Mayhem "Grand Declaration Of War (2018 Reissue, Remastered, Digipack)"

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 Arellano overseeing the production.

The album's title and some of the lyrics are taken from the writings of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly his books Twilight of the Idols—Nietzsche called Twilight of the Idols "a grand declaration of war" („eine grosse Kriegserklärung“).

In his book Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal, Jeff Wagner wrote that Grand Declaration of War features "a variety of vocal shadings to match the multi-layered music", between "A Time to Die", described by Wagner as "one minute and forty-eight seconds of black calculus", "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" offering "squishy electronic groove, so close to trip-hop that it instantly became the album's most controversial track" and the "mesmerizing ten-minute sprawling landscape of doom" "Completion in Science of Agony". The album's "sonic clarity" was "a complete 180-degree turn" from the band's early "scuzzy 'necro' approach". Parts of the black metal scene had hoped Mayhem would not reform after the murder of the original guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth as "that would not be right", or at least were "rather sceptical when it was known that [sic] MAYHEM should go on even without Dead or Euronymous". Many longtime Mayhem fans despised Blasphemer because "he wasn't Aarseth". Jeff Wagner calls Grand Declaration of War "Mayhem's own Into the Pandemonium, an album that had perverted and turned inside out the black metal genre as Celtic Frost's [Into the] Pandemonium had done to thrash metal". Alex Henderson of Allmusic stated that the band "has outdone itself with the epic Grand Declaration of War, which could arguably be described as black metal's equivalent of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime".

A remastered version of the album was released in December 2018; the original 'cold', 'sterile' production was swapped out for a more raw sound with the bass and drums made more prominent in the mix.

Tracklist:

All lyrics are written by Maniac; all music is composed by Blasphemer.

1. "Untitled" (hidden in pregap before track 1 on original CD; simply the final track reversed) 2:11
2. "A Grand Declaration of War" 4:14
3. "In the Lies Where upon You Lay" 5:59
4. "A Time to Die" 1:48
5. "View from Nihil (Part I of II)" 3:04
6. "View from Nihil (Part II of II)" 1:16
7. "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part I of II)" 0:33
8. "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part II of II)" 4:27
9. "Crystallized Pain in Deconstruction" 4:09
10. "Completion in Science of Agony (Part I of II)" 9:44
11. "To Daimonion (Part I of III)" 3:25
12. "To Daimonion (Part II of III)" 4:52
13. "To Daimonion (Part III of III)" 0:07
14. "Completion in Science of Agony (Part II of II)" 2:14

Total length: 45:58

Issued in a 4-panel Digipak, with 12-booklet and clear disc tray.

Hype sticker over the shrink wrap:

'Completely remixed and remastered from the original master tapes!

One of Black Metal's most controversial albums

"Grand Declaration of War is a record that stands alone in the grand scheme of Black Metal as a scene. But it's a very cool record, which deserves some thought, attention and an open mind."

Angry Metal Guy'.

Recording information:

Originally recorded at Fagerborg Studio and Top Room Studio from Nov 1999 to Jan 2000.

Remixed and remastered at Orgone Studio in 2018.