The Satanist

Considered by many as the magnum opus of the polish blackened death powerhouse Behemoth, The Satanist is one of the most widespread blackened death metal - or anything closely related to black metal for that matter - albums out there. It’s quite easy to see why this album has enjoyed such popularity even among non-metalheads. Behemoth have toned down their technicality, upped their production values and added orchestral elements that give the album quite a grand sound. Hell, there’s even some very obvious rock influence in some of these tracks; something Behemoth have never showcased on their earlier works.

A more seasoned metal listener will quickly notice that the band has kept things quite simple when it comes to the band instrumentation. No technical riffing, fancy drumming or crazy bass solos to be seen on this album. Instead Behemoth has opted for a more simplistic and groovy approach, letting the arrangements such as trumpets, saxophones and all sorts of ambient noises bring depth to the music. This is a big change of direction from Behemoth’s previous album, Evangelion, where arrangements like these were kept to a minimum and the depth and intensity of the music came straight from the band itself as they played at a much higher technical level than on this album. There are however still tracks here that possess that old Behemoth sound and energy, such as Furor Divinus and Amen.

As the band has made way for the aforementioned arrangements, the lack of hooks becomes apparent. All of these songs are quite calculated and honestly not very complicated. It seems like Behemoth has prioritised live playability during the writing of this album, trading blistering speed and technicality for more a straightforward and atmospheric approach. This does reduce the musical depth of the album, even with all the extra arrangements, and that unfortunately leads to a reduced listening lifespan; this album sounds great during the first few listens, but loses most of its substance quite quickly.

Nergal’s vocals are as great as ever with a slightly more expressive tone this time. Lyrically the album doesn’t differ much from the band’s previous material. The message is the same it has always been with Behemoth and with very clearly expressed lyrics such as “I saw the virgins cunt spawning forth a snake” and “I believe in Satan, who rend both heavens and earth, and in the Antichrist”, you may want to come up with something else as background music for family dinner.

When it comes to the band’s performance, there isn’t really that much to say. Most of the riffing on this album is pretty basic black/blackened death metal stuff that won’t raise any eyebrows. There are however some noteworthy solos on songs like Messe Noire and O Father O Satan O Sun! with clear as day rock influence. Not something you’d expect to hear in a blackened death metal album but they do fit in quite nicely. Inferno’s drumming is solid as always, though nowhere near as complex as on Behemoth’s previous records. The album has been mixed well with all instruments being easily audible (Yes, that includes the bass) even during all the arrangements. Production-wise The Satanist is a very clean and polished sounding album. No disgustingly filthy slabs of gritty polish black metal brutality to be found here, only crystal clear, neatly packed and easily digestible blackened death metal anthems for the whole family! Well…maybe not quite but you get the point; this is a very “easy” album to listen to and surely a gateway album into extreme metal for many.

Whether or not you appreciate the trade-off of technicality for atmosphere, it has to be admitted that this album is a very well-crafted piece of extreme music. There are no songs that stick out because of their shortcomings. Though it has to be said that not every single song on this record brings something new to the table either. Behemoth has played it safe for the most part but the end result is – while not necessarily very exciting for more experienced metalheads – a well rounded blackened death LP with catchy songs, great atmosphere and a very clean – some might even say sterile – production.

Being the first time reviewing Behemoth, I felt that it was necessary though they've already gotten so many reviews already of this one. So this album/band has been around for a while, but are to me being a newbie to them. And their music. I think that their style is pretty unique and cool. The guitars neatly orchestrated and played out. There weren't any songs on here that I disliked. It just took me a while to get into this one. Even though it's gotten some spins, more in this case is better. You get a better feel to what they're like as well. The band themselves are well established in the metal community.

The main thing that I took a liking to were the guitars. Definitely heavy but melodic. They pave out their own music unique qualities to them. I felt that they did well in that respect. Nergal their frontman know how to put out great music. A lot that's on here is their own style and vibe. It's dark, but still worthy of praise. Since I'm not familiar with their newer or older releases, I cannot really compare them to any of those. But they have me hooked. I'm in for the long haul with this band as long as they continue to put out quality material. And with this one, they did the band some justice. A great effort here!

I thought the atmosphere and sound quality was top notch. The vocals went well with the music. They definitely are a very dark band, And this one is an example of it. There are some blast beating on here though not to a very common occurrence. A lot of the tempos are rather slow (not all) but still well pieced together. I enjoyed this album from start to finish. I don't think any song on here isn't unique. They all did a good job at orchestrating original music along with the vibe that they portray. Nergal gives us some great musicianship and way in their genres to look for in a band.

I bought this CD because I'm a CD collector. And this band being so well reviewed, that I'd give it a try. I'm actually planning on getting more of their releases in their discography. This one was a good start though the album tittle is so grim 'The Satanist'. I'm sure that they don't want you to take it to heard, but just the fact that they are a definitely dark band who takes their music seriously in getting it to sound like the darkest pits of hell. You could probably find this one online and if you're new to the band, expect diversity in style. They really know how to get their sound out here and music awesomely played! Check this one out!

Behemoth get a lot of praise, but I find this to be a highly dull, over-cooked work without any soul. Every second of this thing is full of blasting riffs, technical and relentless drumming and shout-growl vocals that are at the forefront of all of it like a mainstream rock album, despite the album’s obviously “cult” type of aesthetic – it really is a quite clear, accessible production for this type of music.

Every second is just full of noise and it gets tiresome after a while. They can get a good mechanical groove going, but that’s basically all they do on here and it gets monotonous. There’s never any moments where the music gets to really breathe, no riffs I could describe as particularly hooky or even compelling in a broad sense. The mood is “evil” in the sense that the band wants you to be impressed with how much they like Satan and also how much time they spent at the library, but it’s a calculated, forced evil, focus grouped based on tropes dating back generations. I mean it’s not the 80s where pearl-clutching church groups are your enemy anymore; we all “get it” by now. It’s technical ‘wow, check that part out’ music for people into that, but you can find stuff that’s more extreme, more technical or both if you spend a few minutes on the internet really, so this doesn’t end up being tremendously exceptional in our current age.

All of it is very clean, very precise. It lacks the kind of spontaneity and savagery that I’d like from rebellious kinds of music. Personally I find the ideas here banal and conservative, but I can't bash this solely based on my own personal taste without taking into account what it is. The songs are well-constructed and I don’t get the idea that the band made any mistake with what they did here. I’m sure if I had the will, I could go through all of this and pick out various instrumental moments of proficiency, some intriguing stylistic touches, and all of that; but really this whole thing is like a math test – it strikes with a purpose, but man, am I bored and would rather go home and do anything else.

Behemoth's "The Satanist" may as well be considered their so-far masterpiece. Crytics all over the world have praised the album for being original, inspired and definitely excellent; personally, I totally agree: The Satanist is the best blackend death metal record of the decade. It even went gold in Poland. That's saying something. Now, off to review.

Nergal decided to abandon the multi-layered vocals typical of Behemoth's previous albums (think to "The Apostasy") in favour of a more natural approach, and the result is his best vocal performance, hands down. His screams and growls sound demonic although not sounding too artificially elaborated. Then, the bass sound. Orion is finally clearly audible in the mix: the bass shines in every song of the album, and is not overwhelmed by the guitars any more, providing some interestig grooves and riffs, as in "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" or "O Father, O Satan, O Sun". The guitar sound is heavy, dark, sinister, beautifully distorted and hefty, in other words: beautiful. The riffs are a mixture of death metal and black metal, and the songs are also distinguished by the presence of arpeggios and tremolo picking. The solos are tasteful and really add elegance to the mix: they are never self-indulgent, sometimes they are simple, sometimes they are elaborate; they can sound either furious, or sinister, or both, according to the case. The whole production is crystal-clear, as expected from Nuclear Blast. The simple, really heavy, sinister and full of energy riffs are accompanied by Inferno's furious and typical double bass drumming; his performance proves him once again being one of extreme metal's best drummers, without any doubt; spot on his blast-beat sessions too. Nergal chose to give a slighty symphonic touch to the album, writing sessions where the guitars and the drums are backed by classical instruments (trombone, strings, saxophone...), and this really adds atmosphere and makes sound everything even more epic. The lyrics are deep, somehow cryptic and beautiful, as always: they talk about occultism and satanism, inspired by Nergal's own philosophy.

Let's talk about the tracks: we have mid-paced songs, like the opener "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel", the title track or the fantastic "O Father, O Satan, O Sun!" (an incredible epic that includes a really catchy bass riff, and which is probably also the best track on the album), and fast, furious songs, like "Furor Divinus" or "Amen": each and every track is extremely well composed and enjoyable to listen, as well as well distinguished from the others. It's interesting to notice that, in some tracks ("In The Absence Ov Light" and the final epic), Nergal made an excellent use of spoken parts, an expedient that really adds to the whole atmosphere and listening experience, feeding the dark splendour of this musical masterpiece.

"The Satanist" proves to be one of Behemoth's finest albums: excellent song structure, clear production, fantastic lyrics and a great vocal performance by Nergal make it an obliged listen to any black/death metal fan. Don't miss it!

