30 YEARS OF MAYHEM
By Kelley Simms
Photo: Esther Segarra
Mayhem (left to right): Hellhammer, Charles Hedger, Attila, Teloch, Necrobutcher
O
ne of Norway's most notorious black
metal bands will be perform in Chicago
this month.
Controversy has followed Mayhem since its
inception in 1984. From former member suicides, alleged church burnings, and murder,
Mayhem has experienced it all. The band has
just released its latest slab of classic black
metal, Esoteric Warfare, its first new material
in seven years. With the departure of influential guitarist Blasphemer (in 2008), his
replacement Teloch has stepped into a more
prominent role and “owns it” on this album, as
he wrote the majority of it. It's a role in which
he feels pretty comfortable in, as he explains in
a recent e-mail chat.
Mosh: Given the turbulent history of
Mayhem, what has the whole experience
been like since you joined in 2011?
Teloch: It goes without saying. It was nice
to get that gig. Little did I know when I
first got hooked on De Mysteriis Dom
Sathanas, that I would one day play in the
same band. Not to mention even writing
an entire album for them. That said, I was
kind of prepared for the whole deal, since
they asked me already in 2008 to join. But I
had to turn them down because I had tours
with Gorgoroth going on at the time and it
would have been impossible to do both
bands.
34 illinoisentertainer.com january 2015
Mosh: It's been seven years since
Mayhem's last release, Ordo ad Chao.
What was the reason for taking this long?
Teloch: What took this long was for the
guys to find a new composer since their
main musical driving force (Blasphemer)
left the band in 2008. They tried different
people and at the end, they landed on me.
It's also not like the band have been lazy, its
been constantly touring since Blasphemer
left. Plus it's not like you can pick any guitarist from the street to do this kind of
music. So there has been some periods
rehearsing and trying out different guys.
Mosh: This is your first recording with the
band, how much did you participate in the
writing of the album and how did the
whole process go?
Teloch: Actually, I started writing some
stuff back in 2008 to try out what I could
contribute with, just to see where I stood
[with the band]. But I didn't use any of that
on this album. The whole album process
started with us having a month of recording and trying out stuff down in Budapest.
But it didn't work out, the songs lacked
something. As soon as I got home I
scrapped the songs – almost a full album –
and started fresh. I wrote the whole album;
even bass lines, drums and vocal guide.
When it was time for recording it, the guys
added their own flavor to everything.
Mosh: Were you consciously sticking to
the roots of Mayhem's sound and what
Blasphemer laid down before you, or did
you add your own flair to the songs?
Teloch: Since the band had this 30 year
anniversary coming up, my idea was to try
to do something from all the albums, like a
big mash-up or something. Also, I wanted
the album to be a continuation of Ordo…
without trying to top it, that would be
impossible for me to do. So I took it down
a bit instead, tried to control the chaos a bit
more. I also wanted to make it more accessible so that new fans maybe could enjoy a
Mayhem album, without making it a commercial album of course. So you see, I set
the bar pretty high for myself for being the
first Mayhem album I worked on and I'm
satisfied with 90% of it. Close enough.
Mosh: Esoteric Warfare definitely has that
distinguishable Mayhem sound, even right
from the beginning with the opening notes
of “Watchers.”
Teloch: Yeah, I agree. You get the Mayhem
feeling very instantly. My main thing about
the riffs was to make it sound like
Mayhem, so that any Mayhem fan could
pick it up, listen to it for 10 seconds and
recognize it. As I talked some about earlier,
it took some time to get there. And I
worked with the band throughout the
process. Yes, there were some parts that
some of the other members didn't like
very much that I liked. And other stuff I
didn't like that they liked. It's not always
agreed upon. If you feel really strong about
something, you just go ahead and sneak it
in anyway, and deal with the complaining
later.
Mosh: Vocalist Atilla sounds absolutely
terrifying on this new album. What was
the atmosphere like in the rehearsal room
and then the studio?
Teloch: Yeah, he sounds like he was born in
Hell or something. Attila and I recorded
the vocals at [my family] cabin all alone,
with not a soul close by for miles. It was
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