BLACK WHOLE

‘The band with the wildest story ever told’ are set to unleash mayhem on Hobart, as Kane Young reports

IN the early 1990s, Hungarian metal vocalist Attila Csihar was happily playing in a group called Tormentor when Norwegian black metal band Mayhem asked him to sing on their upcoming debut album.

When he agreed, Csihar had no idea that the groundbreaking De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas would become one of the most influential metal releases of all time.

“For one, the music was very advanced,” Csihar told Pulse from his home in Hungary.

“When I first heard Mayhem it was great and I loved the guys. But then I heard the new stuff they sent me and it was the next level, and of course I wanted to do it.

“Somehow this album opened a lot of gates for other bands in the scene. A lot of bands, and almost everyone who was into black metal, started with this record.

“It’s not just because of the music, but of course also because of the story that was surrounding it.

“The album had a lot of expectations in the scene, [because] a lot of shit had happened.”

That’s some sort of understatement.

Csihar had been brought in to the Mayhem fold after the previous vocalist, Dead, committed suicide in 1991. But things got really crazy two years later, when bass player Varg Vikernes stabbed guitarist Euronymous to death.

Amid allegations of cannibalism and church burnings, Vikernes was convicted of murder and sentenced to the maximum 21 years in prison.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was eventually released in 1994, and is now regarded as arguably the most important record in the history of black metal. But Mayhem never had a chance to tour the album — until now, and they’ll perform De Mysteriis Dom

Sathanas in its entirety at Mona’s Mofo festival next month.

“The reason we play it now [is] because we feel it now — we didn’t feel it before,” Csihar explained.

“We had millions of offers, we could have done this any time, but we always turned down those offers because we never felt like it was OK.

“But now we have a more solid line-up with two great guitar players finally, and we’ve had this line-up for five or six years now.

“And also, it was not even planned. We had a show at a festival in Sweden and they said ‘Hey, you guys will play it?’. We said ‘no ... ahh, f--- it, let’s do it once’. We got our shit together and played it, and it actually felt good and comfortable and the fans loved it.

“So then we started to tour the album, and decided that the whole world deserves it. The people deserve it, and we’re bringing it to Australia and Tasmania, which is amazing.”

Csihar — who is infamous for his theatrical performances and elaborate stage costumes — played at Dark Mofo 2014 with Seattle-based ambient avantmetal band Sunn O))), and feels that De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas will go down well with Mofo crowds.

“It’s an old album, from ’93, but it has become very popular of course in the scene,” he said.

“I think the music could be more accessible for people who are not so much into our style and our kind of music.

“We could not foresee it, of course, but somehow this album, one way or another, redefined black metal. So it’s an honour to be part of it, [even though the album’s popularity and stature] is not because of me!

“Maybe people who don’t regularly listen to this kind of music will be still interested to watch this show. I am looking forward to it, and we’ll see.”

Mayhem actually disbanded for two years after Euronymous’s murder, before surviving members Hellhammer, Maniac and Necrobutcher reactivated the band with new guitarist Blasphemer in 1994.

Csihar rejoined the band fulltime a decade later, and Mayhem have gone from strength to strength ever since.

“We don’t want to stop — I don’t think it’s an option any more,” Csihar said.

“We’ll keep going on, and a new record is definitely part of the plan.

“[Mayhem] is a brotherhood, a family almost. We love and respect each other. There has been controversial things and disagreements within the band, that’s for sure, and still today that can happen from time to time.

“But we’ve learned that we have to block out these things. We have extreme personalities, but we love what we are doing, and I f---ing love to play with such artists.

“And what else could we do? Mayhem is our lives, our thing, our baby. It’s our diamond, so we polish it and work on it and hope it’s gonna shine.”

As part of Mofo 2018, Mayhem play De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas on the Mona main stage from 8.30pm on January 21. Entry is included in the Three-Day Mona Pass ($139-$179) or Sunday Day Pass ($55-$69). Go to www.mofo.net.au for bookings.