...from the Pagan Vastlands

There are two things one must know about Behemoth. Firstly, their best phase began very early on. Secondly, their best phase ended very early too. Thank Lucifer, the demo “...from the Pagan Vastlands” is among the oldest releases of the band. With the first tones of the opener – blowing winds welcome the listener – the release reveals a very high degree of atmosphere. “From the Hornedland to Lindisfarne” scores with a haunting, enchanted mood, fragile acoustic guitar tones that duel with sinister e-guitar lines and croaking vocals. Moreover, well integrated keyboard carpets show up and the drums are hammering somewhere in the distance. It goes without saying that one cannot expect a professional recording, but the crucial thing is that “...from the Pagan Vastlands” has definitely a lot of raw underground charm. The mix is like the artwork, both can rely on a simple yet adequate recipe.

Compared with the opener, “Thy Winter Kingdom” offers an almost smooth flow. Already in winter 1993/1994, Behemoth were able to manage more than just one approach. Nothing on this demo sounds formulaic or predictable. Behemoth followed their then black hearts and this way of proceeding resulted in archaic, authentic and spiritual tracks. The dudes did not shy away from a proper number of melodies – nevertheless, “misanthropy” is written in big letters over each and every track. Maybe it is correct to say that the excellence of this demo is based on the rare mixture of a surprisingly early achieved musical maturity and absolutely non-commercial individualism. Okay, Behemoth did not grow up in a vacuum and therefore their mid-paced tracks breathe the spirit of bands like Graveland. Anyway, the dudes are able to bring their personality into the compositions which are expressive, charismatic and equipped with an atmospheric density which turns out to be a big plus.

What does not really work here? Well, nothing sucks, only minor details are irritating. The Mayhem cover comes after the “outro winds” of “Fields of Harr-Megiddo”, which actually close the circle. And speaking of this song, its solos are slightly confusing for the listener, because they are more or less airy, light and almost emotional. Yet if I ignore them, the further parts of the track are on a par with the remaining material – songs that are full of suspenseful moments and in which the almost 35 minutes pass by quickly, although the single pieces themselves often only move at a medium speed. However, especially the strong “Blackvisions of the Almighty” illustrates that the musicians did not suffer from an allergy against speed.

The story of Behemoth (Nergal) is a story of musical evolution, to say it positively. From my point of view, it is a story of fickleness. Today the words “Black Metal is not a trend (inverted cross) it’s a cult!”, printed on the digipak, seem like mockery. Drive through Poland and if you see a guy pissing with the wind, it will probably be Nergal. But if one takes “...from the Pagan Vastlands” alone, and I guess this is meaning and purpose of this review, it is definitely a great document of this thing we call true black metal and an auspicious harbinger of Behemoth’s masterpiece from 1996, “Grom”.

Behemoth, a metal band from Poland. A band that one either seems to love, or hate. A band that started out as a raw black metal band, and changed from that to a blackened death metal band. Whatever one might think of this band now, one cannot deny the magnitude and greatness of this demo, "...From The Pagan Vastlands." It is truly a black metal monument!

First, I want to address the production of this demo. It is raw, yes, RAW. But the listener can clearly hear whatever is going on. The first Behemoth demo, "Eternal Damnation," sucks. A lot. The production was raw, but the atmosphere was awful. It was like Mayhem's "Pure Fucking Armageddon" or Burzum's old demos in terms of production. Raw as hell, but could not justify the instruments and sounded like one big ass mess. On their second demo, "The Return of the Northern Moon," they were still using bad production. However, here, the instruments were much more professional and there was a great atmosphere of grim bleakness. Now, on THIS demo, "...From The Pagan Vastlands," Behemoth creates a much better atmosphere, and a less raw, but still kvlt as fuck, production. Nothing on here, at all, is too high or too low in the mix. The guitars are out front, and amazing. The drums are audible, as is the bass to the point where it should be. Nergal's vocals are full of hate, definitely different than the death growls he does now, which are still good! But come on, he was at his best in Behemoth's black metal days.

The riffs on here are... Amazing. The first track, "From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne" features some acoustic strumming along with the raw electric riffs. There are also some keyboards in there, too, but they do not take over at all. This sort of reminds me of "In a Glare of Burning Churches" era Graveland. The next track, "Thy Winter Kingdom," has to be the gem on the demo. There is a catchy as fuck riff here, which kicks off right away in the intro, and picks up after a short break. All of these tracks contain absolutely amazing riffing. "The Dance of the Pagan Flames" has some very raw and catchy tremolo riffs, and that keyboard at about a half a minute in made me think so much of Graveland. Interesting enough, Behemoth and Graveland supported eachother very early in their careers. This album closes with an amazing cover of Mayhem's classic "Deathcrush." I find that I like this version a lot more than the version on Mayhem's "Deathcrush EP." Why? It is a little clearer, and Nergal is a far superior vocalist to Maniac.

