Zeitz, Germany - November 24th, 1990:  Deathcrush, Necrolust, Funeral Fog, Freezing Moon, Carnage, Buried By Time & Dust, Chainsaw Gutsfuck, Pagan Fears.

Rehearsal - 1988:  Deathcrush, Necrolust, Freezing Moon, Chainsaw Gutsfuck, Pure Fucking Armageddon, unreleased track.

Mayhem were always very slow in doing anything.  It took the band almost two years after Dead and Hellhammer joined to play their first gig in front of an audience, and almost three for their first tour.  Part of the delay for their first tour was their plan to play only in the former communist countries of eastern Europe.  Not too much is known about the itinerary, but there are two aural documents.  The first is the Live In Leipzig disc released on Century Media documenting their November 26th gig, and the Live In Zeitz tape from two days previous. 

The tape was first released on vinyl in the early 90's and is very hard to find.  This new release on Cult of Evil Gods uses the vinyl as the tape is probably lost.  There is noticable pops, clicks and surface noise.  Even worse, there is very heavy handed mastering on the tape that produces distortion in quieter moments that sound like sci-fi blips and chirps.  It's very strange to hear.  The manufacturers also left gaps between the tracks like on the Immortal Waldrock tape.  Some places become more distorted like during "Freezing Moon" and the band were fighting against very unreliable equipment.  During "Funeral Fog" the mics squeal and Euronymous' guitar cuts out halfway leaving only the drums and bass.  

The sound on the tape is pretty good despite the defects, certainly better than the Sarpsborg.  The set list is similar with the newer tune "Pagan Fears" replacing "Pure Fucking Armageddon" (which was played at the Leipzig gig).  The band sound better rehearsed than other gigs giving an evil show.  We can only imagine what it must have been like at the show with the pig heads on spikes and bags of rotting meat giving the stench of death and decay.  They wanted to give the most extreme stage show possible.

The bonus tracks contain a recently unearthed rehearsal tape from 1988 and first pressed on Ha-Elm-Zalag.  It sounds like Mayhem playing in front of a cassette recorder and it's hard to hear much.  It is good to have another document of Mayhem with Dead on vocals, however, and even the rehearsal of "Freezing Moon" contains his "When it's cold and when it's dark the moon can obsess you" intro (spoken here like a Vincent Price intro!)  There are also no revelations on this tape except for the untitled track at the end.  This tune would be resurrected almost a decade later by Emperor as "Ye Entrance Emperium" on the Anthems To The Welkin At Dust release.  Live In Zeitz comes from eastern Europe and is limited to three hundred copies.