Mayhem (Finland) - Bitter Remains Of Better Future demo '89

"Wow! What a way to start my day, hangover and missiles on their way
If I have to die in here, then I want a beer
I don't care for crumbling land, I just want a beer in my hand
If I really have to die, then I want to die drunk" 

Mayhem - Die Drunk

Oh yeah. Thrasher kids of Cold War era writing lyrics about the impending nuclear war... and getting drunk. Kinda typical, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I guess there must have been literally thousands of thrash metal bands doing the same thing everywhere in the world back then. Apparently these Finnish Mayhem dudes had not (yet) heard about their infamous Norwegian namesake when they were recording this demo in late October 1989. Vicious and sometimes extremely fast (especially during the opening track) thrash metal which occasionally reminds me a bit about another Finnish band - Protected Illusion. Actually there IS a connection here: the drummer/vocalist Erkki Virta of Mayhem joined Protected Illusion a bit later (or perhaps he already was a member of PI when he played on this demo?)... and the last time yours truly heard about him was in 2008 when he played drums on the excellent doom metal album Lithium Gates by The Puritan. So I suppose he's kept himself busy making music since late Eighties. No idea about the other guys. I suppose they just got day jobs and started families & shit like the rest of us old farts. That's the way life goes I guess. Anyway, this is a great demo but perhaps a bit lengthy one - I mean there's eight songs on this demo and it lasts about half an hour so it's almost more like an album than a demo tape, but this is definitely one of those things from the Finnish scene of the late Eighties that deserves to be heard again.

Mayhem - Bitter Remains Of Better Future demo '89

1. Die Drunk 4:35
2. Burning The Bridges 4:04
3. Brainstorm 2:59
4. Two (Bitter Remains...) 5:18
5. Incestor 0:11
6. ...Without Any Reason 3:51
7. Blind Belief 3:52
8. Blackened Sanity 5:15

Style: Thrash Metal

Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!