Reviews > Behemoth
Behemoth’s Perfected Vision Ov Blasphemy
By Justin Dettle
Saturday, August 22, 2009
For those who don’t already know, Behemoth is (technically) a Blackened Death Metal band from Poland. This month brings us worldwide releases of their 9th full-length album, entitled Evangelion.
Behemoth has long been one of the most extreme Death Metal bands in the world… and it’s clear that they intend to stay the course. While the band has never wanted to confine themselves to one specific branch of extreme metal, the formula has almost always been a cross between the brutal side of Death Metal and the blurry, menacing atmosphere of the finest Northern European Black Metal. Evangelion does not deviate from that legacy.
As a longtime fan of the band, I can confidently say that for me, this is the band’s greatest achievement. The songwriting is easily on par with albums such as Thelema.6 and Zos Kia Kultus, but effortlessly blended with the band’s last two efforts’ speed, power and density. Personally I enjoyed 2004’s Demigod and 2007’s The Apostasy. But I still feel that both albums sounded unfocused, and at times, overproduced. I think many Behemoth fans would agree. Evangelion sounds much like a cross between the epic moments of the last album, and the very natural yet relentless sound of Zos Kia Kultus: Here And Beyond.
As far as brutality goes, the tremolo-picked and bomb-blast laden tracks are just as cacophonous and nasty as anything off of Demigod. Yet, the band’s vision for this record is nearly as diverse as The Apostasy. All around, this is the quintessential Behemoth. A honed and perfected version of the dense, blackened blasphemy we all know and love… Broken english and all.
There’s no shortage of blasphemy coinciding with the release, either. The original cut of the music video for the single Ov Fire And The Void got banned from YouTube within one day. Probably due to the demonic themes throughout, such as the band pulling apart and feasting on a fully nude angel. Check it out:
In case it wasn’t obvious, if you work in the type of establishment that frowns upon eating the flesh of nude angels, then this video may be unsuitable for viewing during business hours.
All 9 tracks are great, and in my opinion, this is the best Behemoth album to listen straight through. If you had ever thought that this wasn’t an “album band…”
Think again.
- Disc 1
- 01. Daimonos
- 02. Shemhamforash
- 03. Ov Fire And The Void
- 04. Transmigrating Beyond Realms Ov Amenti
- 05. He Who Breeds Pestilence
- 06. Seed Ov I
- 07. Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
- 08. Defiling Morality Ov Black God
- 09. Lucifer
- Disc 2
- 01. Bonus Material [DVD][*]
that video is some metal ass shit.
yeah, it’s pretty damn intense.
I really wish I had those five minutes back.
haha… well when we cover death metal, we make sure to make it nice and obvious so you know what you’re getting into. sorry ’bout that, but we did display the corpsepaint & leather clad billboard.
This is what Poland is getting known for in United States, a death metal band. That’s great… Shit, I doubt they can even play concerts here, in Poland, after that Bible-tearing shit. Anyway I still prefer Eagles of Death Metal.
You should’ve simply said “I don’t prefer Death Metal”… Since Eagles of Death Metal are a rock band.
For future reference, everything I’m going to review here is going to be extreme metal. Every review. Not “somewhat metal”… or “melodic death metal” like Amon Amarth(not knocking them)… It’s all gonna be the extreme shit.
I’m not just a fan, I play this music… and I consider it a privilege to be giving people decent information about new releases without them having to scour extreme metal forums and archives for 20 different people’s versions of the same long-winded reviews written in “metal nerd speak”. I’ll never bombard you with obscure bands like an elitist and I don’t review bands that I don’t have much knowledge of (for instance, ive only heard two Suffocation albums enough times to know them well… so i did not cover their recent release). Personally I think that is one of the more helpful ways to present information about the extreme metal genres to an audience that isn’t accustomed to them.
Who knows, maybe you’ll enjoy something I review sometime. :]
As for the bible tearing… I neither endorse nor repudiate actions like these. It comes with the territory.
Entirely too hungry after watching that video. Great murderin’ jams.
1. I swear I posted a comment already
2. I appreciate metal getting covered, this is a little too cartoonish for me to care much for it, but I’m interested in seeing what else gets posted
of course they can play concerts back in Poland, there is whole tour around Poland. Vader is also from Poland and also fuckin’ great
There are major tours in Poland, I saw Vader/Marduk show (speaking of blasphemy!!!) last weekend. There are more metal shows in Poland then there are in US actually,I mean METAL, Eagles of death metal is not metal, neither are all these metalcore/mallcore bands, you have Death Angel, Testament, WASP,Overkill, Motorhead, Exodus, etc.
fuck you polish dude who likes eagles of death metal behemoth and vesania kick ass
BEHEMOTH = Panzer Division of metal… as for religion… anything that started with Old Testament is form of Satanism…
It is possible to see Behemoth with naked eye now, just look up during cloudless night and enjoy and yes…. it is huge…
Awesome!!!!!!!!
Hell on earth Euro chicks are so much better looking then American girls. Went to Italy and every other girl looked like a model. Love that song. Never really looked into Behemoth but after that video Im deff going to
long live behemoth!