Track Listing

1. Wise Birthgiver
2. Wall of Water
3. Great Work of Ages
4. Deconsecrate
5. Illuminate Eliminate
6. Psychic Horns
7. Key to the Storms
8. Anti
9. [CD-ROM Track]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102328 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Album Details
After a Three Year Absence, the World’s Most Evil, Infamous and Important Black Metal Band Summons Up the Highly Anticipated "ordo Ad Chao" (Translation: Order from Chaos). Featuring the Return of Vocalist Attila Csihar, who Appeared on the Band’s Pivotal Album "de Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", this Album Will Serve to Strengthen the Band’s Legacy as They Emerge More Vicious and Vital Then Ever. The Weak Bands Currently Plaguing the Black Metal Scene Are Sure to Be Exposed and Exterminated as "ordo Ad Chao" Not Only Crowns 2007’s "best Of" Lists but the "best of all Time" Lists as Well. Exclusive Limited Edition in Red Colored Jewel Case in Special Die-cut and Embossed Metal Slipcase with Different Artwork Inside.

Customer Reviews

A Haunting and dreadful masterwork
I'm going to keep my comments short here - anything I could say has already been said by others here. The CD is simply a terrifing journey into the abyss. Wall of Water is just an absolutely cold and brutal masterpiece of a song. Then right there in the middle is Illuminate Eliminate - an obvious monster of a song that cannot be denied upon first listen. Psychic Horns and Anti are incredible as well as the rest of the CD...the quality is top notch. I can see what others complain about as the sound is dulled and mudded (is that a word?) in comparison to an album like Chimera.

This really is one of the deepest, darkest things your find in music. Thank you MayheM!

Transcends mere brilliance
Mayhem's history is, to say the least, a very long, storied, and complex one. It seems like some sort of deep controversy has surrounded them since day one, and it has snowballed greatly in two plus decades. Therefore, it would not be an overstatement to say that they have long been one of the most infamously evil, feared, reviled, and outrageous groups in the history of music! In fact, some think Mayhem represents everything that's bad about heavy metal; others, however, would argue the exact opposite. (Of course, your own stance on that depends on if you're a fan of said genre, are conservative or religious, and if you have a very strong stomach or not.)

Mayhem began stirring up attention in the heavy music underground with a full-length debut, 1987's "Deathcrush" (which was seminal in the black metal scene at the time), as well as overt Satanism, taboo subject matter, and terrifying live shows. And soon thereafter, the band members graduated to unspeakable things (including, but not limited to, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, arson, plans to blow up a church, and talk of cannibalism.) Some might have even forgotten that these four Norwegians even made music if not for the release of "De Mysterious Dom Sathanas" in 1994. This album would soon become legendary, and a standard bearer for extreme metal. It also proved to be incredibly influential, as it would go on to inspire a countless number of black metal bands to come. Unfortunately, various other controversies, lineup shifts, and record label jumps prohibited the band from releasing new music for quite some time.

So, a full six years after the landmark release of the above-mentioned "De Mysterious Dom Sathanas," Mayhem finally returned with a new full-length. But this recording, "Grand Declaration of War," which had strong progressive and avant-garde influences, was widely panned by fans and black metal purists for being too experimental. Then, in 2004, came "Chimera," a much heavier and more "back-to-basics" effort by the band. But even though this record was quite a bit better than its predecessor, and it met with a generally favorable response, no one can argue that Mayhem got to be where they are today by playing it safe. Well, that is definitely not the case anymore - just one listen to "Ordo Ad Chao," and you'll be sure of that.