Recovering from sickness and seeing your strength renewed tends to make you value your health and strength a lot more, especially if said sickness brought you closer to death. I believe this is the case for Behemoth, who's frontman Nergal had been suffering from leukemia prior to this, and that new zest for life gained from surviving that has made The Satanist into one of Behemoth's most massive and driven albums, almost as if some new infernal energy had been imbued into this band. The band's sound on this album also seems to reflect a new, powerful, more inspired, and genuinely satanic outlook with the death metal of previous Behemoth albums receiving a massive dose of black metal which has returned in a more massive form than before. This is an album that blares its presence high atop the peaks of darkness, mass, and sheer depraved passion. It expands and diversifies Behemoth's composition to make songs that are not only recognizable and distinguished, but also manage to be hellish and divine at the same time.

The entire sound of The Satanist is invigorating and hair-raising to the point of it feeling like an infernal power trip. Through the compositions, through the production, through the instruments and vocals themselves, it feels like this album is hailing something big and terrifying. The music in store here really is a behemoth in the way that it delivers its explosive and gripping songs which also show a ton of versatility in how they are written while still staying solid and consistent in their prideful demonic might. The guitars feel like a massive, churning tidal wave of tremolos, ready to obliterate anything within 10 miles of the shore whether delivering the regular barrage of riffs or bleeding out the sky with solos. The vocals are a lively roar with the unholy poetry in the lyrics being clear as day despite being growled. Nergal sounds like a man possessed, and the mixture of might and mania heard in his voice makes his performance positively flooring. The drumming is versatile and employs a variety of fills and tempos with rage when necessary and stoic reserve when going slower and more deliberately. They also use extraneous elements to a very potent effect, such as horns, choirs, and even saxophones to add these odd, but notable flairs to these songs. It all works to make this into something that literally sounds awesome, as in making you awestruck.

There is also a lot to be expected from the very versatile songwriting on here that makes every track distinct. Every track seems to want to blast you to bits in its glorious rebellion against Heaven. The songs with the most catch to them are “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” with its mighty, thundering riffs and roared vocals proclaiming blasphemies as loudly, as strongly, and as clearly as possible, and “The Satanist” which has a very simmering creep to it, as though the winding riffs are working to beckon you towards Hell. What you would expect to be usual death metal instead has a very chilling and massive blackened edge to it with a decent sense of atmosphere and mass. There are even songs that change the formula altogether. “O Father O Satan O Sun” turns the usual blackened sound on it’s head and instead starts things off with a harrowing choir and a marching pace that feels very glorious and rapturous, in a way that makes it feel as though the sky has cracked open and the end has just begun. Every song works to distinguish itself right out of the gate which is always a great idea whether starting off with a slow build, Nergal’s deranged satanic sermons (beginning “Messe Noir” with the phrase “I BELIVE IN SATAN!”), or a massive, thundering charge of drums and tremolos, these songs are clear, distinct, and mighty. The lines of each song being clear and the writing running the gamut of slow builders, to chilling fast-paced blasts, to songs that are more cryptic, or even rapturous. While staying consistent in style, Behemoth show a stunning level of variety, grace, and ingenuity.

The Satanist shows a band that, if they aren’t already at their peak, they are certainly striving for it. The guitar solos on here feel absolutely sky-rending and further punctuate the feelings of terror mixed with glory, again with “O Father O Satan O Sun” having one of the most hair-raising solos on here. The whole album oozes this sort of power that is only further punctuated by the songs written for it. Even lyrically, it appears this was made in dedication to some higher form of satanic expression rather than a simple blasphemous death metal album, reading out in a very biblical manner. I already talked about how varied the songwriting is, with it being enough to make each song stand tall on its own. Each of them has some riff, some lyrics, some line, some quirk, some songwriting deviation, or some combination of all of these to make it worth setting apart and remembering. From the introductory crawl of “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” through the dark corridors of the title track, all the way to the brilliantly climactic ending. Behemoth handles this with the skill and the fury of corrupted seraphim to make a truly solid album.

Behemoth have gone above and beyond the call of duty with The Satanist, creating an album that is as grand and as harrowing as they could do so. While it may bear a lot of similarities to their previous albums, Behemoth have done things on The Satanist that make them seem more determined and more invigorated than before. This album wields its dissonance and its power in a way that makes it distinguished. The songs are the kind of affairs that I find myself returning to again and again. It is an album that feels full, alive, and mighty at every minute of its run-time, with both the vigor and the memorability to show itself as close to ideal. It puts the satanism that has been at the backbone of Behemoth’s identity for the longest time into harrowing musical form that bleeds out in every dissonant note, every bark from Nergal’s throat, every pound of the drums from Inferno’s kit, and every rare calm moment that does more to enhance the darkness rather than relieve it. It feels like a massive musical tribute to the figure and symbolism of Lucifer in the most powerful way Behemoth could do so. Safe to say, I enjoyed this quite thoroughly.

What is this? A modern, well-produced, well-crafted black metal album that has been acclaimed by critics is getting hate? Geez, I wonder why!? I am noticing a pattern here ("cough" Blackwater Park "cough", ok, it's not really black metal, but still...) Is this album not "kvlt" enough? In all seriousness, Behemoth have reached a songwriting peak, there is a reason critics like this album so much and I am truly amazed by the quality of the music in The Satanist. These guys have been around since the early nineties, they started out as nothing special - norwegian BM copycats, and they've come this far, being one of the leading forces in the blackened death subgenre.

The riffing on this album is what the kids these days call "juicy". You've got a 50/50 of atmospheric black metal riffs and crushing death metal ones. A well maintained balance, some tracks showing just a tad bit more of each as to achieve diversity (woah, a diverse black metal album!). The songs are atmospheric and brutal, proving you don't need to record on a potato to sound "evil". As for the drumming, I have my doubts whether it's a machine behind the kit or an actual drummer. Those blast beats and double bass are, for lack of a better word, fast. Seriously, the guy is playing these at a tempo of around 200, pounding the shit out of the snare and cymbals. You can hear the bass, and it's great! Well, nothing out of the ordinary, it just fits the music and keeps a steady bassline that most of the old-school BM bands lack. And Nergal's vocals, a terrific death metal performance that is actually surprisingly catchy and you can even make out some of the lyrics. Synths are also present here and there, adding a bit more to the atmosphere of this truly menacing record. "In The Absence Ov Life" is one of the many stand-outs because of its implementation of a saxophone which, although heard for just a bit, is an important piece in the structure of the track.

So, nothing's perfect, right? Well, this applies to "The Satanist" as well. The lyrics, although written very poetically and with a main focus on storytelling, are generic. "Ooh, look at me, I'm a Satanist, so edgy, lol!" Also, being the prog-snob fag I am I will have to note that the album is not very, well, you've guessed it, PROGGY! But since this is bias from my side it does not in any way affect the rating. The production is staggering! All of the tracks are recorded and mixed meticulously and the whole thing sounds great. I don't mind lo-fi production but its overuse in extreme metal makes it as irritating and stereotypical as pop music (yes, I just compared extreme metal to pop, bite me). And as I've already said, the record is actually quite diverse. There is a core principle of songwriting as in any LP, but nothing is repetitive.

So, all in all, "The Satanist", whether or not you've enjoyed it, is an album which has very tight songwriting. It brings something new to the genre and makes a steady attempt at getting extreme metal out of the deep waters of the underground. No, it's not "poppy" and no, Behemoth haven't gotten softer (just watch the frickin' music videos, they are some messed up shit). It is still very harsh, very evil and deserves to be called true metal (as if that's a criterion). But one thing this album also has is great composition and expert musicianship. So, stop being a "kvlt kid" and enjoy the record for what it is, not all music should be judged equally.

True strength is not simply a lack of weakness, it is the rise after the fall, it is tasting defeat and spiting it back into the faces of those who doubt you. After the immense success of 2009's excellent ‘Evangelion’ many wondered how Behemoth could possibly top perfection. Then the news of Nergal’s leukemia hit and doubt spread as to what Behemoth would do next, or whether there would even be another album at all. Five years later the band answered the call and the result is 'The Satanist', and it’s massive.

What really hits you hardest when you listen to this album is the dramatic change in the approach to song writing the band has adopted. Don’t go head first into it expecting the technical blackened death metal approach we have seen in the past, it appears this is a very different Behemoth then what we knew. Whereas before the band relied heavily on speed and complexity it is now blunt impact and atmosphere that drives the songs forward. Opening track 'Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel' showcases a rolling thunder cloud of a riff and declares that this is what Behemoth are all about now, the riffs. It also introduces Nergal’s slower more pronounced vocal approach as he declares the first line of the album ''I saw the virgin's cunt spawning forth the snake''. Lovely imagery.

The sound and production of the music has changed dramatically from past albums. This is expected as Behemoth have always stuck to the aim of never making the same album twice. The overall tonal feel of the sound is deeper, rawer and less digital. Production duties were handled by Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawscy and Daniel Bergstrand, the team has done a beautiful job bringing this monster to life. There’s a nice amount of melodic lead work from Nergal and Seth but overall there’s much less shredding then you'd expect, the first real solo isn't until the end of the third song. By spacing these moments out they've created a much more anticipation driven experience.

