Description

Blue vinyl

Split album between two of the founding acts of the Norwegian black metal scene. Mayhem emerged in the mid-80s and went on to influence countless bands with their uncompromisingly abrasive music and sordid history. The group courted controversy from their inception with their blood-soaked live performances, occult imagery, and ghoulish corpse paint. Their legend grew in the 90s with their connection to a spate of Norwegian church burnings, the suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin (Dead), and the murder of guitarist Oystein Aarseth (Euronymous) by ex-member Varg Vikernes (Count Grishnackh). So even if their debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, is considered a classic of the genre the band still be more famous for their non-musical history than this classic album. Emperor on the other hand had musical innovations that more impact on the genre than any other band on the Norwegian black metal scene. The scene was rife with anti-Christian sentiment, but Emperor found novel ways of expressing it in their music; while their music could be furious and violent, the group was also influenced by the darkly majestic melodies of Norwegian folk and classical music, which very effectively supported their lyrical subject matter. Emperor evoked not only Satanic horror, but also the frigid loneliness of bleak Scandinavian winters; additionally, images of pagan nature worship recalled an ancient, idealized pre-Christian past in which Scandinavian culture was one of the world’s most dominant. Even this band got into some legal difficulties and line-up shifts early in their career when a number of bandmembers became involved in the anti-Christian activism and general violence that characterized Norway’s underground metal scene at the time. This limited album comes with early studio demos and outtakes

Track list:
1. Mayhem -The Vortex Void Of Inhumanity / I Am Thy Labyrinth
2. Mayhem -Fall Of Seraphs
3. Mayhem -Ancient Skin
4. Mayhem -Symbols Of Bloodswords
5. Emperor -A Fine Day To Die-Bathory cover
6. Emperor -Massacra-Hellhammer cover
7. Emperor -Funeral Fog-Mayhem cover
8. The Ancient Queen