Listeners who come to this 2007 recording looking for a memorable melody would probably have better luck tracking down a piece of ex-frontman Dead's skull. Also know not to expect any groove to speak of, catchy parts, keyboards, or "Freezing Moon" sequel. In other words, don't expect anything that isn't pure, 110%, uneasy listening black metal through and through. The new album is easily the band's most experimental work to date. It is also a standout in their discography, and it just might be the crown jewel in their career. Jan Axel Blomberg (a.k.a. Hellhammer) described its production as "necro as (heck)" - meaning it sounds about as raw, dirty, thin, and low-fi as you can get. The production also has a lot of treble, and a really bass-heavy mix, so it seems intent on emphasizing atmosphere over sheer heaviness. Other experimental aspects you will find here include spots of eerie chanting, death grunts, and even clean vocals.

Fear not, though, longtime fans, because this is still Mayhem, after all. Thus, "Ordo Ad Chao" is extremely dissonant, sinister, and brutal. And also on the more familiar side, the songs are chock full of brilliantly epic, unpredictable songwriting and mindblowing musicianship. The star performer is the aforementioned Hellhammer. He is a true living legend among drummers, and his performance here is nothing short of very diverse, organic, devastating, and just plain godly.

The phrase "all killer, no filler" is most appropriate in describing these eight songs. And listening to them is less like listening to an album, and more like a captivating, out-of-this-world experience. The breathtaking opening soundscape, "A Wise Birthgiver," with its discordant, crashing chords, ominous feedback, cascading drums, and positively doomy atmosphere, could send chills up a dead man's spine. "Wall Of Water" opens with some of the same chords, but they are soon smashed to tiny pieces by a furious wall of sound. The guitars race by like a black tornado while frontman Attila Csihar lays down creepy, snarling, spoken-word vocals, and Hellhammer pummels away on his trapkit to create seizure-inducing, inhuman-sounding blast beats that almost trample the guitar lead. But the end of "Wall Of Water" throws the listener for a loop, with a stop-on-a-dime pause, crawling tempo, and creeping guitar noise that makes your skin crawl.

"Great Work Of Ages" works similarly, and also features great dynamics -- it intersperses doomy, haunting, and sometimes nearly silent passages with lightning fast blitzkriegs of thrashy guitar whooshes, and thunderous drums. Also of note in this song are the vocals, which include awesomely evil gasps and lengthy, memorable, glass-shattering shrieks. Next up, "Deconsecrate" features more wicked vocals from Csihar, who sounds like a fairy being suffocated. For the most part, though, this song is Hellhammer's show -- he unleashes wave after wave of cracking, stop-start black metal blasts at truly blistering speeds.

At nearly ten minutes in length, "Illuminate Eliminate," is not only a highpoint for the album, but is also easily Mayhem's finest, and most complex, accomplished, and stunning piece of work to date. It begins on a terrifically spooky note with a rolling, marching beat, ponderous, ambient chords, gloomy feedback, ghoulish, gravelly growls, and a deep, filthy-sounding bass line. But around the 4:10 point, the song adopts a totally unexpected tempo change, and lets rip with breakneck speed, blasting chords, and pounding skins. Track six, "Psychic Horns," is a very foreboding tune with sludgy, endlessly droning guitars anchored by raw, jackhammer-fast drumming.

"Key To The Storms" is another great mood-enhancer, and is highlighted by indescribably wicked, schizophrenic, gore-soaked, lung-stretching vocals that seem intent on haunting your dreams for years to come. Finally, "Ordo Ad Chao" closes with "Anti," a ripping and uncompromisingly brutal number that reeks of desperation. This track finds Hellhammer again taking over the spotlight, and putting on a virtual drum clinic full of insane, mind-boggling, hyper-kinetic blast beats that steamroll over the listener's eardrums like a friggin' tank!

"Ordo Ad Chao" is absolutely a must-hear. Not only is it in the top three metal albums of 2007, and easily that year's best black metal record, but it is also the best and most memorable and innovative releases the genre has seen in recent memory. After all, it might be true that controversies have sometimes overshadowed the band's actual music. But the fact remains that in the world of hellishly evil, nightmarishly dark, and mercilessly brutal black metal, Mayhem are, and will always be, simply untouchable. "Ordo Ad Chao" is further proof of this. What else do you need to know?!

