With over four decades of darkness behind them, Mayhem, the forefathers of Norwegian Black Metal, are celebrating their impressive career with their latest offering, Liturgy Of Death, as they continue to push the perimeters of extremity ever further.
Mayhem – Liturgy Of Death
Release Date: 6 February 2026
Words: Jools Green
Every record is s significantly different from another, but it is always guaranteed to be a brutally face-searing listen, an aspect they are uncompromisingly dedicated to.
Liturgy Of Death is a commandingly powerful listen end to end. Much of this, for me, is due to vocalist Atilla Csihar’s dramatic delivery. On stage, he is hugely animated, engaging, and visually imposing. His vocals and stage performance ooze drama and dark theatre, and a large proportion of this comes across when listening to both this release and their other albums, such is the nature of his delivery.
Opening with Ephemeral Eternity, which oozes eerie and dark atmosphere from the offset, the slow, imposing rhythms and jangling riffs build the atmosphere with low, unearthly vocals alongside cleaner vocals. Then the tantalising ebb and rapid build break into a torrent of undulating riffs. Atila’s gutturals rip their way through these as the depth and intensity build with every wave, punctured by jangling riffs. The leadwork towards the close is as dramatic as it is insane. A superb beast of an opening track.
The sensory assault continues with Despair as a wall of largely unrelenting driving riffs undulate alongside pummelling drum rhythms overlaid with low Latin chants. This swamps your senses to almost an overloading point with no let-up until midway, and then it is only to let multiple layers of deranged vocalisations through.
But what really elevated this piece is the superb range of voices. From low and raw to higher cleans employed by Atila, these build the drama and atmosphere upon that base of riffs and drum work. It is superb.
A torturous scream bursts forth from the next piece, Weep For Nothing, followed by waves of sharper riffs alongside the pummelling drum rhythms and acidic vocals. Here, the drops are dramatic and substantial, clearing the way for the more dramatic aspect of Atila’s vocal delivery.
I like the spiral and tumble to the riff patterns, which continue to be sharp but also add an element of melody, just enough to engage and hold your attention. I also love the closing scream and deranged cackle. A hard choice, but this is one of my favourite pieces on this album.
Initially, Aeon’s End seems like another aural assault of driving, undulating riffs with Atila’s acidic and broad-ranging vocal delivery punching through without mercy. But it also harbours a catchy but harsh groove coursing pretty much the length of the piece, which draws you in, and the whole piece is elevated to the next level by the second half swathe of soaring leadwork.
Funeral Of Existence delivers bleak, haunting, and sombre tones that perpetuate regardless of the pace, which ebbs and builds throughout the piece. This builds to a frenzy in the middle of the second half, garnished with an unearthly vocal delivery which becomes more animated and deranged as the pace builds. I love the leadwork in the latter part of the second half track because it makes a statement without being over-imposing, just adding lift and texture.
Realm Of Endless Misery conjures mental imagery of bleak scenescapes. It is dark and complex. The riffs suggest peril with their twisting and writhing, dropping into an unworldly abyss of snarls and eerie nothingness, just briefly after the midway point. Vocally hugely expressive again with clever use of multiple voices, this is a far more complex and varied piece compared to its predecessors. Definitely a piece that invites you to lose yourself within its bleak midst, it is another big favourite with me.
As it opens, Propitious Death unleashes a thunderous assault of spiralling riffs, an unrelenting drum battery and brutally caustic vocals. Then, when it drops, the chug is crushing and the riffing intense. This piece takes no prisoners, and it is a superb listen.
Final piece, The Sentence Of Absolution, is eerie and atmospheric. It builds in punchy but suspenseful increments until you are engulfed in spiralling riffs and pummelling drums. But it continues to develop more complexity, ebbing and building, twisting and turning wildly. The vocals become higher and more deranged, and the mid-point soaring searing leadwork is as superb as it is insane.
The closing African drum style drums, distant chants and screams and guttural repeat from Atila adds an exotic ritualistic aspect to the piece, which I love. A magnificently impactful closing piece.
While gatekeepers are still busy proclaiming that they do not listen to anything after 1993, people who actually enjoy face-searing Black Metal based on its individual merits, irrespective of its era, will be ravenously satiating their hunger on this offering. It is flawlessly superb as far as I am concerned.
So, I will leave the final word with guitarist Ghul, who sums the album up nicely. “There’s been absolutely zero compromise,” he said. “We really have never compromised, and I never see that happening simply to try and sell records.
“The music is extreme. The people are extreme. Pleasing others has never been on the agenda and that’s quite apparent when you listen to our stuff or see us live. There is something there for people to grab onto and experience, but it’s not supposed to be a pleasant experience or an easy experience. It’s Mayhem.”
Mayhem release Liturgy Of Death on 6 February 2026 via Century Media. For more details, visit mayhemband.lnk.to/LiturgyOfDeath.
