Esoteric Warfare is the fifth full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. It was released by Season of Mist on 6 June 2014 in Europe and Asia, and on 10 June 2014 in North America. It is the band's first album with Teloch on guitar since Blasphemer's departure from the band in 2008. Background The album was initially announced in a 2012 interview with the bass guitarist Necrobutcher with Blabbermouth.net. On 2 August 2013, the drummer Hellhammer announced on Mayhem's official Facebook page that he was then recording his drum parts for the album. Mayhem announced in November 2013 that the album had entered the mixing process and that they expected to release it in early 2014. On 18 February 2014, it was announced that a teaser 7" single containing the track "Psywar" would be released on 25 April 2014. On 19 February 2014, Mayhem's record label, Season of Mist, announced that the new album's title would be Esoteric Warfare and its release date was to be 6 June 2014. On 19 March 2014, Blabbermouth.net unveiled the album's official track listing along with other details. Writing and recording The album was recorded and mixed between September and October in 2013. While the drums were recorded in Mølla Studio, the rest of the album was recorded in SleikBallaMi in Oslo. After recording was finished, the band returned to Mølla Studio where mixing was handled by Knut Møllarn from Arcturus. The album was mastered by Maor Applebaum in the US. Much of the album was written by new guitarist Teloch, while the lyrics were handled by vocalist Attila and Cern Abyss. He said that "my problem with this album was to write an album that would be fitting to release after 'Ordo ad Chao.' First, I wrote almost a whole album, but it was too much back to the roots, and try to top 'Ordo' for me as a songwriter was not a option either--that would be suicide for me as songwriter for them." The band actually recorded many of the aforementioned songs, but they were scrapped as Teloch was ultimately not satisfied with them, and the band started over. According to Attila, the band wanted to make an album that "sounded like Mayhem." He said that "After the Ordo album, which was a little bit progressive—maybe a little bit too much—almost like a fusion album where riffs were not