Live Review: Mayhem Live in Athens ~ October 7th, 2026

Review by Dagon M.

After the release of their latest album, “Liturgy of Death”, earlier this year, Mayhem announced their European tour, which included Greece. So, on October 7^th, I had the pleasure of witnessing the Mayhem ritual for the 6^th time. Unfortunately, due to the imagery of hunting that has been going on in our scene, they were not accompanied by Marduk, who were the support for the rest of the tour, but by the Death Metalers Unleashed.

I don’t have much to say about Unleashed as I am not a fan of their sound; however, it was evident that Death Metal does not blend that well with a Black Metal audience, as the crowd’s response during their performance was nonexistent, to say the least. Mayhem took the stage by storm with their opener “Realm of Endless Misery”  from their latest album, which made for an excellent opening track, and I can see it earning this spot in future tours as well. Following was a blast from the past with “Buried by Time and Dust” to take to the DMDS era. After that, two songs from the last albums “Bad Blood” & “Life is a Corpse you Drag” which kept the set flowing well.

What followed was a blistering blaze of hell with great anthems such as “Ancient Skin”, “To Daimonion”, “View from Nihil” and “Whore” that made for an excellent choice of a set list. “Psywar” seemed like the only cacophony, where instead a track from the highly underrated “Ordo Ad Chao” could have taken its place. Suddenly the room gets dark and the haunting of Dead marks the intro of “Freezing Moon”.  Always one of the highlights for every Mayhem show is the ultimate Black Metal anthem and a song that will forever give birth to new fans. “Chimera” is yet again another pleasant surprise and one of my favorite Mayhem songs before it leaves its place to 2 more DMDS songs that create an otherworldly feeling.

“Weep for Nothing” is the last song we hear from the new album before the last encore takes place. The monitor behind the drum kit turns red with the album cover of “Deathcrush” and photos of the band’s earliest era, behind the marching sound of “Silvester Anfang”. The band has saved the best for last, obliterating everything with “Deathcrush”, “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” and “Carnage” before closing their show with “Pure Fucking Armageddon”. A truly classic cult encore bearing the beginnings of the Black Metal scene. Attila is breathtaking throughout the set, with changing outfits depending on the tracks playing, proving that apart from being a top vocalist, he is also one of the greatest performers.

Hellhammer is bombastic with his hard-hitting blast beats, and the rest of the band put on a technically sound performance. This was the longest Mayhem show I have ever seen, lasting over 1,5 hours!! My only complaint would be that the sound was too loud in everything, the loudest show I have ever been to, resulting in at times not being able to distinguish the guitars clearly or the vocals being lost.

Another great Mayhem performance, chaotic and uncompromising, till many more to come.