Black metal's most infamous band, Mayhem, release Daemon, their first album since 2004 and sixth overall full length. Like all Mayhem albums of their time, Daemon is unto itself. The wolf solitary and singular. Indeed, Daemon also isn’t a new chapter in their storied career. Rather, it’s a new tome, authoritative yet wild in character.
Composed and decomposed with the same lineup - Necrobutcher (bass), Hellhammer (drums), Attila (vocals), Teloch (guitars), and Ghul (guitars) - that handled Esoteric Warfare and performed De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas in its entirety over the last few years, Daemon isn’t a retrofit of classic songs like Freezing Moon, Pagan Fears, or Buried by Time and Dust either. That’s what the live album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016), was for. Daemon is change, an opportunity for the maw of hell to open wider.