''Wolf's Lair Abyss'' is an EP 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 em ...

band Mayhem. According to the band's website, it is the first part of ''

Grand Declaration of War ''Grand Declaration of War'' is the second full-length studio album by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem, released by Season of Mist and Necropolis Records on 6 June 2000. A re-release of the album came out in December 2018, with Jaime Gomez ...

''.news
/ref> The main riff of the last track, "Symbols of Bloodswords", is used in "A Grand Declaration of War" and "View from Nihil (Part II)". This EP was the first Mayhem release without guitarist

Euronymous Øystein Aarseth (; 22 March 1968 – 10 August 1993), better known by his stage name Euronymous, was a Norwegian musician and a founder of and central figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene. He was a co-founder and guitarist of the No ...

, who was murdered in 1993. The new line-up's material displayed across the songs is notably far more technical than that of earlier incarnations of the band; apart from the intro, each track contains at least two separate sections and is played at high

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

with consistent

blast beat A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal,Adam MacGregor, '' PCP Torpedo'' by Agoraphobic Noseblee ...

Track listing

Personnel

;Mayhem *

Sven Erik Kristiansen Sven Erik Kristiansen (born 4 February 1969) is a Norwegian musician, best known as the former vocalist in the black metal band Mayhem under the stage name Maniac. With Mayhem Kristiansen joined Mayhem in 1986 after the departure of the ba ...

(Maniac) - vocals *

Rune Eriksen Rune Eriksen (born 13 January 1975) is a Norwegian Spellemann award-winning musician and composer. He is best known as the former guitarist in the black metal band Mayhem under the stage name Blasphemer, which he took from a Sodom song. He jo ...

(Blasphemer) - guitar *

Jørn Stubberud Jørn Stubberud (born 13 April 1968) is a Norwegian musician best known as the bassist in the black metal band Mayhem under the stage name Necrobutcher. He is one of Mayhem's founding members, along with Euronymous and Manheim. He is the band ...

(Necrobutcher) - bass guitar *

Jan Axel Blomberg Jan Axel Blomberg (born 2 August 1969) is a Norwegian heavy metal drummer known professionally as Hellhammer. He is best known as the drummer of Mayhem, which he joined in 1988. In 1987 Blomberg formed the avant-garde black metal band Arctur ...

(Hellhammer) - drums ;Production *Produced by Krystoffer Rygg *Engineered, mixed and mastered by Mayhem *Recorded at Studio Studio Nyhagen

References

{{Authority control Mayhem (band) albums 1997 EPs Black metal EPs

Track listing

Personnel

See also

References