Classic Concert of the Day: Mayhem at The Rainbow Club, Milan, Italy, 1998

You’re all cooped up. We’re all cooped up. Everyone’s friggin’ cooped up! You’re scrolling through our social feeds, texting with friends, eating, drinking coffee, watching TV, scrolling through our social feeds again, eating again, playing that dumb mobile game you downloaded from an Instagram ad and can’t stop playing, eating again, chatting with friends on a Zoom call, scrolling through our social feeds again, all while worrying about where your next paycheck is gonna come from. These are tough times, people.

To help pass the time, we’ll be sharing a classic metal concert every day (and by “every day,” we mean “as it occurs to us”). Watch some of it, watch all of it, watch only one song… we don’t care! As it long as it provides you with a bit of entertainment.

For awhile, at least, this column is gonna concentrate primarily on tours and festivals that have either postponed or cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. To that end, today we’re focusing on Mayhem, who were headlining run on this year’s Decibel Magazine Tour would be winding down this week… had it not been called off last month.

So: on November 2, 1998, Mayhem played a gig at The Rainbow Club in Milan, Italy. That show was recorded and released the following year, as both a CD and a VHS tape, under the title Mediolanum Capta Est (Latin for Deathcrush, the title of the band’s 1987 EP). The below video syncs up the footage from the VHS tape with the audio from the CD, resulting in what is likely the best possible document of this show currently available.

In addition to Mayhem staples Necrobutcher (bass) and Hellhammer (drums), this iteration of the band included Maniac (vocals) and Blasphemer (guitar).