The word tribute, which derives from the Latin 'tribulum', is described in most English dictionaries as the 'wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance'. Well, we all know how huge the impact of the music of the extreme metal outfit Mayhem was, not only for their native Norwegian Black Metal scene, but for extreme metal music in general, and with that in mind, I believe that we all should agree that the use of the above word in describing the collection of eleven covers that comes under the name 'Originators Of Northern Darkness' is totally justifiable.

When it comes to tribute albums, I am probably one of the last people that you should expect to own such a release, even though there have been a few exceptions in the past such as the two 'Nativity In Black' records (Black Sabbath tribute), 'In The Name Of Satan' (Venom Tribute) and 'Working Man' (Rush tribute). The reason why I chose to invest in the above three tribute releases was because they all managed to meet with two very important criteria: they featured the contributing performances of some of the most important bands/artists of the genres that each represented and also because some of these covers moved in a musical direction much different from the one of the originals.

Well, the decision to name 'Originators Of Northern Darkness' as the newest 'member' of this small 'family' was much easier to make that I originally expected – let me explain why.

If I was to name the main reason that convinced me on getting my hands on this album, that would have to be that it features the participation of some of the biggest names of the extreme metal scene such as Immortal, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Absu and Behemoth. The only 'problem' that I can think of that is associated with the release of 'Originators Of Northern Darkness' lies in the choice of compositions.

It seems like all contributing artists decided to cover songs from the band's first 'classic' era, and especially the 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas', which was covered in it's entirety, leaving aside the band's more 'experimental' material from 'The Grand Declaration Of War' – a decision that has not met with my approval. Why is it that nobody understands the beauty that lies behind the band's more 'experimental' compositions such as those that can be found in 'Grand Declaration Of War'?

Even so, I found 'Originators Of Northern Darkness' to be a very interesting collection mainly due to the different interpretation that each contributing artist ended up giving in the term 'cover'. What I mean is that half of the featured covers ended up sounding quite close to the originals, especially Immortal's cover of 'From The Dark Past' and Emperor's 'Funeral Fog', even though Ihsahn's vocals and the accompanying keyboard melodies were more than fitting to this classic composition. I am afraid that I cannot say the same about Vader's cover of 'Freezing Moon', though.

Much as I respect the band's brave decision to work on this Black Metal hymn on a whole different basis and understand the difficulty that lies behind such a task, the straight-forward approach that the Polish Deathsters chose to use was erroneous, having failed to recreate an atmosphere that would manage to compete with that of the original opus in the process. Behemoth and Carpathian Forest, on the other hand, did a far better job in comparison, having managed to transform 'Carnage' and 'Ghoul' to such an extent that they ended up sounding like their own compositions – definitely the best two covers of the album.

As far as disappointing moments are concerned, these would have to be Gorgoroth's cover of 'Life Eternal' and Gehenna's 'Cursed In Eternity' – the former lacking clarity and coherence whereas the latter featuring one of the worst drum sounds that I have heard from a Black Metal band in years.

I believe that an album such as 'Originators Of Northern Darkness' should be treated more like a labor of respect and love on behalf of its contributing bands towards the music of Mayhem rather than any average release and that is the reason why I chose not provide it with a rating. Apart from the twelve covers, this reissue contains an eighteen page booklet featuring a great number of classic Mayhem photos and also some really interesting liner notes – all of which should provide you with enough of a motivation to add this release in your CD collection.

Review by John Stefanis