Norway’s SUCHTHAUS, the band that defies genre type casting and for whom visuals play as big a role as the music itself, have released a tribute to the iconic Black Metal band MAYHEM in the form of a video cover of the track “Life Eternal”,  from what is probably MAYHEM’s most famous album, 1994’s “De Misteriis Dom Sathanas”.   The cover features SUCHTHAUS members Spacebrain on vocals, Ingvar the Last Viking on guitars, Fruen on the organ, and Hellhammer, who is of course himself one of the original members of MAYHEM, on drums.  The video can be seen below:

Whilst it may not come as a surprise that a band has recorded a MAYHEM cover, it is, in this case, more appropriate than the usual run of the mill tribute, given that SUCHTHAUS founder SPACEBRAIN, is the man behind many of MAYHEM’s most recognisable stage sets.   A renowned sculptor, as well as a musician, SPACEBRAIN had this to say about the tribute:

“Mayhem has survived hell for 30 years, and I was fortunate to play  a part during a few of those years, touring through Europe with the art of SPACEBRAIN from 2000-2006. This is a period of my life I will never forget, neither the good nor the bad experiences,  and  therefore SUCHTHAUS decided to put in some hard work to try to recreate the soundtrack that got stuck in my head: “Life Eternal”.   It´ s far from a straight cover, but our vision was a way of thanking the men who let me be a part of their life (in alphabetical order) Atilla, Blasphemer, Hellhammer, Maniac, Necrobutcher”.

SUCHTHAUS is currently working putting the finishing touches on the band’s sophomore album “Motorbrain”, which, once finished, will be released on SUCHTHAUS’ own label Rollabigone.    Guests on the album include SHINING founder and frontman Niklas Kvarforth.

“Motorbrain” will be the follow up to SUCHTHAUS’ debut  album “The Dark Side and the Bright Side”, which included collaborations from musicians such as Maniac  (SKITLIV, ex-MAYHEM),  CURRENT 93’s David Tibet, Fredrik A. Juell  (BURNING RUBBER,  BERSERK BASTARDS) and singer Sibob Jawara, and showed clearly how difficult it is to squeeze the band into any particular genre.   Whilst “Motorbrain” promises to be a much more “metal” album, it will definitely not be a “straight up” metal album, and the band is at pains to point out that it does not reflect  any direction that they have any  intention of following in the future.

More information about SUCHTHAUS can be found on the band’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/suchthausofficial  or on the band’s website at http://www.suchthaus.no/

Five  tracks from SUCHTHAUS can be heard at