Welcome to Retro-Reviews, a space where I indulge in my own nostalgic reveries, reminiscing about a time that never truly existed, but one that I’ve crafted through various random albums that hold significance for me. Whether good or bad, one thing is certain: remembering can be a bittersweet journey.
The year is 1994. Unspeakable things are happening in Rwanda, and the world is just watching. Apartheid ends in South Africa, the NAFTA agreement goes into effect, and The Lion King is released. Right, the Metal! An astonishing year for us! With classic releases from Emperor, Carcass, and Cannibal Corpse. But today, we’re going to talk about the one that transcended Metal and became part of our pop culture. I’m talking about Mayhem‘s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, an album that turned 30 not long ago. So now that it’s old enough to reflect upon its own mistakes, we can ask: Does it still hold up? Let’s go!
I’m not going to tell you that this album is amazing, iconic, creepy, or even that it started it all. Enough has been said about that. In fact, few albums have received as much attention as this, which is why I was reluctant to write this article. However, if there’s one thing that De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas does better than any other album in the short history of our genre, it’s illustrating the power of narratives and myths over people. After all, “Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it“.
We all know the story behind the music. I’d even dare to say most of us don’t care so much about what De Mysteriis sounds like, but about the absolutely bonkers story behind it. There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen done better 30 years later, but the reason why it survives is because nobody had such a fascinating story that evidently overshadowed the music. Yes, the album has “Freezing Moon” and other incredibly iconic tracks, but be honest, you listen to those songs and can only think of the decadence and depravity of the people who created them, their hideous acts, and eccentric personalities. If anything, De Mysteriis teaches us that music without context punches so much less than even a pile of burning trash with something to tell.
That’s precisely what’s happening here. Saying the production is trash is still kind, though by no means the worst offender of its time (Darkthrone takes the blood cake). You have to wonder if this thing would be much more enjoyable if it actually sounded good, but that’s not part of the appeal, right? Because we’re enticed by the mystery of the problematic minds that created this thing, we see its flaws as part of a riddle that we can’t fully solve. Hence, we’re forced to return, searching for that lost meaning. At least, that’s how I like to think about the flaws and roughness in this album—as gaps that we’re supposed to fill with our own interpretations.
As a contemporary Metalhead, I hated this thing the first time I listened to it. I couldn’t get my head around it, but with time I was more and more entrapped by its portrayal of a group of alienated kids that didn’t fit in a “perfect” society, who suffered from issues that they themselves couldn’t understand and ended up in radicalism, murder, and death. All that painted in music so disgusting, dated, and primal that you might hate it, but can’t ignore it. If anything, De Mysteriis is the sonic painting of a great tragedy disguised as edgy Satanism.
So it doesn’t really hold up well to our times of technical and sound excellence, but that’s not why you came here. You came because every time you put on De Mysteriis, you are transported to a time and mindset that is so alien to us now that one can’t believe only 30 years separate us from it. The music lives on because of what it doesn’t tells us, and deep down we’ve never solved the mystery behind the evil that inspired it.
Label: Deathlike Silence
Release date: 24 may, 1994
Website: https://mayhemindie.bandcamp.com/album/de-mysteriis-dom-sathanas
Country: Norway (obviously!)
Score: an inverted cross on fire!
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