and beyond doubt that MAYHEM are the Alpha and the Omega of black metal!
WATAIN
Taking things to the next step - whatever the costs are. This has always been WATAINs goal from day one and this has never been truer than with The Wild Hunt, their fifth full-length album and first for Century Media Records.
It would be easy to call this the most important album of their career but then again, all their albums are. Even back thirteen years ago when their debut Rabid Deaths Curse was released almost anonymously on a small underground label it already took a stand: While the black metal scene was reaching its peak on a commercial yet agonizing level, artistically speaking, they just were different. Unique. And ambitious. This continued on each of their following albums, each one expanding their musical horizon and fanbase, shining with creativity and conviction, while taking them around the world. The monstrous Lawless Darkness touring cycle that saw WATAIN in top positions on such renowned festivals as Wacken and Bloodstock in the UK, and touring in the US with like-minded The Devils Blood, In Solitude and Behemoth made it even more official: they were now in a league of their own and emancipated beyond their genre peers. Yet resting on their laurels never was an option and so WATAIN decided to go into seclusion for over six months to compose their new album, followed by four long and excruciating months in four different studios to record this beast. With mixing duties handled by the faithful Tore Stjerna at the famous Necromorbus studio in Alvik (Sweden), The Wild Hunt marks another gigantic achievement and most importantly once again ups the ante compared to WATAINs extremely well received previous releases.
By far, it is their most diverse record to date and vocalist E. is adamant about each album bringing a story on its own. Theres never been a question of continuing wherever we ended with the previous one. So if to some the opening instrumental Night Vision picks up nicely where Waters of Ain left off on Lawless Darkness and the albums first single All That May Bleed has classic WATAIN written all over the place, these eleven songs offer plenty of devilish surprises. The trio (rounded up by P. on strings and H. on drums) has never ever compromised their sound nor their vision to mainstream black metal and The Wild Hunt is another vivid proof of that. This sonic and lyrical tour-de-force explores the bands classic roots like Bathory or Dissection (being quite a retrospective record, that record is permeated by things that meant a lot to us in the past so no reason to try to hide them) while also being truly their own. And who else than WATAIN could have come up with such an intimate song like They Rode On where for the first time they dare using clean vocals? I piss on those so-called artists who adapt themselves in order to reach bigger audiences. The main reason why we achieved all that we did is that we never betrayed our initial vision, not because we ever pretended to write more accessible music. That specific song is just us being brutally personal and honest. It shows another important facet of the WATAIN world.
Having lost none of their integrity, the band lives in a world on their own where the DIY ethic is more than never the only option: All the business related to WATAIN is now happening within our own closed circle: we have our own label, our own merchandise company, we build our own stage props etc. Independence and freedom are two of the most central ideas to us. And with their most ambitious work to date ready to be unleashed and a forthcoming release party due to set ablaze their hometown of Uppsala on August 24th, one could say that WATAIN is about to become the biggest and most important black metal band in the world. Except that theyre already there. And The Wild Hunt is their crown of thorns.
