Mayhem – Attila Csihar

Mayhem is a band well known for being synonymous with the rather notorious subgenre of Norwegian black metal, the ‘second wave’ of the black metal movement of the early 80s. With Mayhem having spearheaded this raw, rough-cut genre alongside a myriad of other Norwegian bands such as Darkthrone and Burzum during the early 90s, it was in Mayhem’s sound and onstage attitude and persona that gave the band their front – and one that was fiercely defended by their fanbase upon the release of their influential debut EP, ‘Deathcrush’. But it wasn’t until the release of their first album, ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’, that Mayhem truly found their footing. With the departure of original vocalist Sven Erik “Maniac” Kristiansen and the bizarre suicide of its proceeding frontman Per Yngve “Dead” Ohlin, Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar adopted the vocal duties of the band as their third and longest serving frontman.

Going on to take part in what has remained some of Mayhem’s most prolific work to date, Attila himself has become synonymous with everything that gave Mayhem their mystique and melancholy in the first place. So with that being said, it was my recent pleasure to speak with Attila on behalf of Metal Obsession. We discussed the band’s latest opus, ‘Esoteric Warfare’, Attila’s many philosophical views on life and its social construct, as well as Mayhem’s exciting upcoming appearance at next year’s Soundwave!

One of the most significant aspects of Mayhem’s recent album is the nature of its lyrical content and cover art. Exploring aspects of the Cold War, Attila went into great detail explaining his many varied and fascinating thoughts on the subject, and while unfortunately I cannot divulge it all here simply for the matter of space, I will give you the best highlights on his fascinating mind at work: “[Esoteric Warfare] is just a fantasy, but I still like to connect it to a common reality and to the Cold War. There were a lot of strange things going on then. It was a war of the mind, a war of the ideals. We are really like this sheltered, yet outgoing generation whether we know it, or we don’t know it, and we consider it a lot. But we are actually. And that I think is pretty fucked up. So I don’t see the point of any wars anymore because it’s just going to be the end of all mankind. You know what I believe, though? I think we can add to the message because I think using music as a form of expression or aggression and fear, sadness, desolation is when you can push your fears aside. The more I think when we relieve the fear with our music, we can face the fear. We can suppress it.

‘And this is what I believe. And when you go to your next Mayhem show you can release a lot of these suppressions and these fears and you feel like a more complex human being. I’m not saying it’s a grandiose thing but it’s a little bit stuck that way. And that’s why it’s amazing to tour around the world. I can see our music is a common language. The people, the fans, everywhere are the same. So whenever people decide to tell us you should be opposing each other, I can see that for a small little thing like our band in this context, like Mayhem, it can bring other bands together as well; not only us. But it can bring people on the same level, the same language. Like with cultural, moral, or social things that lead to ‘mind control’. I think actually a lot of this opposition is based on mind control, since religion, for example, is mind control in itself. Most of the wars and conflicts are based on religion today, or abuse religion in themselves.’

Attila then went on to describe interestingly how he views Mayhem’s music as a type of “bridge” between these conflicts. ‘I think our music is a kind of bridge in all of this. And, of course, it’s on a small level. It’s only a couple of hundred kids, or maybe a couple of thousand kids. But it’s all around the world and it gives me a small hope that it can be a solution for the future. Because we definitely have to a find, I think, a solution for these social problems around the world. And maybe we could add something to it.

‘Esoteric Warfare’ out now via Season of Mist

Attila briefly laughed afterwards at the notion of him revealing all this while being the lead vocalist for Mayhem. ‘I know it must sound very strange for Mayhem’s vocalist to say something like this, but I really believe in that, actually. Heavy metal music somehow demands that the listener involves your soul. It’s like a centre. It has a lot of surrealistic elements. And that the connection is heavy metal and that it connects the whole world, I’m so happy about it. I’m proud of it!

‘And I can see that it’s still growing. I mean, look at this festival we’re going to play at Soundwave. Like, I heard there are 40—60,000 people and it’s more than one night. It’s a moving festival. It’s totally amazing! I think it’s beautiful, it’s fantastic. And I’m so excited about all it, actually!

‘We’ve never played festivals like that overseas. We had such festivals here in Europe like Sonisphere and Black Can Festival. We play on Grasspop or Hellfest. But never this stuff like Soundwave overseas. Especially not in Australia. We all love and are fans of Australia, so it’s a lovely thing for us to come back. But in this context, it’s so exciting and interesting! We’re really looking forward to it.’

And thus spelled the end to an interview that went all too fast, yet left me feeling inspired and more knowledgeable than I had before.

Purchase your copy of ‘Esoteric Warfare’ now via JB Hi-Fi and NerveGas!

Make sure to catch Mayhem at Soundwave 2015 in February next year! Tickets on sale now via SoundwaveFestival.com.

Soundwave 2015

Saturday 21 February – Bonython Park, Adelaide

Sunday 22 February – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne

Saturday 28 February – Olympic Park, Sydney

Sunday 1 March – Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane

Soundwave 2015

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