On April 3, 1991, Yngwe Ohlin, better known as Dead, a crazy man known for being a manic depressive with hobbies like displaying rotting crows during his concerts and occasionally cutting his arms with a knife, decided to end it all by shooting himself in the head.
Unfortunately, the singer (whom I consider the best vocalist Mayhem ever had) did not record any studio albums with the Norwegian band. The only evidence we have of Dead behind the microphone is represented by "Live In Leipzig," recorded exactly four months and a week before the great singer's suicide, that is, on November 16, 1990, at the Eisfeller in Leipzig.
Probably, on that cold German night, the best Black Metal lineup every respectable fan of this genre could ever wish for was on stage: the founder of Mayhem, Euronymous on six strings (who would meet his buddy Yngwe in hell on August 10 two years later, killed by Varg Vikernes, better known as a soloist under the name Burzum), Necrobutcher on bass, Hellhammer behind the drums, and obviously Dead on vocals.
Ending this little introduction and knowing you might be fed up with the story of these four depraved individuals, let's move on to analyze the actual album.

The live opens eerily with Euronymous' guitar and the voices of the people, eagerly awaiting the massacre, inaugurated by Dead's roaring voice that with the scream ONLY DEATH IS REAL! kicks off the inevitable "Deathcrush," monumental in its insane tempo changes, even slowed down a lot compared to the album version.
The second piece is the violent "Necrolust," where Dead's voice really sends shivers down your spine, especially in the chorus and after a brief pause where Ohlin incites the crowd in frenzy with the famous Come on Leipzig!, Hellhammer starts "Funeral Fog," another piece that became legendary thanks to its brutality.
...When it's cold and when it's dark, the freezing moon will obsess you!... Thus, thanks to a goosebump-inducing presentation, "The Freezing Moon" is opened, certainly one of the best pieces of the Norwegian band, thanks also to a truly beautiful initial part.
... Are you, dead, uh? CARNAGE!... That's how it starts, along with Necrobutcher's bass, the homonymous Carnage, a piece taken from the old demo "Pure Fucking Armageddon," perhaps the most viciously played piece of the live and a deafening whistle (thanks to the lousy production) passes the torch to "Buried By Time And Dust," followed closely by that gem called "Pagan Fears".
Now comes the time for the obsessive "Chainsaw GutsFuck," also slowed down, exuding malice from every note.
The time has come to reach the end, with a song that could really be used as the soundtrack of the apocalypse... Come on, Leipzig, come on! Join Us, PURE FUCKING ARMAGEDDON!, the right finale for a monumental live (and I even rhymed)...

Certainly, there are mistakes from the four, but surely the goal of Mayhem was not to get on stage and play all the tracks perfectly while practically standing still (certain Dream Theater come to mind), but to hit the audience (perhaps more important in music than showing off one's technique making the concert seem like a guitar or bass lesson), even resorting to nauseating shows quite a few times.
In any case, the four's performance is not at all to be thrown away, where Euronymous' cold guitar like a sharp ax thirsty for blood grinds everything in its path, Necrobutcher's four strings, with its distortion scratches everything that can be scratched, and Hellhammer's murderous pounding creates an atmosphere that can only be described as terrifying. Everything is literally overpowered (and sometimes one might even say "Thankfully") by Dead's inhuman voice, which in many cases covers the mistakes of his bandmates and could have truly given much to Mayhem, while with the group he only managed to record this album and appear on the cover, depicted in the iconic photo wrapped in darkness lit only by his candelabra and on the bootleg "Dawn Of The Blackhearts" where we find a photo of the good Dead with his brains blown out, immortalized on the morning after the suicide.

Unfortunately, the production is at the limits of audibility (a choice, by the way, deliberate), but this does not detract from it being a remarkable live that helped shape a well-defined form in a genre already in its embryonic state: that Black Metal sometimes exalted and sometimes rightly criticized.
For the record, it would be a straight five, but I also have to state that I TOTALLY hate Mayhem as people, in my opinion, the classic failed maniacs who unfortunately in life managed to realize themselves only with music.
These are purely personal judgments, but due to this "Live In Leipzig", it loses the previously assigned five and gets a 4, still a very high rating that allows this live recorded disc to enter the pantheon of the best live recordings of all time.

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   Deathcrush ()

Demonic laughter your cremation
Your lungs gasp for air but are filled with blood
A sudden crack as I crushed your skull

The remind of your life flashes by
A life that soon won't be
Smiling with axe in my hand
Evil's rotten hand you'll see

I come forward
Deathcrush

I'll send you to your maker
I'll send you to your death

Death nicely crucified
Death, heads on stakes

The barbeque has just begun
Deathcrush - deathcrush - deathcrush

Crush - crush
Deathcrush
Deathcrush
Deathcrush

02   Necrolust ()

Your stinking corpse I desire
nothing can take me higher
Fucking you till your bones break
Another one has to die

Cum dripping from my dick
Fucking you to the core
Can't take this anymore
My brain is driving me insane

Necrolust

Eating the flesh of a thousand corpses
Bloodsucking cuntless nuns
her guts were boiling out of her butt
Eating her slimey cunt as I hold her tits

Come posercorpse and die again!

