Review Summary: A new, invigorated Behemoth.
It’s safe to say that there’s a certain image conjured when people bring up the name “Behemoth”. People envision a gathering of men cloaked in mist performing ultra-fire blast beats, flurries of riffs and snarled vocals to emerge from the wake. They, of course, are correct. This can hardly be contested even off Behemoth’s most experimental (omitting Grom), well composed album to date- “The Satanist”. However, what distinguishes this album from the rest of Behemoth’s discography is a newfound spark of creative energy which leads to the creation of an incredibly grand and cathartic album.
A sense of complacency had started to set within the band, and that complacency has been completely abolished here. Between the famously thundering blast beats of Inferno and absolutely savage guitar riffs from Seth and Darski are flourishes of horns and sax. This is most notable off the opening track “Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel” and “In the Absence of Light”, the latter of which becomes jazz-like and emotionally impassioned after a bombardment of blast beats and powerful riffs. There is also melody subtly introduced throughout the album, especially with the classic rock-tinged solo at the end of “Messe Noire”. These flourishes of creativity are only made more astounding when you consider that they hardly take away from the fact that what you’re listening to is a tried and true Behemoth record. Songs like “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” are just a pure barrage of drum fills, guitar riffs and anthemic rasps that will have you sacrificing your neighbor's goats to the dark lord. The blasphemous sound that Behemoth does so well has hardly left, but instead been reintroduced in a much more powerful and well thought out way.
What’s interesting is this album doesn’t strictly condone Satanism, in spite of its title. It more so is a collection of stories involving the Christian and Satanic religions, alongside loads of philosophical questioning. A good example is the spoken word interlude off of “In the Absence of Light”-
“Give me a human.
Let him be just like me, just like me…
Dull, unripe, unfinished, not dark, and not bright.
So that I may with him dance, play with him,
with him fight, in front of him pretend,
give him thanks, and him, rape...
fall in love with him, through him recreate myself,
grow through him, and sprouting this way,
wed myself, in the church ov man”
Behemoth has more conviction in its message then ever here. This could be due to Nergal's brisk meeting with death, which causes him to perhaps see things in a grander view, which is the sense one gets off this record. While Nergal has always hard rather complex views regarding religion and humanity, he never seemed quite so blunt getting across those complex views as he has here. Sonically and lyrically this all culminates on the ending track “O Father O Satan O Sun”. The drumming here pulsates energy as well as the riffs and subtle melodious guitar solos, which are topped with the most convincing vocals from Nergal yet. The sheer grandness of this song especially is astounding, and it feels like every song before hand was a stepping stone to this track, making this track especially cathartic and contender for one of the greatest endings off any black metal record. Behemoth are still Behemoth, rooted strictly in their pulverizing brand of Blackened Death metal. It’s just here everything feels more diverse, rife with grandiose, hell, even more meaningful. Best of black metal? Maybe. Best of Behemoth? Indisputable.
