Esoteric Warfare is (at the time of writing) the most recent offering by the current incarnation of legendary black metal icons, Mayhem. For a band that has always been knee-deep in, well, mayhem, it is perhaps of no surprise that their back-catalogue has been somewhat inconsistent; often strikingly different music styles counteract each other as the band continues to unfurl it's unholy magic on the unsuspecting metal world. Contrary to this, Esoteric Warfare, despite it's kinda "meh" (I'm sorry) production job, is one of the more consistent records the band has put out.
"Watchers" was the lead single here, representing the mushy, clumsily-brutal atmospherics of modern day Mayhem nicely for the festering masses. With the second most popular track here being "Psy War", it is with unfortunately ease that one can compartmentalise this album to these first two tracks, and lose sight of the rest of this beast, which is exactly what it seems Mayhem do when it comes to playing anything off of this live, but there we go.
The chaos that Mayhem exists in continues to produce unpredictable and unusual results.
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