The mix is rich due to the help of additions including a brass section and three cellist which results in a more epic and diverse sound, the title track is a great example of this. As well as being immensely heavy this album also contains what is probably Behemoth's calmest recording 'In The Absence Ov Light'. The song starts off as a fast and brutal assault until Nergal brakes pace and delves into an acoustic/spoken word passage (an excerpt from Witold Gombrowicz's 'Slub') set against the saxophone work of Marcin Janek, showing how deep his musical talents can reach. The drums also deserve praise. Inferno has always been a fantastic drummer and here he shows he can expand his playing away from his usual technical death metal drumming style. These drums are loud and deep, they rumble, vibrate and really bring power to the songs, they can sound distant before they charge up and crush you, thanks given to Urban Nasvall for his fantastic drum tech work. Also the bass work here is brilliant. Bass is too often left down in the mix to be hardly present, but here it rules. This is definitely the best bass sound Behemoth have used to date. Instead of being only audible during the quite sections it is often the loudest element. It really feels part of the mix now and much like the drums it rumbles and in some parts seems to lead the compositions, as in the intro to 'Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer'.

I bought the special edition digipak version of the album which comes with a bonus DVD containing a live show (Live Barbarossa) and a making of documentary (The Satanist: Oblivion). Both of these are excellent standalone pieces so as extras they are a welcomed bonus. The live show is a good enough example of a Behemoth show and does feature some rare tracks as well as capturing Nergal using an unusually guttural and raspy vocal style. I was particularly impressed with 'Oblivion' which is more like a short film than a behind the scenes documentary. I’d highly recommend this version over the standard album. It does however have a downside, the album cover has been covered by a piece of reflective silver colored card board displaying the Behemoth and 'The Satanist' logos. This wasn’t bad until I realized it had been stuck over the original cover art by Denis Forkas which is a shame because he's a great artist. I assume the intended meaning is that you look at the album and see your own reflection thus, you are 'The Satanist', this is a cool idea but on the other hand I would have liked to see the original cover art used inside somewhere (it also collects fingerprints very easily). Another point to make about the layout is that the lyrics in the booklet have been written in a decorative text that looks like the scribblings of a mad man, it looks very artistic but makes it impossible to read the lyrics. This is a shame because both Nergal and Krzysztof Azarewicz are fantastic lyricist, for example; ''I cut loose the cord ov li(f)e / Depart celestial source /Rub mould in holy pages / Let woodworms eat the cross......Who shall crucify the last prophets / And have them wilt on splintered stems? / Who shall churn hells across the earth / and reascend to seat himself… / at the left hand ov Satan'' (taken from 'Messe Noire'). Or my personal favourite verse of the whole album; ''Like a day without the dawn / Like a ray void ov the sun / Like a storm that brings no calm / I'm most complete yet so undone'' (taken from 'O Father O Satan O Sun'). Of course you can find the lyrics easy enough online, but you shouldn’t have to.

The Satanist is a massive and fantastic work of death metal. It may shock some old Behemoth fans with its changes, I’ll admit that I was undecided when I first heard it, but I found that after each listen I loved it more and more. Give it room to grow and it will imbed itself in your brain. Personally I would say the best songs to check out are 'Ben Sahar' and 'O Father O Satan O Sun' which features verses taken from Alesister Crowley's 'Liber Samekh' in its lyrics and is definitely one of the best songs from any band I’ve heard in a long time. This album is proof that Behemoth are one of the most resilient, unstoppable and best metal bands out there. Check out this wonderful work and praise the mighty Behemoth!

After 5 years since the success of Evangelion, most fans would be getting a bit annoyed with Behemoth for not compiling a follow-up album. This wait however is more than excusable due to front-man and guitarist Adam ‘Nergal’ Darksi being diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 that advanced to such a level that chemotherapy proved ineffective to cure it. After finding a successful bone marrow transplant Nergal dismissed the illness without an ounce of self pity as it where nothing more than a life obstacle. Along with this celebration, Behemoth’s 10th album The Satanist has become one of the most anticipated albums of the year.

Immediately obvious is The Satanist's radically different sound. Coming from a man who has scoffed whilst peering into the abyss, one would expect opener Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel to be an explosive inferno of extreme metal. Instead a sloth-paced chord is layered over a brooding breath of archangelic instrumentation. Enter: Nergal. You know you’ve got a musician who takes his faith and music seriously when the opening lines to the album are “I saw the virgin’s cunt spawning forth the snake.” Nergal’s lyrics are clearly one of the main focuses of The Satanist. They force you to listen to what he has to say in other songs such as Messe Noir, detailing his allegiance to Satanism, and Amen, cursing The Virgin Mary. The clarity of Nergal’s Satanic interpretation is helped by the pinpoint production throughout the record; a feat that a lot of black metal and extreme bands stumble on.

Fans that still lust for the typical speed of Behemoth’s past efforts should still be satisfied with this album. Every track has the potential to give listeners whiplash but the explosive Furor Divinus almost passes too quickly through the tunnel of Inferno’s uncompromising drum work that you are left with your head spinning from not just the headbanging but also how they can play that fast. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer is the closest Behemoth has come to different genres of heaviness. Through the flurry of blast beats the guitar riffs spin off in different directions hinting a punk like and bluesy shroud to the song.

There are elements within this album that signal Behemoth is exploring newer ideas. A spoken word passage above a distant saxophone solo is found within In The Absence Ov Light and brass instruments, particularly horns (Was that a pun aimed at The Devil, Nergal?) are present in tracks such as the opening track and The Satanist with the simple yet blackening bass lines and whimpering overdubs leaving you feel possessed. These additions create an atmosphere of honesty and reality as another dynamic layer within the album.

O Father O Satan O Sun is Nergal’s final pledge to Satanism. This epic 9 minute track encapsulates all of The Satanist’s components. From the chilling overdubs that start the song to the provoking lyrics to the satanic prayer to end the album. The changes in dynamics help the song speed along whilst you are left to contemplate how such majesty can be bottled into one track. What’s the saying? What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger…

This is one of the most difficult albums for me to review. Everything about it is stellar to me, but I can’t quite put my finger exactly on the elements that make it so great. I encourage you to spend more time listening to the album rather than trying to glean the quality from my bungling words here. However, I will do my best.

If you listen to extreme metal of any kind and have not seen the video for Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, you must be living under a rock. This amazing track opens the album and is by far one of the best introductions ever. Most of the elements at play here help to sum up what to expect from the album. There are minimalist, doomy sections with grim, caustic growls from Nergal. There are your more decidedly “Behemoth” moments of completely chaotic blastbeats. The riffs are memorable, and the atmosphere is as thick as fog.

This album could be considered a sister album to Evangelion, as it shares many of the same elements. But if that is the case, The Satanist is the prodigy child. There is an increased focus on melody and scope. Behemoth expertly lace haunting choir parts, horns, and other instrumentation into their dark compositions. Yet they keep them fairly low in the mix in most cases. To me, this differentiates The Satanist from other symphonic albums. Rather than being loud and bombastic, the subtle inclusions give a more eerie effect. It is as if we are hearing the echoes of ghosts or the distant cries of hell.

Production here is miles above anything Behemoth have done in the past. Gone is the murky boominess of Thelema 6, the clangy bass of The Apostasy, the overwhelming loudness of Demigod. Everything comes through clearly thanks to an increased focus on overall composition and well-crafted slow sections to better emphasize the fast ones. As a result, each track has more of an identity than on previous albums. This does not sound over-polished either. The band sounds very live and doesn’t suffer from a compressed feel. I’d compare it to the nice balance achieved by Blackwater Park.

I could go on and on about all of the devastating factors going on in Nergal’s life during this recording that make this accomplishment even more astounding, but I’ll let the music do the talking. Aside from the aforementioned single, Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, Amen, Ben Saher, and O Father O Satan O Sun are among the standouts. But honestly, this is one of the few albums that I keep every track with me at all times. There are plenty of detractors out there who seem to want more of the same, but they are fools. This is one album that deserves every bit of praise being heaped on it. I have listened to every Behemoth album and find a different enjoyment in each of them, but none grip me the same as this one has. If you want to listen to Satanica, listen to Satanica…it didn’t go anywhere. Nergal is so happy with this one, he has stated that they may never make another album again. This could be one of the best swansongs ever.

The Polish trio return once again, this time after a prolonged period of absence, to assault our senses with their aural antithesis of Creation and Order. Polished and professional, boasting the monstrous, muscular momentum of Inferno's drumming, and the gut-wrenching, skull-splitting vocal work of Nergal, this release actually manages in foregoing quite a few alterations and advancements in their sound.

While they were never shy in embracing the mystique and mentality of orchestral (even if only synthesized on earlier releases) ambiences and auras, this time around, the ritualistic atmosphere is achieved not only through choppy, chuggy riffs, and the occasional slew of a black metal injection, but also through the numerous, neatly-arranged backing choirs, string quartets, acoustic sections etc. This brings a certain dosage of bombast and balance to the brutality and intensity of the guitars/vocals/drums, but instead of liquefying them, they make them even more solidified and unified. The intro track first provides a slow build-up, but doesn't shy in quickly adopting quite the punishing and pulverising approach with the punctual, immaculate drumming and some quite agreeable synths in the background. „Furor Divinus“ doesn't have any introductory or orchestral element, it immediately drifts into monstrosity and mischief of the incredibly chilling and striking guitar riff, before being fully enveloped into both rapid, razing blast beats, complemented by interesting and diversifying fills and rolls. Initially more dissonant and experimental, „Messe Noir“ also undergoes quite an efficient, enjoyable transformation into absolute barrage and carnage of riffing and drumming.

