Imagine that - a Mayhem side project that comes out better than Mayhem. Except this time I'm being serious. Maybe it's only Hellhammer that has the 'gayness' factor, with him dicking around in those horrid Arcturus and Covenant projects - he should take a clue from bassist Necrobutcher, whose side project Kvikksolvguttene (The Quicksilver Boys? supposedly some Norwegian pun, or so I heard once...) actually takes Mayhem one step farther - however, it's the old Mayhem (back from the Deathcrush days) that he improves on.

For those who don't remember, before Dead joined the group Mayhem was a noisy, simplistic death/thrash band whose songs, rather than celebrating evil and the occult, were simply gory noisy messes that sounded as ugly as the images the titles implied (Chainsaw Gutsfuck, anyone? or Necrolust?). Kvikksolvguttene picks up where Necrobutcher left that style off. With a bass tone thicker than mud, a crushing mid-tempo feel throughout, and some truly horrid vocals, Necrobutcher and fellows Xathan (guitar/vox) and "Det Skal Du Dritte I" (drums) steamroll over the listener with lovely little ditties like "Violent Death", "Fisted Sisters", "Krieg", and "In Den Arsch Gefickt". The band's early Mayhem roots really come out in the song "Ghoul", a holdover from Mayhem's PFA era, and unfortunately for Euronymous it's pulled off more expertly than he ever dreamed of. Fortunately the band also has a bit of a humorous side, injecting some painfully misogynistic lyrics into the aforementioned "Fisted Sisters", as well as "Sluts" and the real kicker, the album-closer "Nagelkamp" (which features one of the greatest choruses ever written...but I won't spoil it for you). The production is good as well - it's clean, but not sterile, so the classic Necrobutcher dirty distorted bass(TM) comes through fine (like I said earlier, thick as mud), the guitar is nice and sharp, the drums okay (the snare's a little 'high-end' and hollow, but not terribly annoying), and the vocals are nice and gruff (like classic thrash/death metal, not this newfangled 'Chris Barnes' shit).

Needless to say, if you're a fan of the Deathcrush-era Mayhem you'll love this, as it's a complete improvement on everything the band was trying to do at the time - and so even if you're NOT a fan of that era of Mayhem, this may appeal to you because Kvikksolvguttene does early Mayhem better than Mayhem did. Thick sound, sick vocals, and some crushingly heavy death metal - need I even say more? Get this...

© 1999 lord vic