The drumming on this album, is ferocious. BUT not to a point where every drumbeat is a black metal blastbeat. There are some very thrashy moments with the drums. Anyway, this is an amazing demo. Infact, it is one of the greatest releases from Behemoth. This, and their 1994 EP "And the Forests Dream Eternally" and 1996 album "Grom" are the best from this band's black metal days, but as said before, this demo is probably their best recording ever. It is just that damned good. Any black metal fan WILL eat this up, no question.

Now we’re talking demo quality – this album I’d say is good enough to be its own full-length. It has character, pride, energy, and a folk vibe that I feel they were wrong to lose. While the last demo ensured a sound they could stick by, this demo really got the band comfortable with their abilities.

Nergal himself has improved the most – from Bolt Thrower-inspired death growls to Immortal-inspired growls to more natural sounding screams that aren’t mutilated, but very suitable and tortured. I get this sort of Burzum itch from them, but they aren’t as out-of-control or annoying as Varg’s. He screams at more suitable times than before, which is something we’ve expected from the beginning but quite the change when you’re tracing Behemoth from the bottom up like me with these reviews.

With tame vocals we are introduced to more tame riffs that create a rhythm and attempt to be melodic, atmospheric, and evil. There you go Behemoth, your baby steps are coming to an end. Soon you’ll be walking on your own like a real boy! The usual speed of the songs are mid-paced and sometimes slightly fast, with the riffs themselves being a tremolo or either some kind of… melodic death? Sure, why not? They’re slightly thrashy, too, like the drumming, and actually remind me of Eternal Tears Of Sorrow and their early thrash days. Bass is a little harder to trace, so I won’t go much further except telling you that its there – it exists, but its incredibly hard to hear over the drums, which again sound louder than the rest (though this time not by much). You sometimes get to hear it louder than the rest like on “Fields Of Haar-Meggido” – I don’t get it, they’re as loud as Bob Daisley’s bass lines in that song!

In the drum department, its like a tale of rags to riches. Endless Damnation saw drumming so poor that you could put me on the kit, record it, and not hear any difference – and I don’t even know how to play drums properly! The double bass isn’t as thick, and thankfully we aren’t bombarded by blast beats like on the later records. Instead, the drumming is more thrash influenced, which is neat since the toms sound organic and juicy as tomatoes while the cymbals aren’t annoying as before. The style of playing isn’t too impulsive, but it doesn’t necessarily follow the rhythm like the rest. It’s a fresh mix-up of catchy beating and contradicting timing that you just need to hear to enjoy.

While the songs themselves are an even bigger improvement than before, I still have a hard time remember which is which and what they even sounded like. For another demo the production is even better than their debut full-length, which is a shame – honestly, beaten by your own demo on production. Songwriting skills have improved vastly and would continue to progress and evolve, so things are looking up quite fast.

I have always thought Behemoth is and was a poor death metal band that calls itself black metal, even now more than ever because of the current releases which shame black metal so much it makes you want to kill and mame! This album however, calms me. Everything has this distant feeling right from the haunting start, there is good use of acoustic on first track, really adds to the music. As the title suggests, this is a demo that is From The Pagan Vastlands!Behemoth really does some good original music on this album. None of the music on here has any influence or characteristics of being death metal, it was, believe it or not... Pure black metal of the darkest and also bleakest sort conjured up by a Polish band besides the great and well known Graveland! Not only was the music original and full of suprise, the production was good too which is very hard to believe when you first look at the cd, it has this ancient look to it that just calls to you. Id just like to say, thank you Behemoth for giving the black metal fans a really good album, but id also just like to say, what happened? Nergal had a good thing going with this demo and the first Behemoth full lengths, so why did he change paths???

I don't know a lot about Behemoth, I only have this album and a few mp3's from their new stuff. I can see they have changed a lot, but I really don't care. Now, let's get to this album.
The first song; "From The Hornedland To Lindisfarne" begins with a few classical guitar chords, while the rest of the music begins to show up, in an "in crescendo" way, this is a great idea, and it was executed with a lot of class, I must say. We can also find a few keyboard passages here and there, but they are not exactly memorable. The song itself is very "second wave of black metal", a little bit slower than your average black metal tune.
For the second song, "Thy Winter Kingdom", we have more "second wave of black metal", with a very interesting and nicely played guitar harmony around 2:41. It could be a little bit more dynamic, but there's nothing wrong with it per se.
The third song is solid, nothing wrong with it, but it's not fantastic either...the rest of the songs are pretty much the same, everything is solid, but not outstanding. Vocals are very functional, they won't annoy the listener, most riffs are actually very nice. Über-br00tal blast beats are nowhere to be found (that can't be bad). A few more keyboards here and there, a Mayhem cover ("Deathcrush"), and that's how the album ends.
Overall, this album is worth owning, or at least downloading/copying from someone, it could be more dynamic, but considering what Behemoth are doing now, you just can't complain too much about this album; and you'll find yourself cranking it at least once a week.