The following tracks starting with „Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer“ do employ some relentment and revision of the medium, with more groovy and mid-paced riffs taking precedence over previous blazing and blasting. „Amen“ is more simplistic and organic with some basic riff played with the backing and buoying of some choirs and synthesized ( organ, perhaps ) effects... It is a dash of diversity and drama, instead of overplayed technicality and timidity in songwriting. The title track is a bouncy ballad (although, quite opposite of anything mainstream) with riffs taking the backseat, over some more diverse and gracious drumming patterns, even if simple in vision and execution. The vocals also take a less incomprehensible form, being more of a barking type, and only later transforming and teeming with phlegm and punch. „Ben Sahar“ further evidences and emphasizes this fixation with more mid-paced material, also taking heavy use of backing accompaniment of a myriad of choirs and orchestrations. „In the Absence of Light“ initially seems like a standard Behemoth routine, but the middle section is practically a poetry recital with some acoustics and string slowly gliding over very steady and serene drumwork. The Final track“ O Father O Satan O Sun!“ is monolithic and crushing, even if not imposing with speed and intensity. It is a more ritualistic, slowly building mammoth of atmosphere and soundscape, with some very ingenious and gloomy organs and choirs dominating and propelling it. The final moments are perhaps some of the most emotional and breath-taking on the release.

Behemoth have not gone through an actual radical, massive change, but subtlety, variation and distance from their previous outputs is most certainly evident. They offer a number of quite punishing, pummeling tunes, but then couple it with sullen acoustics and sincere vocals, that strand the zone between incomprehensible and almost manly clean, achieving extremity through honesty and integrity, rather then outperforming other artists in terms of speed, stamina or savagery. This is a monumental, must-have morbid record, that isn't perfect on its own, but nevertheless demonstrates and delineates that extreme metal can still be original and oozing with ideas and ingenuity.

Energy drink peddler Nergal is back again with 2014's The Satanist, an album a lot of fans/critics are hailing as a "masterpiece" from a "rejuvenated" band. After hearing the title track and laughing hysterically over how the beginning reminded me of The Monster Mash, I knew this was another sham operation from Behemoth. Even the "natural and organic" production Nergal had promised with this album is a lie: more of the same loud, over sampled/triggered drums and sterile guitar tone (is that a Boss Metal Zone pedal?) that the masses have become accustomed to hearing from Behemoth can be found here once again, but with the "additional instrumentation" (trumpets, Hammond organ, etc.) more prominent in the mix than the band itself (the end of the single "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" showcases this). Another vapid lifestyle pandering media product full of watered down later Morbid Angel/Krisiun riffs with mechanical chugging grooves and multi-tracked constipated grunt/shout vocals. It's more mass market Hot Topic "extreme metal" of the banal and blast beat ridden variety.

Songs are comprised of fewer parts this time, and while you may think this would mean more focused structuring of the music, the Behemoth trademark of shoving riffs aside for incongruous riffs and switching tempo for no reason makes its return. The same old music is rehashed once again, but this time concessions were made to "rock" music fans in the form of "bluesy" lead guitar. Ill-fitting Slash styled solos are showcased in these songs (usually over "anthemic" chord progressions for maximum stadium rock effect) whenever possible which, alongside the simpler nature of this release (even for Behemoth's lowest common denominator pandering standards), makes this closer to rock music than ever before (the last track eerily reminded me of Silverchair during the stompy part). All of these elements, alongside the "confrontational" album title and the regurgitation of past lyrical themes in variant ways (lots of "ov" and anti-christian sentiment with mainstream recognizable occult mumbo jumbo) gives this the "kitsch" feeling of one of those songs you'd hear at the end of a Scooby-Doo episode given a metal flavoring. Vapid. Avoid.

Behemoth is an incredibly technical extreme metal band, and for that reason they have been renowned for the past decade or so. Theirs is a special style of extreme metal that has some influences in the band's Polish roots and black metal essence, but it's not really death metal. The newest album comes closer to true black metal, so why have I given it such a mediocre review?

The reason is that I listen to Behemoth for powerful, technical, creative riffing. In The Satanist we have guitar patterns that almost want to be black metal, but are just too dull and not dark enough to cut it. They're trying to be ominous and evil, but black metal is simplistic for a reason: so that you can focus on the atmosphere and the evil that the music it creates.

Behemoth fails in this attempt, because on top of their guitar parts, they muddle vocals over percussion work and various other instruments. There are precious few guitar solos in this album, and those that do exist are not great compared to what Behemoth can do. If Behemoth focused on the almighty riff a bit more and paid less attention to trying to create an atmosphere--which they aren't pulling off--this album would be far better.

Unfortunately, Behemoth is now at a point in its career when it can rest on the laurels it formed in past albums. Now, Behemoth seems more focused on throwing down (admittedly great) live shows, dressing up in metal clothing and facepaint, and taking threatening videos. They don't have much of a motivation to go back to what made them excellent, which is the almighty riff and drum work that compliments it rather than drowning it out.

The lyrics are still pretty good, but there's just too much going on in the music for them to really be enjoyed. This album is trying to do far too much at once, and even the masters behind Behemoth can't pull it off. The Satanist has its high points, but it's not what it could be.

This veteran Polish band have been around for about 23 years and in that time I have not really been real familiar with this band. I have their first full length, Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic), as well as their previous, Evangelion, but I never jumped on their bandwagon. They began playing black metal and now have a blackened death metal sound to them. The buzz leading up to the release of this album was huge and when it was finally released, I decided to acquire this album to see what all the fuss was about. Good thing I did because I found this album to be a very enjoyable slab of metal that may well just make me go back and look deeper into their previous work. This is a very powerful and emotional album that you can feel when you listen to it. These guys have really pulled something off here and will probably be a contender for album of the year (yeah I know it's kinda early for that).

The album kicks off with the highly powerful first single, "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel". This song is as epic as you can get with huge doomy riffs that go into some balls to the wall blasts. Nergal's vocals are angry as fuck as he growls not at you but through you. This guy means what he says...period! The leads are far back in the mix on this one but that only adds to the atmosphere of this song. This is a really powerful song and sets the mood for the rest of the album. Songs like "Furor Divinus", "Messe Noire" and "Amen" just keep the momentum going by just being these HUGE fucking songs that you can feel. There are plenty of riffs here from doomy death riffs to some black tremolos as well. The guitar work is done extremely well and the songs are well written.

I need to make special mention of two amazing songs, one of them is "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer". This song if fucking GODLY. It's fast and epic with killer riffs, some great leads and great hooks. Midway through it gets really epic with actual horns, not keyboards but actual trombones, french horns, etc. These guys really went all out to create a memorable song here. The other song is "O Father O Satan O Sun!". Holy shit is this song epic. Great riffs with Nergal's angry growls over some great cleans that just pull you into the atmosphere. There's a lead on this album that could have been on any 70s hard rock album and gives this song even more dynamic. At this point I can not be called a big fan of this band because of my lack of familiarity but this is probably one of the best metal songs I've heard in a really long time. As I said, these guys pulled out all the stops.

So here we have an album that is very close to perfect. It does have a very small cheese factor with the word "of" spelled "ov" in the lyrics throughout this album but it's not enough to take away from the overall epic sound of this album. This is an album that I like more and more with each listen. It's essential!


http://elitistmetalhead.blogspot.com/

The much awaited successor to 2009’s Evangelion is finally upon us. The Satanist has been in the works for five years, and much has happened to Behemoth in that time. Worth the wait? Absolutely. The Satanist embodies Behemoth at its most progressive, diverse and refined form.

I believe The Satanist to be the beginning of the next stage in Behemoth’s natural evolution. Having seen them on tour in 2013, it was apparent through their setlist choice and stage presence that their emphasis has slightly shifted from the brutality of relentless shredding and blastbeats, to a more atmospheric and theatrical dynamic. In many ways this represents Behemoth’s biggest success; the ability to tastefully balance the old with the new. The Satanist contains the crucial essence of what we have come to expect from a Behemoth record, but leaves ample room for theatrical experimentation.

It is important to consider that this is Nergal’s first musical outing since his illness and, back stronger and more enlightened than ever, his mentality is reflected in the music. His express desire to no longer compete with other bands and themselves on grounds of technicality and brutality is evident. As he described prior to its release, The Satanist is more organic, more natural than any other Behemoth album since their black metal days. Consequently, the album has a thinner overall sound to it and an almost minimalistic approach. A stylistic continuation of Evangelion’s closing track, Lucifer, slow-to-mid pacing has prominence over much of the record, with several reappearances of eerie spoken word segments. Often categorized as ‘blackened death metal’ (although largely death metal for the past decade), The Satanist stands out as primarily black metal, where guitar and drum work comes across as more simplistic, atmospheric and hypnotic.

As one of many stylistic changes, the vocals are no longer thickly layered and distorted. Quite the opposite, Nergal is more easily understood and, at times, even melodic (see O Father O Satan O Sun). This in turn presents its own (small) problem, whereby clunky lyrics are more obvious as in the cases of Furor Divinis (“Pluck my eyes out, rip my tongue”) and Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer (“Great volcano ov excrement... Reconstellate the firmament”).

The guitars have reverted to a more black metal ‘fuzziness’ (particularly noticeable in Gabriel and Furor) when contrasted to the clarity of the Demigod-Evangelion era. My biggest gripe with The Satanist would undoubtedly be the solos. Let’s face it, Behemoth is no Necrophagist or Dream Theater; no one listens to Behemoth for the guitar solos (with perhaps the exception of Demigod’s Conquer All and XUL). However, I feel that within The Satanist, the solos are rather uncomplimentary to the prevalent atmosphere and come across as, dare I say, unimaginative (as evidenced in the title track, Messe Noire and Amen). While somewhat disappointing, it does not affect my perception of the overall quality of said songs.

