In a new interview with Poland’s Noise Magazine, bassist Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud of Norwegian black metallers MAYHEM confirmed that he and his bandmates are working on the follow-up to their sixth studio album, “Daemon”, which came out in October 2019 via Century Media. A live album, “Daemonic Rites”, arrived in September 2023. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We are currently in the studio now to record a new album, which has been in the works for several years, obviously, ’cause the last album was in 2019, so it’s already six years. But that’s good.”
Regarding why it has taken so long for MAYHEM to make a new album, Stubberud said: “It’s more honest, I think, and it’s better for everyone that there is some space between the albums, because if you release albums too close to each other, it tends to be maybe just a repetition of your last album or very close to it, ’cause there’s no time to get new inspiration in between. So the longer the time it takes for the songwriters to distance themselves from the last project and to get new inspiration, the longer time it takes, the better it is. And then the longer time you have to evolve the songs in your head as a composer…”
He explained: “As a composer, I compare it to a painter. You paint and paint and paint, and in the end it’s hard to know when to quit. When is the painting really finished? Same with the songs. You can get lost. You have a song and you write it, and then it sounds good, but then you think, maybe that riff should go a little bit longer and maybe that riff shouldn’t repeat itself and maybe that other riff should repeat itself. And then, in the end, you don’t know when to stop. And then so it takes time for this thought process to to be thought through. That’s why always, even after the songs are recorded in the studio, you start to play them live and then they alter a little bit, but musicians, we call them the ‘live versions.’ But really, really the live versions is really how the song ended up to be, ’cause they were not completely matured when recorded, in a sense. That’s why they altered when we rehearsed them for live later, ’cause the alteration would be what we have come up with. And that’s why I love to release live albums too, because I feel like that’s how the songs should actually be. And also then you have the roughness from the live and not the studio where you can [perfect] everything and put on extra guitars or keyboards or whatever. So that’s the more honest expression. And sometimes I like the live versions much better.”
Last November, Stubberud told the “Everblack” podcast that there would be new MAYHEM music coming in late 2025 or early 2026. He said at the time: Teloch [MAYHEM guitarist Morten Bergeton Iversen] and Charles [Edward Alexander Hedger, MAYHEM guitarist] have presented some demos — both of them presented over 10 songs or 10 skeletons — so [they have] presented almost 20 songs. And I listened to everything, and some of it is really fucking good… By 2025 we should have been able to enter the studio. And then, hopefully, it would be cool to have it out in 2025. That would be a goal, but we’ll see. But definitely 2026. And then, of course, we’ll be heading out [on] a new world tour to promote it, I guess.”
Last fall, MAYHEM canceled its previously announced North American 40th-anniversary tour “due to a member of the band having a medical emergency that requires immediate surgery.”
The North American dates were scheduled to kick off on November 12 in Montreal, with stops in Toronto; Queens, New York; Chicago; and Los Angeles before and wrapping up November 23 in Denver.
MAYHEM launched a short European tour on December 4, 2024 in Paris, France. An Australian tour followed in January.
When MAYHEM‘s North American tour was first announced in August, the band said that its 40th-anniversary show would be “a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans, featuring a setlist that spans their illustrious career, from their groundbreaking debut album, ‘Deathcrush’, to present day.”
Formed in 1984 in Norway, MAYHEM has been at the forefront of the black metal scene, known for their controversial history, groundbreaking music, and unparalleled live performances. Over the years, they have cemented their status as one of the most influential bands in extreme metal, continually pushing the boundaries of the genre.
MAYHEM has nearly 1,000 shows to its name. Since their formation in Langhus, Norway in 1984, the band — now comprised of Necrobutcher (bass),Hellhammer (drums),Attila Csihar (vocals),Teloch (guitars) and Ghul (guitars) — has brought its brand of bellicose, preternatural black metal to over 60 countries. From the United States and Germany to Australia and Brazil, MAYHEM has stunned, bewildered, and turned rabid a global legion. Much of that respect and devotion started in the early 1990s but persisted to the present day on the strength of official live albums “Live In Leipzig” (1993),“Mediolanum Capta Est” (1999),“Live In Marseille 2000” (2001) and “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive” (2016).
