First, a word on what exactly is on this demo. There seems to be some confusion. This was originally a cassette demo, with one side being labeled side "Fuck" and the other labeled side "Off". Side "Fuck" was actually an earlier demo, Voice of a Tortured Skull (including classics such as "Carnage", "Ghoul", and "Pure Fucking Armageddon", along with a cover of Venom's "Black Metal". This was never officially released as its own demo. It was only ever officially part of Pure Fucking Armageddon. Side "Off" is four rehersal tracks--versions of the same tracks from Voice of Tortured Skull, but with no vocals. I'll be honest, it's pretty terrible quality. One side "Fuck," there are vocals but you can barely hear them. If I didn't know what words to listen for, for example, I would even know there were vocals at certain times. The only thing that makes this worth having or listening to is you get to hear some of the classic Mayhem songs in the earliest stages. And truth be told, some of Mayhem's classic songs have awesome riffs. I love the opening of "Carnage", for example. One of the all-time black metal greats, but here the quality is just awful.
Here it is. What can properly be called the first album of modern black metal, or if you prefer, the album that is credited with starting the first wave (1987-1991) of black metal. But, man, this is some vile stuff. Totally fuzzed out production. Horribly distorted vocals. By black metal standards of 2003, this sucks. By black metal standards of 1987, this is cult. The opener, Silvester Anfang sets an eerie mood for the whole with weird percussive madness. Then, we have Deathcrush...which starts out with some seriously de-tuned Slayer riffing before eventually picking up the pace. Which is how most of the album goes: thick fuzzy guitars churn out dense unintelligble riffs at a medium-to-slow pace before somewhere in the course of the song becoming faster (but still unintelligible). My favorite song is Necrolust because it is the most insane black metal song before the 90's(with the possible exception of Sarcofago's stuff from the same period). My biggest complaint regarding this album is the vocals. "Messiah" is listed as the session vocalist and I hate him. Attila, Dead, and Maniac are all far superior to him. Oh well. This is really only a must-have for diehard Mayhem fans or for people (like myself) who want to round out their BM collection.
