MAYHEM Shares 'Despair' Single From Upcoming 'Liturgy Of Death' Album

Influential black metal band MAYHEM will release its seventh studio album, "Liturgy Of Death", on February 6, 2026 via Century Media. With this new chapter, MAYHEM once again cements its reputation as one of the most relentless forces in extreme metal. Nearly 40 years into its career, the band turns its gaze toward the unavoidable truth of mortality. "Liturgy Of Death" explores the philosophy of mortality with stark, uncompromising clarity. The album presents death not as an ending, but as a universal law that touches all life and exposes the fragility of human existence. This impermanence becomes a call to live with full intensity, for every gain and loss ultimately falls back into the same silence. Echoing ancient philosophies, the album portrays life as a transitional state and death as a gateway to a higher form of being, while the solemn, dark beauty of death permeates the entire work.

The LP's second single, "Despair", captures this vision in its most visceral form. The track unravels the collapse of being through ritualistic chants, Latin invocations, and blistering blast beats that echo like the pulse of annihilation. Attila's vocals summon an ancient, fatal truth: the fading of light, the inevitability of death, and the recognition of human fragility. "Despair" stands as the album's stark revelation — the moment where death is not feared but understood.

With Necrobutcher (bass),Hellhammer (drums),Attila Csihar (vocals),Teloch (guitars) and Ghul (guitars) locked into a unit tighter than ever, "Liturgy Of Death" celebrates MAYHEM's own legacy, a continuation of the raw and uncompromising sound that defined their beginnings. The result is a merciless record — dark, fast, and unrelenting — that captures the band in their most dangerous and vital form. Forty-one years since the band's formation in Langhus, MAYHEM remains a defining force in Norwegian black metal, continuing to shape the sound it helped create.

"Liturgy Of Death" is the follow-up to MAYHEM's sixth studio album, "Daemon", which came out in October 2019 via Century Media. A live album, "Daemonic Rites", arrived in September 2023.

"Liturgy Of Death" track listing:

01. Ephemeral Eternity
02. Despair
03. Weep For Nothing
04. Aeon's End
05. Funeral Of Existence
06. Realm Of Endless Misery
07. Propitious Death
08. The Sentence Of Absolution
09. Life Is A Corpse You Drag (bonus track)
10. Sancta Mendacia (bonus track)

MAYHEM will embark on the "Death Over Europe" European headlining tour in February 2026. Support on the trek will come from MARDUK and IMMOLATION. The dates are as follows:

Feb. 05 - NL - Groningen - Spot
Feb. 06 - NL - Utrecht - TivoliVredenburg
Feb. 07 - DE - Herford - KulturWerk Herford
Feb. 08 - BE - Liège - OM
Feb. 10 - UK - London - Electric Ballroom
Feb. 11 - FR - Paris - Elysée Montmartre
Feb. 12 - FR - Toulouse - Le Bikini
Feb. 14 - PT - Lisbon - LAV Lisboa Ao Vivo
Feb. 15 - ES - Madrid - La Riviera
Feb. 17 - IT - Milano - Alcatraz
Feb. 18 - CH - Solothurn - Kulturfabrik Kofmehl
Feb. 19 - AT - Vienna - Simm City
Feb. 20 - DE - Regensburg - Airport Eventhall
Feb. 21 - CZ - Prague - PAVILON C
Feb. 22 - DE - Berlin - Huxleys Neue Welt
Feb. 24 - PL - Gdansk - B90
Feb. 25 - LV - Riga - Spelet
Feb. 26 - FI - Helsinki - Kulttuuritalo
Feb. 28 - SE - Gothenburg - Eriksbergshallen

In the fall of 2024, MAYHEM canceled its previously announced North American 40th-anniversary tour "due to a member of the band having a medical emergency that requires immediate surgery."

The North American dates were scheduled to kick off on November 12, 2024 in Montreal, with stops in Toronto; Queens, New York; Chicago; and Los Angeles before and wrapping up November 23, 2024 in Denver.

MAYHEM launched a short European tour on December 4, 2024 in Paris, France. An Australian tour followed in January.

When MAYHEM's North American tour was first announced in August 2024, the band said that its 40th-anniversary show would be "a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans, featuring a setlist that spans their illustrious career, from their groundbreaking debut album, 'Deathcrush', to present day."

MAYHEM is:

Attila Csihar - Vocals
Ghul - Guitar
Hellhammer – Drums
Necrobutcher - Bass
Morten - Guitar

Photo by Agnes Köhler, Nima Taheri, Joyce Van Doorn. Editing by Daniele Valeriani