Mature, sophisticated Dark Art. Bleak, sinister -- but refined
As soon as I heard that an unholy miracle had occurred and Atilla Csihar was finally back where he belongs as vocalist for Mayhem, I knew I HAD to check out this album. But if asked to rate it right after I first heard it, I probably would have only given it about 2 stars. It was so far from the Mayhem of "De Mysteriis" I had been hoping for that it was kind of a shock to my system.

But this is one of those albums that has really grown on me with each listen, and so here I am now giving it a full 5 stars. All I can say is, if you go into this expecting the Mayhem of "De Mysteriis" or "Deathcrush", you are in for some disappointment. But if you're willing to keep an open mind and listen to the music just on its own merits, you've got some interesting listening ahead.

It's been close to 20 years since those 2 classic early albums were made, and during that time Mayhem's members have come and gone and those remaining have continued on their own paths of maturing musical and artistic growth. And let's face it, even though they like to keep up their "barbarian" Metaller image, the members of Mayhem are actually pretty damned artistic. This comes through in the level of sophistication of this album's music.

With this album, I would say that Mayhem have gone beyond the boundaries of Black Metal which they themselves helped to create, and have continued to move into new and uncharted territory which I would call something like "Dark Art". This album creates a new and unique sound that manages to be bleak, sinister, even chaotic.....but refined -- all at the same time.

While the sound of those 2 classic albums brought to my mind visions of things like malevolently fog-enshrouded graveyards in the midnight shadows of ruined abbeys, this new album has a totally different vibe. It's still definitely Mayhem, but somehow updated for the high-tech world of the 21st century. While listening to this one, instead I found images of things like the dark and sinister skyscraper in George Romero's "Land of the Dead" coming to mind. A shadowy, high-tech, sophisticated penthouse looking out over a terrible future somehow gone horribly wrong.

Lyrically too the album moves in this direction. Almost all the album's lyrics have been composed by Atilla and he has come up with some very original ideas. "World of Water" seems to be inspired by things like the movie "Day After Tomorrow" and the looming environmental disaster facing human society, the destruction of which Mayhem welcome with open arms. Other songs use a lot of very technical and scientific sounding words, but fused in a unique way with traditional occult and sorcery imagery too. And my favourite track on the album, "Psychic Horns", gives a completely new re-envisioning for the relationship between the realm of Hell and the plane of existence of us mortals. Interesting stuff.

The music too is highly original. As always, Atilla gives an amazing performance. This is one vocalist that people either love or hate, and as for me I think he is one of the most brilliantly distinctive performers around. This is matched by Hellhammer's drumming, which is just as original and inventive, this time featuring odd bursts of beats which eventually build into wild crescendos. And Necrobutcher and Blasphemer use the guitars to maintain an overall dank, oppressive atmosphere. Thus ultimately it's a group effort where every member contributes, and I would say quite successfully at that.

I've heard many people complaining about the production on this album and at first I couldn't appreciate it either. It felt really flat, but it seems like this is all part of an overall artistic vision for the album. Its sound seems perfectly reflected in the abstract art found in the album liner notes -- a very muted, monochromatic monotone, broken only by the red of spattered blood, all filtered through the grid-like prism of a high-tech pixellating screen.

I sometimes think its too bad that Mayhem have such a legacy to live up to which blinds some people to the merit of what they're doing now. Yeah, when compared with the other 2 albums I mentioned before I still like the old stuff better. But while I won't say that this is one of my most favourite albums I own, I still feel that in terms of originality, overall artistic vision, and bravery in continuing to explore and strike out in new musical directions, it still deserves 5 stars from me. A strong effort.

....And for those of you who still prefer the old-school raw guitar style of early Mayhem, I'd recommend you try and track down the 2 albums by a UK band called Frost. -- Worth checkin' out.

Rock on!