03   Funeral Fog ()

Every time this year
this dark fog will appear
up from the tombs it comes
to take one more life that
can be near.
In the middle of Transylvania
All natural life has for a long
time ago gone, its thin and so
beautiful but also so dark and
mysterious.

Once again the priest is messing
may the god bless us all.
The fog is here again
that'll complete this funeral.
From a place empty of life.
Only dead trees are growing hear
as it comes from a far
Only dead treas are growing hear

............Funeral Fog
............Funeral Fog
............Funeral Fog
............Funeral Fog

04   Freezing Moon ()

Everything here is so cold
Everything here is so dark
I remember it as from a dream
In the corner of this time

Diabolic shapes float by
Out from the dark
I remember it was here I died
By following the freezing moon

It's night again
Night you beautiful
I please my hunger
On living humans

Night of hunger
Follow it's call
Follow the freezing moon

[Guitar Solo]

Darkness is growing
The eternity opens
The cemetery lights up again
As in ancient times

Fallen souls die behind my steps
By following the freezing moon

05   Carnage ()

Witchcraft, blood and Satan
Meet the face of Death
Blood
Fire
Torture
Pain
KILL

Witchcraft, blood and Satan
Meet the face of Death
Blood
Fire
Torture
Pain

Winds of war, winds of hate
Armageddon, tales from Hell
The wage of mayhem, the wage of sin
Come and hear, Lucifer sings

Command for blood, command for war
Command for Satan, command for Hell
Command for blood, command for war
Command for Satan, command for Hell
Command for blood
Command for Satan
Command for you

06   Carnage ()

Witchcraft, blood and Satan
Meet the face of Death
Blood
Fire
Torture
Pain
KILL

Witchcraft, blood and Satan
Meet the face of Death
Blood
Fire
Torture
Pain

Winds of war, winds of hate
Armageddon, tales from Hell
The wage of mayhem, the wage of sin
Come and hear, Lucifer sings

Command for blood, command for war
Command for Satan, command for Hell
Command for blood, command for war
Command for Satan, command for Hell
Command for blood
Command for Satan
Command for you

07   Buried by Time and Dust ()

Visions of that no mornings
light ever will come. I'm to old now.
The dark is so near, will I ever reach the land beyond
This is where we go when we have to die.
I've been old since the birth of time.Time buried me in earth
centuries ago, I tasted blood.
Buried by time and dust.
Many years has pasted since the funeral.
Missing the blood of human throats
so many years, ages ago.
I must await, feel my bodies stench.
Wanderings out of space.
Wandering out of time.
A world out of light, death at the end.
Only silence can be heard, silence of peoples tears.
No one knows my grave.
Buried by time and dust.

08   Pagan Fears ()

The bloody history from the
past deceased humans now forgotten.
An age of legends and fear a time now
so discant.
Less numbered as they were their lives
so primitive and pagan
superstitions were a part of the life
so unprotected in the dark nights
Pagan fears.
The past is alive.
The past is alive.
Woeful people with pale faces
staring obsessed at the moon
some memories will never go away
ant they will forever be here.

09   Chainsaw Gutsfuck ()

Bleed down to the fucking core
You're going down for fucking more
Screw your slimy guts
Driving me fucking nuts!

Chainsaw in my bleeding hands
As I start to cut you in two
Your guts are steaming out
And I just love the sight!

Maggots crawling in her cunt
I just love to lick that shit
Bury you in a slimy grave
You will rot forever there!

10   Pure Fucking Armageddon ()

Violent torture,
Death has arrived,
Armageddon,
Terror and fright,
Bleeding corpses,
Rotting decay

Anarchy,
Violent torture,
Antichrist,
Lucifer,
Son of satan
Pure Fucking Armageddon

Pure Fucking Armageddon!

11   Freezing Moon ()

Everything here is so cold
Everything here is so dark
I remember it as from a dream
In the corner of this time

Diabolic shapes float by
Out from the dark
I remember it was here I died
By following the freezing moon

It's night again
Night you beautiful
I please my hunger
On living humans

Night of hunger
Follow it's call
Follow the freezing moon

[Guitar Solo]

Darkness is growing
The eternity opens
The cemetery lights up again
As in ancient times

Fallen souls die behind my steps
By following the freezing moon

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Other reviews

By Jam

 Come on Leipzig. Come on!!! Join us pure fucking Armageddon!!!

 Could an ordinary live album ever come out? NO, and this Live in Leipzig is proof of that.