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Behemoth > Demonica > Reviews
Behemoth - Demonica

Behemoth - Demonica - 98%

forestspirit, October 24th, 2011

Before I begin I’d like to say that this album doesn’t actually contain new Behemoth material. It is a limited edition 2CD box-set, compilation consisting of old demos, covers and some previously unreleased tracks from Behemoth’s early days as a black metal band. These songs, like many of their demos, have been influenced by the bands from second wave of Norwegian black metal, notably Mayhem, Hellhammer and Darkthrone.

The result is 2CDs worth of wonderfully haunting, atmospheric black metal reminiscent to that of early Emperor. Also present in the mix is a handful of fast-paced re-recorded tracks such as ‘Transylvanian Forest’ which are bound to attract the attention of fans of Marduk or Ragnarok; along with covers of Hellhammer’s ‘Aggressor’ and Mayhem’s ‘Deathcrush’.

The highlights include: the instrumental ‘Goat with a Thousand Young’, the relentless ‘Marduk-esque’ pummeling of ‘Transylvanian Forest’ , the eerily atmospheric ‘From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne’ and the melodic ‘Thy Winter Kingdom’. The two cover tracks reveal the lengths to which the band was prepared to go to sound like their idols. So whilst their version of ‘Deathcrush’ may have persuaded me to see Mayhem in a different light, the cover of ‘Aggressor’ has done little to make me consider listening to Hellhammer.

Originally written for Valkyrian Music: http://valkyrianmusic.com/

Old School Behemoth at its Best - 80%

absurder21, June 14th, 2009

Black metal Behemoth. Fuck. Yeah. Suffice to say their blackened death stuff isn’t horrible, but their gold will always be in the creepy, atmospheric, raw black metal that they do rather well. This album is an amalgamation of all their demos and some unreleased tracks, and I got to say it is rather impressive. It’s got an intensely dark atmosphere helped by the eerie fillers, horror-movie esque-riffs and the tortured vocals of Nergal.

One of the great factors of this album, I found, is where the band found the right niche for production. It isn’t clean, like Dimmu Borgir, so you don’t lose any atmosphere, yet it is clean enough that you can actually hear the instruments individually. As I mentioned before, there is a sort of empty, hollow atmosphere to this added by the creepy fillers/samples, these usually being in the vein of a dark synth with satanic chant or a wolf howling at the moon etc, which gives an all round amazingly evil vibe. The covers of Aggressor and Deathcrush are pretty good too. Hellhammer and Mayhem obviously do it better, but this is quite solid, and surprisingly enough they don’t kill the atmosphere despite being fairly “fun” black metal songs.

The axe work on here is actually fairly diverse for black metal. Your average song is your blistering fast riffs, but there are also a lot of dark, mellow slower riffs which are cool. A lot of the riffs retain melody to, but not in a weak way like Dimmu Borgir or later Lord Belial. You also have the odd acoustic guitar included to add an interesting kind of medieval feel to it, like in the song “From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne”, which can also be noted for using some cool, dark synths. The guitar work isn’t really that technical to be honest, but there is the odd melodic solo and fills which are satisfactory. This all together fits in with the dynamic drum work, which is not your standard double-bass barrage, in fact it is barely ever like that, even during the fast songs. The drumming is usually fairly diverse incorporating the entire drum set most of the time, yet even when the drumming is slow, you can still head bang to it! The sound on it is also quite perfect. It’s bassy, yet not so much that it drowns out anything else, but so much that it comes off as powerful.

Nergal actually displays a fairly diverse range when it comes to black metal vocals; he is almost a mime to every style. In some songs he is able to do the talking-style of bands like Mayhem, the high pitched, incoherent screech like Emperor, the average black metal vocals and then his unique, deep growl on the blackened death song "Transylvanian Forest". His voice always fits the atmosphere to each song, as some songs are more relevant to a more tortured voice or maybe angry vox. The lyrics generally cover topics such as Satan, death, suicide and winter, typical black metal from Scandinavia, so nothing remarkable there.

I must say, for a demo album, Demonica is listenable in every sense, instead of just being a history lesson about the band. You do get some repetition because some songs are fused into others, but this is rare. If you are a fan of black metal, especially Behemoths’ early work, check this out now. If you are missing some of their black metal work, here is one last fix.

Black Metal Behemoth>Death Metal Behemoth - 95%

Sinisterror, April 11th, 2007

So I was browsing through an FYE and not finding a whole lot. Then I saw this thing sticking out of a Behemoth rack and picked it up. At first glance I thought it was a DVD but after reading the sticker and the back I knew it was music. Not only that but it was a bunch of unreleased tracks and Demos from Behemoth's black metal days. I also saw that it had covers of Hellhammer's Aggressor and Mayhem's Deathcrush! Then I saw the limited to 10000 copies sticker and was sold.

It begins with the "Return of the Northern Moon" demo. As a black metal fan I was thoroughly impressed by this demos production. Somehow Behemoth found the perfected midground between good production and raw production. Unlike a lot of black metal releases you can distinctly cut apart the guitars, from the vocals and the drums. But it's still surprisingly raw and has none of that clean shit that wanna black metal bands like Dimmu Burger have. Return of the Northern Moon is good, it has an old school black metal feel, somewhere along the lines of Darkthrone and Beherit. The Aggressor (Hellhammer) cover is interesting. You know it's a nice contrast when you move into that punchy groove that Hellhammer has and it still maintains a black metal feel with the vocalist doing his best Tom G Warrior impersonation. Cursed Angel of Doom is a very strong track and one of m favorites. Do yourself a favor and skip the rerecording of Transylvanian Forest though. It was recorded during the Demigod session so it has their new Death metal feel to it... You know with the vocalists hyper mechanical vocals that make Arch Enemy's recent releases sound like the rawest most brutal thing ever.

Disc Two holds the "From the Pagan Vastlands" demo on it and I can only say one thing about this piece of black metal... "God... Damn..." The first song, "From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne" starts off with an eastern acoustic guitar and then kicks in with a tremeloing black metal guitar riff all accompanied by an Emperoresque synth playing through the background. The awesomeness doesn't stop there, Behemoth seem intent on kicking you teeth out with the rest of this demo. "Return of the Northern Moon" was good but "From the Pagan Vastlands" is where Behemoth throw so many other black metal bands into the gutter. My favorite tracks are probably: "From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne" and "The Dance of the Pagan flames". The Deathcrush cover is good, too. I just thought I'd mention that.

This CD is for fans of bands like Emperor, Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Hellhammer. Probably not for fans of Dimmun Burger or Behemoth's Demigod taping. Unless of course those fans also happen to be fans of the aforementioned black metal bands.

On a side note: This set also comes with a 44 page booklet which includes all song lyrics, and some writing from th band along with some interesting photos and artwork.