Mayhem ‎"Grand Declaration Of War" CD

After the cult or - in general - the incidents related to the release of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", it's a wonder that Hellhammer gathered to join the pre-debut line-up (i.e. with Maniac and Necrobutcher) and a completely new one for Mayhem, guitarist Blasphemer to continue the band's activities. For many, the murder of Euronymous meant the end of the band's further activity and the necessity to stop releasing new music under this name; after all, most of songs from "De Mysteriis..." was composed by this Norwegian. It turns out...surprisingly in opposite way! First, it was shown by the very promising ep "Wolf's Lair Abyss", 3 years later, with much greater momentum, the "Grand Declaration Of War" which I am discussing.
It turns out that the renewed band of Norwegians has mastered the patents previously developed by Euronymous to perfection, and at the same time, paradoxically, they managed to depart into avant-garde and extremely dangerous regions for this genre - just like Satyricon and Ulver at that time. "Grand Declaration Of War" is a completely new quality for Mayhem, a manifesto album, and at the same time a shock against the background of the general, especially the most orthodox scene. The Norwegians decided to venture into black metal, totally dehumanized, crazy twisted, and sometimes even progressive - distant from the classic Satan worship, burning churches and running with axes in the woods.
The best thing is that the band lost little of its extremity during these drastic changes, and it brilliantly managed to get out of the situation with other, very unusual ideas for the genre. A lower extremity compared to "De Mysteriis..." (because this one roughly was only in "A Time To Die", "In The Lies Where Upon You Lay" and partially in "Crystalized Pain In Deconstruction") resulted in a much more solemn, war atmosphere, very brave experiments with instruments (in particular, the "technicalization" of riffs) or vocals in general (from black harshs, to those "clean", sometimes rebellious, and...vocoders) and solutions completely beyond black metal (as in brilliantly extended "Completion In Science Of Agony (Part I)" with noise-industrial insert or trance, trip-hopish "A Bloodsword And A Colder Sun (Part II)") or even ridiculing the listener (especially in the fragments with "calm before the storm"). Best of all, all this came into an exceptionally coherent and extremely original lp which from the beginning to the end, despite its eclecticism, is equally captivating.
I consider the middle period of Mayhem, led by "Grand Declaration Of War", to be one of their best and definitely the most interesting albums in their discography. The Norwegians entered the year 2000 with a huge bang, at the same time successfully redefining their style and meeting the prevailing trends. It's a pity that it's not talked about much more often.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...