Our latest Music Milestone is actually quite the historic one because not only is it the first professionally recorded work by the infamous Mayhem, but it is also cited as the very first recording laid down by a Norwegian Black Metal band. That EP was released thirty years ago today on Posercorpse Records and one has to think that the label name was created in response to all of the Glam Rock that was rather prominent in the United States. The EP while done in a professional setting is very sparse in the overall quality of sounds but the intensity of this material is very present and it’s interesting to listen to in today’s music world as its some of the earliest melodies in this now massively popular Black Metal genre. Though I wasn’t listening to anything like this back in 1987, and couldn’t say that it had made the rounds in the circle of friends I kept at the time I wanted to raise a cup of blood to its debut since the band has had quite the interesting history.

Mayhem as a band back then featured Maniac and Messiah on vocals while Euronymous handled guitar and Necrobutcher the bass. Drums and some piano were done by Manheim and the whole effort was produced by the band and Erik Avnskog. Dead would join the band after the departure of both Maniac and Messiah. In today’s world, the only remaining original member of Mayhem is Necrobutcher (Jørn Stubberud). The original track-listing of the EP is below, which songs are your favorites from this rundown of their earliest provoking offerings? You can let me know in the comments later on.

Track Listing:
1. Silvester Anfang
2. Deathcrush
3. Chainsaw Gutsfuck
4. Witching Hour
5. Necrolust
6. (Weird) Manheim
7. Pure Fucking Armageddon
8. Outro

As far as my own preferred tracks from the release, I’d have to say that they are the ones that the group still plays in concert today such as “Deathcrush”, “Pure Fucking Armageddon” and “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” (but that last one doesn’t seem to be played as often anymore). Only “1000” copies of the first EP were pressed so if you are a collector who has one of these you are quite a lucky person since I’m told its worth some considerable dough. Of course, this has been re-issued at several junctures in time but those with the original EP felt that they were onto something sinister and now have a pretty desirable eBay item if they should plan on selling it. As I’ve noted I wasn’t listening to this kind of stuff back then and it would take about fifteen more years before I learned to appreciate the prominent Black Metal and Death Metal bands and my lack of personal insight to the album itself finds me keeping this milestone toast short. This is where you readers come in because if you were among the first who were listening to Mayhem and followed them from way back then into the now then I’d love to know what your overall thoughts are about this body of work and how it affected your musical interests going forward. At the time of this Music Milestone posting, the True Mayhem have recently announced the continuation of their tour that supports their first full album release “De Mysteriis dom Sathanas” where they will be joined by New York’s own Immolation. See you at the show.

Official Website: http://www.thetruemayhem.com
Official Album Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathcrush