Step aside for a moment from the unrelenting hate towards Behemoth due to their recent “lackluster” attempts at death metal records. The problem with a band like Behemoth not pleasing a section of the metal community is that, even though the lyrics are consistently intriguing, the passion they put into their playing is faltered by possibly trying too hard to upstage their contemporaries in terms of aggressive and cohesive songwriting. But what you could never deny them was their intelligence ov constructing what were essentially history lessons, albeit skewed and slightly mythologized, in the form ov music, and even though some people dislike them for being pretentious, redundant, or overproduced, in the most convenient nutshell, Evangelion retorts those claims in a manner as cold and unforgiving as a fake orgasm.
To start off, Nergal does not overproduce the record, nor does he have eight layers ov vocals every inch ov the tracks. In fact his growl is as powerful and trained as it’s ever been, an obvious claim based on just hearing the behemoth(!) opener Daimonos. Another welcome change-up from monotony complaints is Inferno’s drumming. Rather than being straight double bass for the intro and blast beats for the rest of the songs like it seemed to be the whole last record, it’s more like it was on Thelema 6.66, that being controlled (Alas, The Lord Is Upon Me), varied enough (Ov Fire And The Void), but still ridiculously inhuman at parts. You could say his work on Evangelion has finally allowed him to fully live up to his name.
While all that’s good and tasty, the main element that has evolved to a mature form is Nergal’s songwriting, including the arrangements ov all three members’ parts. Every section ov Evangelion sounds thought-out while maintaining that “impulse” feel that makes music sound that much more natural flowing, probably most apparent in Transmigrating Beyond Realms Ov Amenti, a fun track starting out in a smooth 15/8 time. However, the most obvious difference with Evangelion is it’s variation in song structure, riffing patterns, and tempo variation. This is what makes this record such a pleasure to listen to multiple times because it really doesn’t blend together much at all.
I’m pleased to say that Behemoth has achieved a big feat here. Evangelion strides infinitely higher than their other releases due to its strong increase in quality within literally every characteristic. The band’s attempts at combining intelligent subject matter, the passion ov writing chaotic and cohesive music with a message, and worldwide influences musically and lyrically have finally been fully realized, so here’s hoping Behemoth can continue their stride in the future, but for now we can let those choir chants haunt our souls as they shout “Christians to the lions!”