A much welcomed change is the prominence of the bass. Orion’s towering charisma is essential to the band’s stage presence as an unstoppable and powerful force (a ‘behemoth’, for lack of a better word), and it is long overdue that his contribution to the record reflects that.

Perplexingly, the drums are less distinguished. Considering Inferno’s reputation as a percussive artillery piece, it’s unusual that, for example, the bass drums are harder to isolate (particularly amidst the colossal – and shiver-inducing - wall of noise at the song’s climax i.e. Gabriel). Further, the toms and the snare lack the impact of previous albums. And similarly to the guitars, Inferno opts for a more tribal, hypnotic and ‘organic’ rhythm to the songs... again echoing the overarching mantra of atmosphere over technicality/brutality. This is not to suggest that blastbeats have vanished; they are still a central component, just not utilised to excess.

The introduction of unconventional instrumentation is another welcome stylistic change. French horns, cellos, trombones, trumpets (and even a misplaced saxophone solo) make appearances, mostly to great effect. Taking heed of past successes (notably from Pazuzu and Shemhamforash), the chilling backup vocals/demonic choir further enhance the eerie, cold and depraved atmosphere.

Songs like Furor Divinis (which I would cautiously label a full blown black metal song), Amen and In the Absence Ov Light hark back to a more familiar structure focused on speed and intensity. Likewise, Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer is reminiscent of Satanica’s Chant for Eschaton 2000 and Zos Kia Cultus’s No Sympathy For Fools. More experimental song writing is shown on the remaining tracks; really hitting home on Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, the title track, and O Father O Satan O Sun, while not as effective on Messe Noire and Ben Sahar.

I would argue that The Satanist is Behemoth’s first concept album, with all songs coherently dealing with similar themes and morals (beyond the usual occultism and blasphemy). A key feature of which is the dichotomy of the Apollonian versus the Dionysian; despising and rebelling against the concept of perfection and embracing the Dionysian (raw instinct and emotion, flaws and failures, chaos and darkness). Furthermore, The Satanist promotes the destruction of social and religious constructs, and any inhibiting values that ultimately undermine our individuality. Behemoth have achieved this, both in the metaphorical sense, and on their own level, breaking free of and expanding their (and indeed our) notion of what a Behemoth song/album should contain.

Through the events of the past 5 years of life and death, sickness and health, Behemoth have evolved and matured. As musicians, as artists, as philosophers and as humans... and it shows through in the music. Transcending the constructs of genre and society as a whole, Behemoth uncompromisingly fulfils their artistic vision and, in the process, becomes the embodiment of Satanism as the title so boldly proclaims.

Highlights: Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, Furor Divinis, Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, The Satanist, In The Absence Ov Light, O Father O Satan O Sun

I write this review trying not to be biased or as many people would call a "fanboy" towards Behemoth's music since I am a huge fan of their discography. It has been a while since their last release due to Nergal's diagnosis with cancer so of course I don't blame them for the wait. Since Demigod was released I never expected another one of their albums to fall into comparison to to it, but I can say with all honestly i have been proven wrong.

First off, the first thing I realized right off the bat was the improvement of Nergal's vocals. I was completely blown away by his delivery and still am every time a replay the album. Over all of their discography I have never heard so much emotion in his voice before. There are points in this album like for example on "Messe Noire" where the vocals seem so passionate that it almost seems like Nergal is gonna cry, but this emotion provides for one of my favorite aspects of the whole album. As for the lyrics I've always found Behemoth's lyrics very interesting, some times I can decipher them and other times they are way past me and this album is another example of that.

The instruments on this album were great as well for me. Inferno has never disappointed me on a single album, and at this album being a bigger step into the black metal genre he still managed to implement some great drumming besides just typical blast beats you would hear on a regular black metal album. Orion's bass work was also top notch as well and through the great production on the album i could hear it much clearer then on past albums. The guitar work on this album was overall good, there weren't really any real original riffs coming from it. But some of the soloing however was pretty fun to listen to like on "Messe Noire" or the title track where they actually used some pentatonic scales in it too. The use of Saxophone on "In the Absence Ov Light" turned out surprisingly good and i think its safe to say that's the first use of a saxophone in black metal. Overall the atmosphere of the album is fantastic. I noticed some ambient vocals too in some of the tracks like "Amen" and the title track. This seemed to add more of a haunting quality to the album as well. The last track on the album "O Father O Satan O Sun!" had some amazing back choir following Nergal's vocals which turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the album.

As far as complaints I have only a few for this album. Like i said before i wish some of the guitar riffs were more original, and some of the solos in the album weren't that good. The song structure on "Blow your Trumpets Gabriel" I found was a little goofy too but an overall great song. The whole Satanism lyricism is a bit redundant, but they did seem to have a great take on it.

Overall this will probably hold to be the album of the year for me, but never say never. Every track on this album I found to be original and not a spot on the whole album bored me. The vocals on the album were godly, the instruments provided a great atmosphere and still gave room for Inferno's talent to show itself like it always has. I cannot say enough good things about this album, it makes me truly proud to be a metal head.

“The Satanist” is the tenth album by Polish black/death metal legends Behemoth, and the first since Vocalist/Guitarist Nergal’s recovery from his battle with leukaemia. In the wake of this immense struggle, they have come back with a real point to prove, and as such they have created their most mature, complete and ambitious album to date – this is the first truly great metal album of 2014, and is possibly the best album Behemoth have ever made. It’s epic in scope, brutally heavy, atmospheric and varied in equal measure.

Nergal’s powerful roar is in full force throughout the album, giving one of the most powerful and vicious performances in extreme metal of recent years, particularly on “Messe Noir”, where he roars and snarls his way throughout in the most evil of manners, fitting the satanic lyrics perfectly. His personal struggles over the last few years have really injected him with a huge passion and energy which shines through on every facet of his performance, from his voice, to his guitar work and incredible lyrics.

The album is filled with absolutely crushing riffs, with a lot of variety, with “Amen” taking inspiration from the brutal fury of Marduk, while “Furor Divinis” has a cold and frosty wall of noise style reminiscent of early Mayhem, and “Ben Sahar” has a slower, chugging opening riff demanding you to bang your head.There’s also melody to be matched with the fury, with “Ora Pro Nobis” having catchy epic sounding riffs, in a style similar to Austria’s Belphegor. The lead guitar work throughout the album is also incredible, with blistering solos, especially the epic sounding one from “Messe Noir” which is simply perfect. With all these influences they create a sound entirely their own, with sporadic symphonic sections adding to the drama of the album, especially on the epic opener “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel”, a song with fantastic imagery and drama, a true evil and plodding masterpiece, with slower crushing riffs. ”Amen” is by far the heaviest track, with blistering riffs, an unrelenting blastbeat fury, and a snappy gnarly bass tone, its a perfectly brutal and unrelenting piece of satanic fury.

The lyrics are also fantastic throughout the album. As the title would suggest, the album is based around Satanism, which is something of a cliché when it comes to extreme metal, but Behemoth write about it excellently, with intelligent, thoughtful lyrics. The booklet in the album has descriptions of the songs, and the band reference writers such as Milton, Nietzsche, Witold Gombrowicz and more. The band also claims that the album is titled “The Satanist” as it deals with the human elements of Satanism, the way it affects and manifests itself within us. The concept of the album is definitely intriguing and intelligently written. Not just going for shock value and an attempt at an evil aesthetic like lots of other bands before them, they really have an excellent approach to the subject here.

This approach is at its best on the closer, “O Father O Satan O Sun!” with the song being one of the best tributes to Satan in metal’s history which really says a lot. The imagery is just incredibly powerful and evil, and its a perfect track to close an incredible album. This segment from it is particularly powerful when matched with Nergal’s passionate roar:

“O Father
O Satan
O Sun
Let the children come to Thee
Behold the Morning Star
Akephalos
Shine thru me
Come forth in war
Come forth in peace”

The CD also comes with a bonus DVD, containing a fantastic concert “Live Barbarosa” filmed in Russia, as well as a thirty minute documentary, with Nergal’s thoughts on the concepts behind “The Satanist”. The booklet is also filled with descriptions of each song and the themes behind it, as well as the lyrics, it is a really complete package.

This isn’t just another blackened death metal album, here Behemoth have really delivered an intense work, filled with fantastic music and imagery. This is their most mature and complete album to date, and is sure to be one of the metal albums of the year, if not the decade. It’s an absolute masterpiece of extreme metal, and mixes bludgeoning heaviness with intelligent lyrics and musical nuance that goes far beyond their peers, and cements their place as one of the most important bands in contemporary extreme metal. Every track is just brilliant, there’s no room for any filler.With over twenty years of recording history and ten albums its really incredible that they can still release an album so sincere, breathtaking and monumental, “The Satanist” is simply a real behemoth of an album (sorry!)

Originally written for swirlsofnoise.com

Without music, life would be a mistake

If you haven’t heard of Behemoth by this point you’re either new here or are that guy who claims to be a metalhead while proclaiming Tool as the heaviest and most technical thing to grace the musical world. Over the last 23 years, Behemoth has established itself as a powerhouse in the world between black and death metal. Five years after their last record, Evangelion was released, we are met with the newest from Behemoth, The Satanist. A massive success on the charts right out of the gates, The Satanist is looking to be Behemoth’s most successful record yet. Musically, a movement has been made pushing the focus of the band back towards their original black metal roots while maintaining a strong death metal presence.

