Norway's Mayhem is a band with a very dangerous reputation; these guys were connected in conspiracies to burn down historic churches, the lead singer shot himself, and then the bassist murdered the guitarist. Accordingly, this deadly allure now attracts a lot of people to the band and has little to do with the actual music. Unfortunately, this also made for one of the most unruly and unpleasant crowds of the weekend. Novelty-seekers tend to be self-centered, so it's no surprise when they leap onto the top of the crowd and then stay there. And stay there. And stay there. Mayhem's set was punctuated by a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving, and well, mayhem that bordered on overtly hostile as the band clattered through a roster of songs that featured the worst sound of the entire fest. Vocalist Attila was buried in the mix, the drums were over-triggered and sounded like a computer, and neither of the session guitarists on hand were particularly facile with the material. And two guitarists in Mayhem? What the hell is that? Standing up front for this performance was a lot of work for very little gain. Mayhem is in the middle of a US tour as of this writing, so here's hoping they turn in better work to better audiences going forward.
View the entire top 10 best and worst things about Maryland Deathfest 2009 for more.
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