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Yesterday, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas turned 15. Much has been made of its urtext status in black metal, as well as its violent circumstances. (Wikipedia notes, “It may also be the only heavy metal album, and possibly the only album in any genre, on which both a murderer and his victim perform.”) However, its musicality has been overlooked. Guitarist Euronymous progressed from making noise (Pure Fucking Armageddon demo) to interesting noise (Deathcrush EP) to actual music. De Mysteriis is full of great riffs and melodies. The whole record is hummable. Drummer Hellhammer had also become a force, with tumbling fills and surprisingly subtle cymbal work. (See, e.g., the title track.) Varg Vikernes, too, had some nice bass moments. The best performance of all was by Attila Csihar, who wielded an underworldly range of howls, growls, and almost-singing. Even with bloodsoaked hands, these guys could really play.
happy birthday Mysteriis
One of my fav all-time classics. The melodies that emarge through painful noise really touch me!!
and surprisingly subtle cymbal work
Agreed, those accents completely blow my mind.
Also, good to meet you the other day, brother.
This record took a very long time to work for me, but I can say nowadays that it has a deserved reputation. I always liked what Attila was doing here and the childlike lyrics of Dead. Some of the riff work is amazing too, just had a really hard time getting through the cult of personality surrounding the two deceased members involved.
A perfect storm. That’s the best way to sum up everything that went into this album and everything that happened after. Everyone gives an amazing performance on it.
Weird! Yesterday, I felt oddly compelled to listen to Sathanas all the way through. Who knew I was celebrating it’s birthday? Anyway, what you said about the performances were actually going through my head yesterday while listening. I love Euronymous’ guitar. It feels like he’s attempting to play the next note before playing the current note, and succeeding! But Attila is just amazing. That guy is such a moving performer. He’s really great in Sunn O))) as well. But I think his all time best performance is on Ordo Ad Chao (Hellhammer’s too.) Blasphemer has not replaced Euronymous, but I think what he did on Ordo puts him on the same level. Truly a stunning album. It will surprise you on repeated listens. I’ve even learned to appreciate it’s production. It’s actually very unique and is an integral part of that album’s success.
I am a huge fan of Ordo Ad Chao as well. A unique record, indeed.
It was good to have met you, too, Todd. Stay true.
Ordo Ad Chao sounded like a mess of uneven ideas married to a woeful production to me on a couple of listens. Oh well, perhaps in 15 years I’ll appreciate that too.
What’s interesting about De Mysteriis is how together everything sounds. Quite an accomplished album, all things considered. Strange how third wave black metal apes Darkthrone or Emperor or Burzum or Immortal but not this as much.
Also strangely the better songs on this one are at the end! Cosmo is right to feature Buried by Time and Dust and the s/t track here.
@ Helm – That is kinda true that very few have tried to take the sound of this album in any sort of direction (copying or taking it further). The only band today that truly emulates this album is Watain.
Actually I see a lot of the recent ‘orthodox’ stuff as an ill-considered continuation of Mysteriis in terms of tone and atmosphere.
The problem is that the new bands try to create apparent airtight aesthetics and philosophy to go with the Mysteriisms (which Mayhem didn’t go for at all), but a) they do not seem equipped to achieve this and b) instead what is achieved is records where ambiguity and space for interpretation is discouraged but not because the philosophy is solid but just because its all very obtusely handled. What’s left is just riffs. Some of them are great but then everything rests on taking these bands preemptively seriously and taking their word that they know what they’re talking about and that it’s important.
Mysteriis was pretty juvenile when it comes to the lyrics and all the better for it. I am not saying HM shouldn’t try to grow out of its teenage years eventually, it certainly should, but not at the expense of its humanity and not with the obfuscatory methods of these orthodox bands. Their impenetrable sermons are not hiding brilliant insight as that inherently longs to be made plain and communicated, not to stay hidden so its black metal record host appears cool. But it’s also dangerous to say these things on the internet now because someone with 6 years of college education on the work of Thomas Aquinas or something that also happens to listen to black metal will pop up and tell me that of course Deathspell Omega or Ofemord make perfect sense and that I am just too stupid to understand them and there we’d go with the endless circle of elitism.
Mysteriis is actually a pretty human record and that works to its benefit as romantic art, similar to Burzum material or the first In the Woods. This sort of black metal could only occur before the genre models were established. What’s missing today is innocence.
It’s a real shame that this anniversary is being maligned by their current incarnation and tour, which is a pile of vomit that seems to only appeal to shitheads. Saw them at MDF09 and then New York. It was misery both times. Blasphemer kicks their asses so badly in Aura Noir (who were unbelievably good at the fest).
I also heard good things about Aura Noir at MDF. I’m sad that I missed them.