Mayhem, the iconic Norwegian black metal band, is officially in the studio, working on their next studio album. This new record will be the follow-up to 2019’s Daemon and is their first full-length effort in six years.
In a recent interview with Poland’s Noise Magazine, bassist Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud provided an update on the band’s progress. “We are currently in the studio now to record a new album, which has been in the works for several years, obviously, ’cause the last album was in 2019, so it’s already six years. But that’s good,” he stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Stubberud went on to explain the lengthy gap between studio releases, arguing that it is a deliberate and beneficial process for the band’s creativity. He compared songwriting to painting, noting that it can be difficult to know when a piece is truly finished. “It’s more honest, I think, and it’s better for everyone that there is some space between the albums,” he said. “If you release albums too close to each other, it tends to be maybe just a repetition of your last album… So the longer the time it takes for the songwriters to distance themselves from the last project and to get new inspiration, the longer time it takes, the better it is.”
He also shed light on why live versions of their songs often evolve from their studio counterparts. “Really, really the live versions is really how the song ended up to be, ’cause they were not completely matured when recorded, in a sense. That’s why they altered when we rehearsed them for live later,” Stubberud explained. He also expressed a preference for the raw energy of live recordings, which he sees as a more authentic expression of the music. This sentiment was put into practice with the release of their most recent live album, Daemonic Rites, which came out in September 2023.
This news aligns with a previous statement from Stubberud in November of 2024, where he told the “Everblack” podcast that new Mayhem music could arrive in late 2025 or early 2026. The bassist noted that guitarists Morten “Teloch” Iversen and Charles “Ghul” Hedger had already presented “almost 20 songs” in demo form, with many being “really f***ing good.” The band, which also includes Hellhammer on drums and Attila Csihar on vocals, plans to follow the new album with a worldwide tour.
Since their formation in 1984 in Langhus, Norway, Mayhem has performed nearly 1,000 shows, solidifying their status as one of the most influential bands in the black metal genre.
