Mayhem (Hun) - 1989 demo

Sometimes choosing the wrong name can make what would already been an obscure recording even more obscure. By the time that 1989 had rolled around, there were quite a few bands who would bear the moniker of Mayhem who had various degrees of success; at least two bands from the United States, a speed metal band with a track on a New Renaissance compilation and the legendary hardcore band who would later change their name to NYC Mayhem, a band from Brazil who would contribute to the legendary second entry in the Warfare Noise compilation series, four demo only bands from continental europe (Finland, Italy, and two from Germany), a UK82 band who did a 7" on Riot City in 1982, as well as the Norwegian band who would gain international fame and infamy in the early 90s both from a string of foundational black metal records and the unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths of two of their members. Needless to say, its rather easy to see how this Hungarian band might have gotten lost in the shuffle; the fact that they come from behind the Iron Curtain probably didn't help matters too much either.

This particular Mayhem weren't around for a very long time and represent a small blip on the somewhat small Hungarian late 80s death/black metal scene. During their short period of existence, the band cut two demo tapes as well as a few rehearsal and live tracks floating around. The demo from 1989 is the first one, and contains a rather lengthy running time of over 30 minutes (almost 45 minutes if one were to count the bonus rehearsal tracks distributed with the recording), which more than makes up for the fact that the band didn't really do too much else.

Musically the band plays in a fairly standard black/death style that was fairly common at that time in Europe. While their Hungarian contemporaries such as Tormentor, Fantom or Angel Reaper were pushing the envelope with more extreme music, Mayhem's brand of black metal was rooted more in European speed/thrash, and sounds a bit more like it was released in 1985 as opposed to 1989. As this is a cheaply recorded demo tape, the sound is naturally rather thin, leaning more towards the treble end.

While by no means a musically complex recording, the band play a bit more than the average three-chord riffs that many of their peers were doing. Many of the songs have a bit of melody to them, and even while the musicianship may be a little sloppy getting the riffs across, the band makes sure to hit the right notes at the right time. On one of their live tapes they do a cover of Sodom's "Sepulchral Voice", and their seminal album "Obsessed by Cruelty" might not be a bad point of comparison for the music played on this tape; vocals are delivered in a similar harsh snarl (filtered through the incomprehensible language that is Hungarian, of course) on top of a series of rather catchy and primitive thrash riffs.

One thing that I've always found interesting and desirable about Eastern European bands that play this kind of music is a majority of them invoke a certain occult atmosphere; one of witches, counts, ancient spellbooks, rusty torture devices, that sort of thing. This band is no different, and that same strange feeling runs very strongly through these tracks, without the use of any keyboards, female vocals or intro noises to add a masking gimmick to cover up for the actual music itself. Fans of this style will surely not be disappointed with this demo, and while it is not the best or most innovative recording in this genre, it is certainly competent enough and worthy to anyone interested in the goings on of Eastern European black metal.