CENTURY MEDIA PRESENTS: THE DECIBEL MAGAZINE 2025 TOUR with MAYHEM, MORTIIS, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, NEW SKELETAL FACES

Mayhem’s 40th Anniversary Tour was announced last fall, but was cancelled as a member of the band became ill, so the dates had to be rescheduled for the spring - now the godfathers of Black Metal are out crossing America. Century Media brought the Decibal Magazine Tour through Vegas to the House of Blues, and I was really looking forward to this show - to see Mayhem, as well as seeing new (to me) bands, all four with a very different and compelling sound.

Opening up the show was the band NEW SKELETAL FACES from down the road in San Diego. Dressed in leather with boots and big hair, these guys look like they are straight out of the sleazy hair metal era with a touch of goth.

Starting with “Disexist”, the majority of their songs came off of their November 2024 release Until the Night, and this band sounds much better live than their videos or recordings, they really bring more power live. One of my favs was the song “Ossuary Lust”, a hard driving tune, with soaring vocals from lead singer Errol Fritz. Their set was short as expected as openers, but strong, and they closed with the song “Pagan War”. I really enjoyed this band and you can hear more music HERE and more on the band HERE.

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT was amazing, and a very interesting band visually, with all three members wearing gold Egyptian style masks and robes, each one very different from the others. On each side of the stage they had a small stand with trombones, which seemed odd, but later in the show came into effect. Their sound had your mind spinning as it's a combination of black metal, experimental atmospheric, with a touch of jazz.

Imperial Triumphant hails from NYC and each mask they wear has a meaning to it. For instance lead singer Zachary Erzin wears a gold mask known as Apollo that has a golden halo with sun rays beaming outward. Drummer Kenny Growhoski wears a mask called Hecate that is very similar to that of the statue of liberty with 7 rays pointing upward. Bass player Steve Blanco’s mask is called Baal and features a gold bull looking mask with gold horns. The musicianship in this band was unbelievable, with both the drummer and bass player on another level. Near the end of the set, bassist Blanco took out those trombone slides, and ala Jimmy Page played the bass like he had a violin bow in his hand.This band with capture your attention, you won’t want to look away as you never know whats happening next, but I guarantee you will LOVE what your healing from these experimental monsters.

Imperial Triumphant released their new CD, Goldstar, in March 2025 and features the song “Pleasuredome”, with guest Dave Lombardo on drum solos and Tomas Haarke on spoken word. This song is hard and heavy with a twist - it has a jazz solo in the middle. check out out HERE Catch everything Imperial Triumphant HERE.

My long time friends told me I HAD to see MORTIIS since I have never seen them before, and I had no expectations since they were new to me. Mortiis is a two piece band featuring Håvard Ellefsen (Mortiis) on vocals / keys and Tim Van Horn on drums, and has a dark industrial synth rock sound that is never the same, constantly changing. Mortiis sounded more ambient than the other bands, almost like a soundtrack, and I am not sure the crowd at the HOB got what the band was doing.

I personally really liked the change of pace their music provided, and my eyes were drawn to this weird elfin creature with patches of long knarled hair who was playing these haunting melodies. The sound of the drums was thunderous, all tom toms and filled the entire venue and sounded huge. Mortiis is an eclectic artist, and may not be for everyone, but it was a pleasure to finally catch this band live and cross them off my bucket list. Check out more on Mortiis HERE

I was not prepared for what I was about to see with Mayhem, especially after the more mellow synth sounds of Mortiis. But holy hell, the band MAYHEM hit us with a wall of sound that went on non stop for two hours and totally blew me away. Starting with "Bad Blood", they really blasted the place into pieces. The band is touring in support of their 40 years as the pioneers of the Norwegian Black Metal movement, and they are pure evil and unapologetic about it - they flaunt it, revel in it and live it to the fullest.

These guys are not pretenders, they are the real thing, and played under dark red lighting with some cringe worthy videos playing behind them, stuff such as killings, medical operations, drug use, deaths from war and everything you can imagine. The videos also has messages - one that really struck me was “You can not create such evil music unless you are evil yourself”, that tells you everything you need to know about Mayhem.

By many, Mayhem is considered the most evil band in the world, something they are quite proud of. Vocalist Attila Csihar had some of the most bizarre face paint I have ever seen, and if you saw him on the street you would just think he was about to kill you. I have seen nearly all the bands on the top 10 most evil bands lists, and I can truly say Mayhem deserves the top spot. Mayhem's set was 19 songs of pure carnage, and one of my favorites of the night was their song “Psywar” - check it our HERE.

The last song before the encore, Attila left the stage, and in an eerie moment on tape you could hear the voice of the deceased former singer Dead as the band played “Funeral Fog” in remembrance. The encore featured “Chainsaw Gutsfuck" and "Pure Fucking Armageddon”, and I was mesmerized sitting there listening to this wall of sound coming from the stage. Just outrageous. Check out everything that Mayhem is up to HERE