I'm surprised that this has so many negative reviews. That's ridiculous - there are no limits on a band's sense of personal progression and evolution, other than internal cohesion and the legibility of the resulting material. At best, it sounded promising. Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/04/mayhem-grand-declaration-of-war-2000.html, It’s almost unfathomable that ‘Grand Declaration of War’ was only the second full-length studio album released by Mayhem. “Grand Declaration of War” is not about YOUR OPINION, “Grand Declaration of War” is just “Grand Declaration of War”. Mayhem have been one of the few bands to correctly utilize these things to work to the advantage of the music, since it aids in creating a war-like, post-apocalypse atmosphere that permeates the whole album. Statistics. How interesting that this album should come out now, when the black metal scene is definitely on the wane (stylistically, and in terms of enthusiasm, audience participation, and compositional originality) worldwide - as a sort of bookend, much in the same way that the album 'De Mysteriis...' could be seen as one of the scene's founding works of art ten years ago. font-size:12px; With a sophomore release in development for what seemed like forever, and two of the figureheads of the band in the grave, to be replaced by Maniac on vocals, and Blasphemer (of Aura Noir fame) on guitar, there was so much mystique and anticipation surrounding the band's future that it's hard to accurately put into words. googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; background-color:#333; }); It is basically like if the album was produced by someone else entirely (it was), with a different philosophy on mixing all the vocals/instruments. padding:20px; Because of the relative merits of the aforementioned parts in the beginning, this will rate slightly higher than it deserves. Much like the last EP, the music here really only serves to remind you of this band's complete separation from anything and everything, wrapped up in a cocoon of hatred, misanthropy, and despair. Luckily, the primary vocal style are the harsh vocals. 3:04 PREVIEW View from Nihil (Pt. Having never heard anything by Mayhem before, I was surprised that it was not true black metal, like I had heard that they were. Lyrically, the album attacks the herd mentality that the church represents, and it seems apt that Mayhem are very much going against the grain themselves with this album. It’s less like listening to music and more like listening to some kind of comment *about* music. e,f);J(a,e,k);J(a,c,d);J(a,c,e);J(a,b,c);a.a=b;a.b.body.appendChild(a.a);b=G(1,5);for(c=0;c