Mayhem – Dawn Of The Black Hearts

As much as I like what reek of death is doing this release is gross to say the least it’s the year 2023 if you think this depressing image is still cool or kvlt see a therapist Ohlins own brother hates it just buy live in sarpsborg at least money went to the band there

Reek Of Death put a lot of care into this release, packaging these records with a nice protective outer sleeve so the cover was not damaged during shipping. They also placed the inner sleeve in the outer sleeve to prevent it from breaking the spine, which was nice. Taking into consideration how bad the sound quality is on the recording itself, this record isn't too bad. There wasn't really any way Reek Of Death could've improved the sound quality. Also, I can't tell if this record was made using the audio from the original "Dawn Of The Black Hearts" or Peaceville's "improved" "Live in Sarpsborg". I own DOTBH on CD, and after listening to both versions, I'm calling bullshit on Peaceville's claim of their version having better sound quality. This album is more of a collector's piece than an album you would actually listen to. I don't see why anyone would purchase Peaceville's version of this album unless they want to respect Dead's brother by not buying one of these bootlegs.

Enough about my rant on Peaceville, let's talk about the thing that makes this album special; the cover.
The cover displays the infamous photograph of Dead's corpse after he shot himself in the forehead with Euronymous' shotgun. On this release, the image is pretty clear for the most part, especially since most other releases of this bootleg use a pixelated, upscaled image for the cover. The only downside is it seems to have been cropped slightly, cutting Dead's fingers out of the frame. This was most likely done to hide the original "Dawn Of The Black Hearts" text and replace it with a bigger font, since the original may have been too small to print clearly. None of the original unedited pictures of the cover have surfaced anywhere, so bootleggers must use the highest quality photos of this cover they can find. The back has a picture of Dead during his time with the band "Morbid", as well as a statement from Euronymous on Dead's suicide. The record itself comes in a high-quality picture disc sleeve, allowing the record to be displayed on a record wall. The red color of the record along with the black, white, and yellow splatter gives the illusion that the music is coming from the remains of Dead's body. The labels show different parts of Dead's corpse. Side A has a close-up of his head, and side B displays his sliced wrists.

It is important to keep in mind that any version of this album besides the original should not cost you more than $100. This album gets bootlegged almost every 1-2 years, and for having such shitty sound quality, you should only pay around $50 MAXIMUM. If you be patient, you should be able to buy a copy for around $25-$30 once a new version is pressed.