Mayhemic – Toba

One of the greatest gifts of keeping tabs of new underground music is to see promising bands flourish and unleashed to wider audiences. Mayhemic is one of these acts, who I’ve been following since their first demo (‘No Life’). This release and the subsequent EP, ‘Mortuary Feast of Skeletons’, completely blew my mind with their raw and sincere approach to 80s German Thrash forged in the fires of the Chilean Southern cone – possibly one of the best global scenes now for Metal. Having awaited patiently for a full length for years, my interest peaked further with the announcement of their deal with Sepulchral Voice, a label that has never missed with their signings. After spending some time digesting ‘Toba’, I can say this record has far exceeded any expectations I initially had for it.

Coming into this record, I was fully expecting a vicious onslaught of riffs that transport us back to the glory days of 80s German Thrash, otherwise known as the ‘Teutonic’ sound. For me and for countless other headbangers, the take on this genre was the perfect conduit between the original Thrash sound crafted in the Bay Area with the more extreme sounds that were brewing in the underground. Those early records of acts like Kreator, Sodom and Destruction serve to remind us that Thrash was at its heart always a part of Extreme Metal canon, as much as the genre quickly became more diluted and palatable to mainstream audiences in the late 80s/early 90s.

The reverence for the aforementioned bands is palpable, with all the songs on the record sprinkling in nodes to these ancient gods at different points – but always as an homage and never as a faceless clone. What really separates Mayhemic from others who have failed to make a mark is the mixture of the old with an added technical flair that their influences did not develop until much later in their musical careers. Already comparing the demos with ‘TOBA’, you can sense the growth in compositional abilities through the way the band carefully craft furious and savage riffs that cut straight through your jugular vein with dashes of melody layered on top. It all adds up to an explosive performance that lines up very well with the broad theme of the album. TOBA makes reference to one of the largest volcanic eruptions that transpired over 70000 years ago and which engulfed the world under a massive volcanic winter. To describe this album as a colossal aural eruption is not far off the mark, as it has little mercy on the listener.

Some of this is already evident with the opener ‘Kollarbone Crushed Neanderthal’, setting the tone with its in your face, unrepentant attitude and constant barrage of fast-tempo riffs that don’t allow a second for you to breathe other than for very brief respites before mercilessly continuing to shove riffs down your throat and even an elegant solo to boot. Things begin taking a more unexpected turn with ‘Valley of the Thundra’, a track whose main riff is a simple, yet catchy groove that simultaneously feels a bit out of place yet a welcome change of pace from the normal Teutonic approach – it even includes a nice synth passage that is inserted smoothly within feeling awkward or forced.  A similar story can be seen with the lead single ‘Triump Portrait’, a song that feels like a quartet of demons paying tribute to ‘Pleasure to Kill’ from the fiery bowels of hell itself. The real technical mastery becomes evident with the instrumental interlude ‘Eschatological Symphony’, the way both guitarists play off each other and siege your ears with every riff that is played. The vocal delivery is completely unhinged, reminding me of the Mille Petrozza in his younger years before his vocal cords were fried. Credit must be given to Leviathan on drums, whose percussive performance has shown great evolution in the way he has crafted the drum fills to seamlessly transition between the fast-paced passages to the very brief moments of respite on this record.

It’s difficult to innovate in a genre that has existed for over 4 decades, but there will always be devotees who will find ways to breathe life into it. Mayhemic always showed signs of being that band since their inception and have only proven themselves to be possibly the best band to proudly fly the Flag of Hate. We are no longer in 1986 and the band know this, so they’ve done what needs to be done – capture the visceral and raw power of Teutonic Thrash and canonize it through a modern lens that doesn’t wear out. This is probably the best Thrash record Chile has produced since Ripper’s ‘Experiment of Existence’ and is an absolute must purchase. (Dzor)

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The “Toba catastrophe theory” posits that the evolution of the human race was significantly influenced by an eruption of the Toba super volcano on Sumatra in Indonesia around 74,000 years ago. There is no doubt about the death-and-annihilation super-eruption itself. According to Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois, it is possible that early modern humans were then decimated to just a few thousand individuals, who, in the harsh volcanic winter that followed, of necessity learned to work better together, making an evolutionary leap that enabled them to become superior over Homo erectus and Neanderthal, who were naturally more resistant to the cold, and thus had survived the eruption and winter in greater numbers. This evolutionary ‘eye of the needle’ would explain the lack of genetic diversity unique to Homo sapiens.

Chile’s Mayhemic took this intriguing event as the starting point for their first full-length album, which follows a series of short-players, which in turn were all brought together on 2022’s ‘The Darkest Age’ compilation. Keeping that title in mind as well, it’s pretty clear that these Chileans have their sights set on Armageddon-like scenes. Now, mass extinction of the human race is not exactly virgin territory for Extreme Metal, but how would this actually be best put into musical moulds?

If you ask Mayhemic, the answer is exactly as their band name suggests: wild Thrash Metal with the accelerator pressed to the bottom. Where the band had a clear Black Metal edge in the past, this has now been reduced to a minimum and it is mainly Kreator that rings the bell here. The first era of Kreator, to be exact, so up to and including 1990’s ‘Coma Of Souls’. Fast paced riffs, unrelenting drums and an snarly vocal delivery that reminds of a young Mille Petrozza. But it doesn’t end here, while indeed the majority of the music is peddle-to-the-metal and reminds of the likes of Sadus and Dark Angel besides the obvious resemblance to the German Thrash Metal juggernaut, there is an apparent penchant for classic Heavy Metal as well. That is mainly evidenced by a far more prominent sense for melody and guitar wizardry than almost any of those very early Thrash Metal had in their bag of tricks. Listen to ‘Valley Of The Tundra’ for instance, which has an almost Southern/Stoner sort of melody as baseline (including an organ).

Besides that slight shift in musical emphasis, the most remarkable change is that ‘Toba’ sounds way more advanced. It is clear that the band took the time to further perfect their game, not only in terms of song writing, but also in the overall execution and production. ‘Toba’ is definitely a way more versatile and overall mature recording than anything the band has presented us before. With those more melodic parts becoming an integral element in their musical DNA, the band is slowly creeping up to the classic tunes of Death Angel or even Forbidden. While they are not quite there (yet), it is clear that Mayhemic has way more tricks up their collective sleeves than we could have imagined based on those earliest recordings. (FelixS)