Jumping straight into things with the first track, “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel”. It starts off interesting enough, a reasonably catchy intro that starts off slow and doomy building up at an agonizing rate to peak somewhere over the two minute mark, where the song breaks with a nice bass fill that drops into something that should awaken the listener, assuming they started to drift off at some point during the last few minutes of the exact same riff being played. The song ends fairly aggressively only to fall back into the same agonizing pace a few tracks later. It’s like listening to someone slowly flatline with the occasional palpitation to keep things moving. “Furor Divinus” is actually one of the strongest tracks off the album. It maintains an aggressive feel that really does a great job of accelerating the pace of record, which is not a job the second track should have.

The most frustrating part of all of this is the fact that there are a lot of really strong musical elements that I really enjoy. The really thick, growling bass tones that are worked into the tracks are great! You can actually hear what Orion is doing and I love it! Then you get the horn section playing for a brief time on the track that you would assume should have horns. I actually really liked the addition of the brass work into it all because were it not in there, that track would have probably lost all of my interest and then put me completely to sleep. The presence of instruments that aren’t usually seen in this kind of extreme music was rather refreshing, albeit bittersweet since it was so short lived. Maybe that was just me hoping to hear some crazy brass work after it having been done so well by Cephalic Carnage a few years back. Half way through “In the Absence ov Light” we are met with an absence ov music while a spoken word sample takes over. Again, bittersweet moments here. The whole spoken word thing was pretty intense the first time with the return of some sexy sax work making the track feel like we were in some dark, late 90’s coffee shop listening to bad poetry. After a few more listens, the whole thing quickly began feeling like a sort of crutch, like the Behemoth version of breakdowns. They even use another version of spoken word breakdowns on the next track! Better yet, they didn’t even transition out of it well, either! The second the guy was done talking, they immediately go back to full throttle blasting that we’d seen just scarcely by this point. Where is the musical prowess in that? There are millions of ways to have moved out of the spoken word section that would have made sense and not been so abrupt. Perhaps with some more of the doomy bass and drum work that they didn’t abuse whatsoever throughout the entirety of the record as is.

After being around for so long, you’d think that Behemoth would have a stronger grasp on the musical concepts that define the genre they’re working in. I get trying to push the boundaries and be edgy and avant-garde, but they were way off the mark here. There seemed to be so much emphasis on ‘artistry’ and image that they lost sight of the fact that there is far more to the actual music. You can take all the artistic liberties you want with your music, but that does not mean they’ll go over well with your fan base, who are your fans for the simple reason that they love the direction you’d been going in. If you disagree here then you should go take a listen to Illud Divinum Insanus. There is plenty of artistic liberty being taken there, but I’ve never seen an album go over that poorly with fans. When it comes down to it, there are really strong aspects of this record that are overshadowed by the sub-par writing and over emphasis on image. I enjoyed it for the most part, but quickly forgot most of the tracks and walked away feeling like I was missing something. The record doesn’t stick with you, it doesn’t grab you by the shirt and beat you into submission like a proper death metal record should do. I understand the move towards the avant-garde and different, but this was a pretty strong miss for me.

http://themetalreview.com/albums/behemoth/

The Satanist is the long-awaited tenth album of Behemoth. Five years have passed since Evangelion came out and Nergal has since then trumped death and defeated leukaemia. An impressive feat, to say the least. Looking back a little, Demigod was a huge renaissance for the band in 2004 and it totally floored me the first time I heard it back the - it sounded like nothing else I’ve heard before - and in that sense it has some similarities to this album.

You could call The Satanist a second renaissance, which takes the musical concept of Behemoth into another new direction. These tendencies were hinted at during the more epic-sounding moments of Evangelion and to me personally, this development is both positive and negative. I think the grandiose, horn-laden Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel is absolutely phenomenal with its sort of progressive, yet insanely heavy, black metal structure. There is a large sense of build-up in the song and when it eventually reaches its climax I get goose bumps almost every time.

Another thing I really like is the sort of primal black metal feeling to some of the riffs in songs such as Furor Divinus and Amen. To me, it sounds like Nergal had Mayhem’s Deathcrush on repeat while writing some of the stuff here. And just in the same way that Nergal excellently composes build-up and structure in the individual songs, the album slowly builds up against its climax, O Father O Satan O Sun! It’s an epic song in the same spirit as Lucifer, which closed the last album, and although it’s not the most brutal song on the album I can’t do anything but surrender to the great melodies, the epic feeling and Nergal’s fantastic vocals.

I have two main objections with this album. First and foremost, the production just sounds too weak. It is way more of a commercially viable production than they’ve been going for earlier, and I imagine that this album could attract people who aren’t really into this type of music otherwise - but in my opinion, there is not really any brutality in the sound, which is a shame. The prime example of this is the title track with its rock groove and while, granted, it’s a decent song with a really powerful chorus, there’s a fine line between accessible and too accessible. And I’m not really sure on which side of that line to place some of the stuff from The Satanist.

Listening to The Satanist on its own, I kind of tolerate the flaws in the production and the sort of hit-feeling in some of the songs. I mean, yes, Conquer All from Demigod is as close to a death/black metal hit song as you possibly get but you still feel kind of assaulted after listening to it. When listening to The Satanist immediately after Demigod, The Apostasy or Evangelion there is something I’m missing. That insane power from those albums - that in-your-face, relentless force that I loved is sadly absent. However, although I maybe won’t be listening to The Satanist a lot in the future, I think there’s a huge audience for it out there.

Originally written for www.metalcovenant.com

The Satanist was a bit of a stunner for me, because I've never been the most vocal advocate of Behemoth. I like a lot of their albums, sure, from both the earlier black metal period and the transition into a more mainlined brutality, but there has long been this sort of vibe rolling off generation Hot Topic that this is somehow the greatest band since, like, Pantera. That their albums and videos have achieved some form of death metal nirvana, reflected through their successful tours, sales, and at in their home country of Poland, a sense of mainstream legitimacy that few extreme metal acts could claim. This is not necessarily any fault of the band, which works hard and puts out a consistent level of product; but if I'm being truthful, it's difficult for me to think of Behemoth as this messianic (or anti-messianic) force in metal. Though I've bought and enjoyed a number of their post transition records from the late 90s and beyond, I find them little more than a re-branding of aesthetics already present in bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Vader, Marduk, Dark Funeral and Krisiun. Maybe they have better stage costumes and makeup department, maybe they've got better art direction packaging on their albums, and surely Nergal is far more consumed by occultism than a lot of the death metal diocese which would claim otherwise, but the fact is that most of their music blasts straight into one ear and out the other...

Not the case for The Satanist, which has been for me the first instance in which Behemoth truly lives up to the surrounding hype; an album that is not only phenomenally well-written, but boasts production standards that crush the fucking sun. Not a major stylistic deviation from their last few discs, but the plotting here at long last seems to translate into an actual slew of songs that I feel like listening to repeatedly, which is more than I could say for stuff like Evangelion, which possesses a proficient, punishing quality that seems to plateau at 'good', eluded by 'greatness' and only ever broken out when I want a reliable, indistinct bludgeoning. The Satanist is just such a more well-rounded experience...blast beats are weighted off against genuine moments of poignant atmosphere and restraint. Individual tunes are distinguishable from one another, and after hearing one I couldn't quite put my finger on what would happen in the next. The death and black metal genre tropes which have shaped Nergal's career are more evenly balanced, and the robust production aesthetics and the precision instrumentation have just never sounded better. While The Satanist is still not a perfect outing, and leaves some area for further expansion, it oozes conviction from every pore. We all know Darski had a rough spell health-wise, but that this is a testament to his survival gives it all the more impact. Coming back stronger and superior is after all a chief virtue of Satanic self-enlightenment, and so I'm not at all surprised he chose the absurd profundity of its overt title.

At any rate, much of the album is still a locomotive of seamless blasted structures which weave together the resonant tremolo picking and mildly dissonant chord choices, ominous octave chords sliding around the underbelly of hellish beats and Nergal's powerful if not entirely nasty sounding growls. If you were worried that the advance snippets of "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" somehow lacked the intensity you'd come to expect, tracks like "In the Absence ov Light" or "Amen" make short work of the assumption like a hurricane whipping through a field of origami blossoms. The bass tone on the album deserves particular praise, it's just so fat and voluptuous and only ever loses some presence when the band is blasting full force, but there is just never a moment where the compositions feel 'empty' or lacking...layers of rhythm guitars or wailing and blustering lead passages always arrive, or tempo shifts where that fat, fat low end starts pummeling into your imagination like an infernal juggernaut. The ambient orchestration that both sets up "Blow Your Trumpet Gabriel" into those enormous riffs, and returns, even more horrifying in the bridge, was the perfect touch to balance out what are occasionally average chord choices. In fact, I wish this had occurred more often through The Satanist than it did, but thankfully the record is ridiculously effective regardless.

