Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Black Metal)

With an all-star line-up never rivalled in the history of the black metal genre, comprised of Attila Csihar on vocals, Euronymous and Blackthorn on guitars, Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh on bass, Hellhammer on drums and Dead on lyrics, and with the song writing having been handled by the trio of Euronymous, Varg Vikernes and Blackthorn, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is truly the defining monument of the Norwegian black metal scene.

Never again will one witness such a powerful combination of talents working on such a massive paragon of darkness, on accounts that two of its main contributors are dead (Dead and Euronymous), two have forfeited their once talent to the sea of mediocrity that is the modern "extreme metal" scene (Attila and Blackthorn), and the remaining two (Varg and Hellhammer) have moved on to side-projects infinitely more interesting than the hilarious shitshow known as "The TRUE Mayhem".

If 1992 was the peak of death metal, with the release of Incantation's Onward to Golgotha (May 1992) and Infester's Darkness Unveiled (September 1992), the year 1994 bears testament to the everlasting majesty of Norwegian black metal, with the unholy trinity of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (April 1994), De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (May 1994) and Transilvanian Hunger (February 1994) being released mere months apart from one another.

Musically, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas bears almost no relation to the much inferior "evil Motörhead" music of Deathcrush, opting instead to take inspiration from the aforementioned blackened death metal masterpiece Onward to Golgotha, the epic melodic narratives of At the Gates' The Red in the Sky is Ours, Burzum's early releases, Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon and Infester's Darkness Unveiled demo, to craft some of the most disturbing and theatrical black metal ever produced, matched only by a select few masterpieces such as The Epilogue to Sanity and not much more.

If you want black metal at its truest form, look no further than De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. It's some of the best black metal ever recorded, and by far Mayhem's greatest achievement (leave any "The True Mayhem" turds in the toilets undisturbed).