''Grand Declaration of War'' is the second full-length studio album by the Norwegian

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

band Mayhem, released by Season of Mist and

Necropolis Records Necropolis Records (located in Fremont, California) was a record label founded by Paul Thind in 1993, mainly providing an American home for extreme black metal.

on 6 June 2000. A re-release of the album came out in December 2018, with Jaime Gomez Arellano overseeing the production. The album's title and some of the lyrics are taken from the writings of the German philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

, particularly his books ''

Twilight of the Idols ''Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer'' (german: link=no, Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert) is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche, written in 1888, and published in 1889. Genesis ''Twilight of th ...

''—Nietzsche called ''Twilight of the Idols'' "a grand declaration of war" („eine grosse Kriegserklärung“).

Musical style

In his book '' Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal'', Jeff Wagner wrote that ''Grand Declaration of War'' features "a variety of vocal shadings to match the multi-layered music", between "A Time to Die", described by Wagner as "one minute and forty-eight seconds of black calculus", "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" offering "squishy electronic groove, so close to

trip-hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos ...

that it instantly became the album's most controversial track" and the "mesmerizing ten-minute sprawling landscape of doom" "Completion in Science of Agony". The album's "sonic clarity" was "a complete 180-degree turn" from the band's early "scuzzy 'necro' approach".Jeff Wagner, Steven Wilson
''Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal''
Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2010, p. 252. Parts of the

scene had hoped Mayhem would not reform after the murder of the original guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth as "that would not be right", or at least were "rather sceptical when it was known that '' ic' MAYHEM should go on even without Dead or Euronymous".''Mayhem''. In: Jon Kristiansen: ''Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries''. Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 477. Many longtime Mayhem fans despised Blasphemer because "he wasn't Aarseth". Jeff Wagner calls ''Grand Declaration of War'' "Mayhem's own ''

Into the Pandemonium ''Into the Pandemonium'' is the second studio album by Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, released in 1987. It is the first album to feature bassist and backing vocalist Martin Eric Ain, who appeared on 1984's Morbid Tales EP, but not th ...

'', an album that had perverted and turned inside out the black metal genre as Celtic Frost's 'Into the''''Pandemonium'' had done to

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

". Alex Henderson of ''Allmusic'' stated that the band "has outdone itself with the epic ''Grand Declaration of War'', which could arguably be described as black metal's equivalent of Queensryche's '' Operation: Mindcrime''". A remastered version of the album was released in December 2018; the original 'cold', 'sterile' production was swapped out for a more raw sound with the bass and drums made more prominent in the mix.

Critical reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

critic Alex Henderson wrote: "''Grand Declaration of War'' won't appeal to anyone with a short attention span, but for those who can sit down and really give this CD their undivided attention, the rewards are great."

Track listing

Personnel

Mayhem

Maniac Maniac (from Greek μανιακός, ''maniakos'') is a pejorative for an individual who experiences the mood known as mania. In common usage, it is also an insult for someone involved in reckless behavior. Maniac may also refer to: Film * ' ...

- vocals * Blasphemer - guitar * Necrobutcher - bass guitar *

Hellhammer Hellhammer was a Swiss metal band from Nürensdorf, active from 1982 to 1984. Although the band's sound and style were heavily criticized and poorly reviewed during their active years, they have been widely praised in retrospect and are often r ...

- drums

Session musicians

* Anders Odden - co-writing and programming of "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" * Øyvind Hægeland - additional vocals on "Completion in Science of Agony" * Tore Ylwizaker - samples and noise construction on "Completion in Science of Agony" * Sebastian Ludvigsen - photography * Mark Francombe Red - cover design * Anne Cecilie Olavesen - makeup

References

{{Authority control 2000 albums Mayhem (band) albums Season of Mist albums