Lyrically, it's not a departure from anything else Behemoth has done in the last 15 years, but as with the mix on the bass, the vocals are just gruesome and over the top. You can feel the guy barking his guts out as he drives all the evil ego-tripping home. He sounds revitalized, recharged, and though I doubt the purpose of an album like this is 'fun', that is ultimately the effect of such a visceral, convincing performance. Their albums have always had that sense of entertaining intimidation. 'Look how fast we can play! Look how great we look! Look how comfortable we are in our wicked skins!' But then I'd put on one of the better efforts from Lost Soul, Calm Hatchery, Decapitated or almost anything from Vader and smirk at how much more I preferred their songwriting capabilities. Suddenly, Nergal and company belong amongst that crowd. Not that they weren't already a more smashing financial success, enjoying a level of popularity flush with Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, but I can no longer safely relegate them aside to the ranking of 'overrated', or dismiss them like a snob. This is a genuinely excellent album, both in appearance and sound, caving in my skull nine times straight and making everything before it seem like the warmup. There is still a distance to go before I can hail a Behemoth disc as a masterpiece for all the ages, but The Satanist at least flirts with that idea, and inspires belief beyond barren praise.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

After five years Behemoth releases their tenth album ‘’the Satanist’’ which is not what I was expecting, but they still managed to surprise me with a well-crafted and honest work.

The general feeling in this album is darker than their previous works; it has an obscure halo with great atmospheres and great harmony, the bass guitar has distinguished arrangements that seem great figures. Orion’s work is more distinguished compared to previous albums. Nergal’s and Seth’s guitars are great, they sound wholesome and they make killer riffs that create a perfect combination between black and death metal. Trumpets and French horns top it all off making the work feeling evil and elegant at the same time. What does not strike me is that the band put aside the heavy dragged riffs or kind of break downs that they used to play in tracks like the end of ‘’Daimonos’’. Those riffs are a great contribution for their music from my point of view, but this album can compensate with the dark atmosphere that I already mentioned.

‘’Blow your Trumpets Gabriel’’ for me it was not a great opener: songs like ‘’Daimonos’’ in ‘’Evangelion’’, or ‘’Sculpting the Throne of Seth’’ in ‘’Demigod’’ are way more effective and victorious! That song would have worked great as a third track. We can find more black metal influence in themes like the faster ‘’Furor Divinus’’ or the occult and passionate ‘’Messe Noir’’. But it was tracks ´´Amen´´ and ´´In the Absence of Light´´ that I find more brutal with heavy blasts, furious riffs, and creepy desolating interludes. Lyrics are exceptional in this album it seems to attack not only Christianity, but Judaism and islam too, the diseases that break the human apart from their own selves. And, has many mythological aspects, is interesting to note that the ‘’sun ‘’ is frequently mentioned maybe as the meaning of god who represents the oppression. I can conclude it can be metaphors of common sense against stupidity, the arrival of your joy and your consciousness.

The full of adrenaline‘’Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer’’ and the imperial ‘’Ben Sahar’’ will remind you they still hold the scepter in this industry. Something that I find weird was the track title ‘’The Satanist’’ the details in the bass and the drum rolls arrangements are cool, but it has this rock and roll chorus in a black metal aspect. At the end ‘’O father O Satan O Sun’’ is a great final for the album, all the instruments make a good combination to sound with more profound intensity in a melancholic environment, is a different track than other behemoth stuff and is awesome.

In essence, Behemoth is offering something different, but their trademark is there, it seems they just found the way to express their emotions on this album better. My only complaint is the absence of heavy dragged riffs. Nergal voice sounds deeply convincing. I believe that after listening to this album more than once you can get completely absorbed in the message and emotions that they want to communicate through the music as a meaning of translation it. In one word enjoy it!

I have a love/hate relationship with Behemoth. Some of the work they have done is undeniably outstanding, while on the other hand their more recent work has been a pretty big miss with me. Where did it all go wrong?

To me, Demigod is the last truly great Behemoth album. I remember really enjoying that record when it came out, almost as much Zos Kia Cultus which came before it. They had the energy, the drive, the motivation and the most importantly, the riffs to drive their music across, not shying from using sheer power and force to suck you in.

What we have now seems to be a mere shadow of what was once a great band. It sounds like Behemoth are trying too hard to be Behemoth, if that makes sense. After being somewhat let down by “The Apostasy” (it had a hard album to follow) and even more let down by “Evangelion”, I was expecting greatness this time.

So why is “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” such a snooze fest? It sounds like it’s on the right path with an intro which is clearly classic Behemoth, yet it takes the song over two minutes to kick in properly, and when it does, it just sounds like a mess. I absolutely hate the mix on this album – the guitars sound like shit, you can’t hear the bass, and even the vocals seem to be recorded underwater or something. If this is the return of Behemoth, then oh dear. This is not what I would call a good start.

The next track however, “Furor Divinus” somewhat redeems the first track. At least it has some sort of pace to it, something to say. It’s nothing I would call great, but it’s not bad either.

After somewhat painfully plodding through the next few tracks, the problems with the album become quite clear. First of all, it sounds like shit. No, it’s not my headphone setup. If my Fiio DAC and Shure SE535’s can’t make it sound good, then it just simply doesn't sound good. If you were to put this CD in your car, it would probably sound like elephants having sex. Second, the album seems to be lacking in riffs. You know, actual riffs, which drive a song forward and stick in your head. The riffing here is very basic, more atmospheric rather than actual, solid rhythms. It’s just not a style I enjoy or find interesting.

I know I will get blasted for the next reason, and that’s the vocals. Nergal’s vocals are actually annoying the shit out of me now. He sounds like a mix of a hardcore screamer, and a black metal screecher . In short, he just sounds like shit. It sounds so pseudo “tough guy” that at times it just becomes downright annoying. Maybe it’s a good thing that the album sounds like it was recorded in a fucking volcano somewhere, as I believe the engineer forgot to turn the fucking reverb down somewhere along the way. Or maybe it was done on purpose and the boys thought it sounded cool and eerie – well it doesn't it just sounds fucking stupid, and even with a $1000 setup I can’t make out what’s going on half the time.

The more I listen to it, the more certain things start to annoy me. Like, stop spelling “of” incorrectly. The V and F keys are very close to the keyboard, perhaps it was just a typo back in the day and they thought it sounded more kvlt or something. But it doesn't. It just sounds fucking stupid. If it has some other purpose besides sounding fucking retarded, then someone please enlighten me. Though I’m quite sure it’s just an effort to appear more kvlt. Thing is, the joke or whatever it is wore off a long time ago. Now you just appear to be three dudes dressed in clothes no one wears anymore, paints their faces, and can’t even spell.

To top it all off, the riffs simply aren't that good. Just not good enough. For the most part, it just sounds like Morbid Angel worship. The guitars are nowhere near interesting enough, the bass is in the somewhere - if you strain for it than you can hear it. But when you do, unfortunately it's nothing special. The only acceptable part about these songs are the drumming - yet sadly, just good drum playing does not make good songs.

Behemoth seems to be focusing more on their costumes and photo shoots rather than writing actual good songs people can remember, which is a shame. Maybe there are some songs on here that will pass for good, problem is, you can’t hear them properly. Kind of like what happened to Deicide’s “Till Death Do Us Part” – that album just sounded like total shit, no amount of good songs could redeem it. Kind of the same thing here.

It really is disappointing. Right after I gave this album its final spin after spending about a week of my time on it, I put on “Decade of Therion” and was blown away. Clear, concise, proper song writing. No gimmicks and idiotic sections which only distract the listener. The only redeeming quality on this album is Inferno’s drumming. Too bad it’s mostly lost in a sea of bland riffs, amateurish orchestral sections and that shitty sound which they've adopted.

Such a shame. “The Apostasy”, “Evangelion” and now “The Satanist”.. that’s three strikes in a row, Behemoth.

"The Satanist" is the portal into which Behemoth's evolution, trials, tribulations, and triumphs all remain in dark meditation. I won't exhaust the long list of issues that landed the group in a state of dormancy for several years, but traces of Behemoth’s journey are more evident than ever throughout "The Satanist," which is an extremely significant restoration in both sound and style. I've always held the band's black metal releases above "The Apostasy" and other records based more on the foundations of death metal, but "The Satanist" stands with a profound element of power with more dynamism than their other works. "The Satanist" is a superb blend of Behemoth's musical evolution through growth and distress, towering in a renewed sense of vitality. It is exceptional work.

"The Satanist" is a synthesis of Behemoth's various eras yet something beyond them all; rebirth, a theme not foreign to the group, gives way to what is definitely the most profound musical direction of any testament before it. The black metal elements make a dramatic presence in the death metal spine, returning Behemoth to a form that would fit more in the vein of God Dethroned or Belphegor than, say, the Nile-ish works of yesteryears—the strengthening of these elements leads to an incredibly passionate and artistic assault. It's essentially a masterful culmination of all faces and masks worn by the band, led by the epic march of doom of "O Father O Satan O Sun!" and followed closely by "In the Absence ov Light," a sinister onslaught of dark atmosphere and ferocious riffing.

But I can't in good conscience downplay the rest of the record: the other songs dawn on a new age for Behemoth that eclipses most of their prior releases. Everything "The Satanist" offers makes it a massacre of blasphemous blasting, starting strong with the macabre atmosphere of the boiling "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" and progressing into the sin-loaded chambers of blackened death metal mastery throughout "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer" and "Messe Noire." The potent anthems are complimented by the tightest, strongest, most electrifying performances that have ever appeared on any Behemoth record; the unit sounds utterly ravenous and profane, especially Nergal, whose barks are clean and organic against the blackened backdrop and sound much better than the guttural bellows of his previous efforts.

I never would have guessed in a million years that an album of this quality was still in Behemoth's arsenal of cabalistic violence, but the Polish squad has reincarnated its craft and looks sharper than ever. Nergal's voice has never been stronger; the songwriting is extremely vigorous and dominant, leaving no track to capsize; Inferno's percussion remains top-notch; and the production satisfies the musical direction immeasurably. All in all, the blackened death metal direction of "The Satanist," whether it'd been intentional or not, leaves not a single throat of its impious tribe athirst. "The Satanist" is just fantastic from start to finish; it is Behemoth's finest endeavor, and a monumental victory in many forms.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

In truth, it was only a couple of years ago when I really began listening to Behemoth. The brutal drums and harsh guitar riffs were very indicative of Behemoth's 'blackened death' style, and of course Nergal has an incredibly distinctive voice. 'The Satanist' brings a new side to Behemoth, perhaps a more melodic style, but they seem to have pulled it off!

One of the most interesting things about the album is that it is able to mix different styles very well. For example, the first song, 'Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel' has a very slow tempo and has a major focus on Nergal's voice. The song 'Amen', however, is a fantastic example of why people hail Behemoth as a blackened death metal band. The drums are extremely quick, and the guitars are given a higher focus, with very complicated riffs accompanying the brutality of Nergal's voice. Somehow, the transitions between these two styles are pulled off quite well.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this album is the darkness of it. Recently, many bands have lost their focus on making music dark, and have focused on making it shocking. Dimmu Borgir's disappointing album 'Abrahadabra' is indicative of this. However, with the aptly named 'The Satanist', Behemoth have kept their music dark (for the most part) and have not relied on short, shocking lyrics. 'Ora Nobis Pro Lucifer' has extremely extensive lyrics that are not simply stating 'Hail Satan, Hail Satan, Hail Satan', but rather give a story of how and why one would hail Satan, which is an important distinction between blackened death metal and extreme metal. In the song 'O Father O Satan O Sun!', we even hear a thrashy guitar solo (a very impressive one). Behemoth have not completely lost their roots, though, as is shown by the song 'Furor Divinus'. The tempo and beat changes remind me of The Apostasy, with its distinctly different lead-ins and verses.

However, with the song 'In The Absence ov Light', we have a random acoustic bit that does not fit, with a speaking voice that rapidly moves into Nergal's harsh vocals, which, too, does not fit. With this song and parts of the others, there is a feel that Behemoth have tried to make their music more extreme, and rather unfortunately, they have not entirely pulled it off. In the same song (...ov Light), we have what is almost a breakdown, something not generally found in Behemoth songs, but which could potentially appeal to the masses. This is the disappointing bit of the album. While they have kept their dark roots and added some melody into it, with parts of the album, they have progressed with the times to the point of moving towards melodic death metal. I have no problem with melodic death metal, Amon Amarth is one of my all-time favorite bands. But it's not Behemoth. Behemoth is brutal and dark and makes people around you worry about sitting next to you, but it makes you remember why death metal can mean something to you. The lyrics remain meaningful, the riffs are still metal, but something is missing that makes Behemoth distinct from the rest of death metal.

This album, then, is a great listen if you want something dark and something that keeps a desire to create metal separate from a desire to create shock. However, if you're looking for old Behemoth, this is not the album for you. Artists, though, have every right to progress their music as they see fit, and Behemoth have done just that. They've progressed, for the moment, it's worked out, but we've yet to see if they can keep their blackened death roots and incorporate it into the rest of their work. And after a battle with leukemia, it's very difficult to criticize Nergal, as he's released a properly great metal album.

"I believe neither in god nor in reason... give me a man, let him be like me"
~Witold Gombrowicz "The Wedding"

The Satanist was reborn and he spreads the word of the flawed god. It's not a secret that behind all the Behemoth image and occult-based ideology, hides a rather simple yet powerful concept. Instead of looking for the absolute in idealized religious dogmas or the sterile abstraction of science, you should embrace the scarred and imperfect... human.

Even though the message Nergal & Co are spreading is a quite noticeable part of the album, it's the music, obviously, what really matters here. And let me tell you, in terms of originality, production and general flow, this is the best Behemoth album to date. They have at last freed themselves of restraints of their hallmarks. I love how balanced the influences are here - the wind symphonic parts are only where they should be, sound very organic and add tons of atmosphere. Riffs are dense, brutal yet still feel very natural. The band is not afraid to venture into a slower, apocalyptic doom metal sound, or to explore sinister realms of atmospheric black metal. With its flawless pacing, eclectic approach and flying solos, however, The Satanist is first and foremost a heavy metal album. A very heavy metal album. Heavy as hell. Well, anyway...

The Satanist is as inwardly conflicted, full of terror and passion as any of us. I've never really been a fan of the band, but this time round Nergal finally established himself as one of the best blacksmiths in modern extreme rock music. Behemoth's powerful blend of black and death metal was heated in flames of passion and forged with the hammer of creativity. Albums like this usually stand the test of time.

-- Originally written for Metal Music Archives [www.metalmusicarchives.com] --

The news of Nergal's recovery from his struggle with leukemia brought the winds of hope regarding a new Behemoth release. In 2012, all these hopes were materialized as the Polish blackened death metal titans entered the rehearsals room, and started writing new songs for their future album. A few months later, in mid 2013, the title of the new album was announced, and I thought I misread something at first. "The Satanist", why on Earth would any serious and mature band name their album like that? No, really? Disappointed by the title, I expected the album to be worthless...

And so came the release of the first official track (apart from live recordings), entitled "Blow your trumpets, Gabriel!". I gotta admit I was caught unprepared, without expecting how awesome the track would sound. A different, slower intro builds up into one of the most brutal breakdowns in the whole Behemoth discography, just as "Alas Lord is Upon Me" from their previous release, Evangelion, culminates a long buildup with an outburst of energy and hate. The outro to the song is mind-blowing, the blast beats being backed by eery, haunting trumpet sounds that enforce the title. Suddenly, I thought this album might just be better than their previous works, and decided to ignore the horrible title and give it a listen as soon as it appeared. "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer" was the next track released, only two or three weeks prior to the release of the CD. The song is a monument of aggression, anger, while being melodic and flowing at the same time.

Overall, I'd describe the album as a rather unexpected balance of brutality, chaotic and mind-blowing structures, aggressive blast-beats and beauty, epic passages, melodic choruses and complex riffs. Technically, the album is not superior, but being technical doesn't make an album great. Tracks such as "Amen" are incredibly brutal, Nergal delivering crushing and merciless vocals, matched by the extremely fast drumming Inferno is best known for. Other songs, such as "Messe Noire" or "Ben Sahar" are slower and less brutal, but they show a change in Behemoth's style. Their atmosphere is bleak, dark, but not in the way doom metal is, instead, offering images of the Dark Ages, filth, disease, death and misery. The closing track of the album combines some unusual vocals, not seen in other releases. The almost chanted vocals fit perfectly with the instrumental, and towards the end, the spoken part is of breathtaking beauty, being melancholic and epic at the same time, much in the way of "He Who Breeds Pestilence", off their 2009 album. The drums seem like a power factory, relentless, inexhaustible, dead-on time. Another nice thing is the progressive manner of the album: instead of being linear, the songs evolve and progress constantly, making it a very interesting release.

Lyrically, Krzysztof Azarewicz and Nergal did the same great job from a linguistic point of view. The texts are rich in archaisms, unusual words that contribute to the overall feeling of the album. Structures such as "Great volcano ov excrement" are, however dull it might seem, an important part to the wholeness of the album. However, given the fact that Behemoth have been around for 23 years now, I think that still sticking to the same "satanic" line is...immature. Even though I know they tried to deal with a metaphoric meaning of the word "satan", it's overused and fails to achieve it's purpose. The texts on their previous recordings are way better, without being childish... I mean, what's the point in abusing of the whole "satanic" shit, when you could be blasphemous and incisive in a clever, metaphorical way (as seen in their previous releases).

So, in the end, it's a great, great, great release. I am extremely impressed by the music, and consider it's an album worth listening to. However, the stupid and immature title takes away points for this album, as do the lyrics. Come on, the guys are in their late 30's, why stick to the exceedingly satanic imagery? This is a rebellion suitable for a band that has just begun and the members are only 17, when it's "cool" to be in league with the unholy...

Having reinvented themselves a number of times in the past, Behemoth has done it yet again with their tenth and latest full-length offering, “The Satanist”. Much has been made of Nergal’s inspirational return to the stage and his triumph over Leukemia so it goes without saying that they have a thing or two to prove this time around. However, whether “The Satanist” lives up to the hype is largely a matter of personal opinion. This is an album that will no doubt separate the casual listeners from the diehard fans. One should approach this listening experience armed with the knowledge this it is, in fact, a much slower paced album than usual.

Having said that, this latest opus can still be perceived as a logical next step from its predecessor, “Evangelion”. Where songs like “Lucifer” and “Alas, the Lord is Upon Me” reintroduced an eerie black metal aesthetic that had been absent from their music for quite some time, “The Satanist” reiterates this and expands upon it greatly. Also like “Evangelion”, the album does not go without its fair share of blast beat fury. I’m pleased to say that tracks like “Furor Divinus” and “Amen” shred with the best of their back catalogue, but overall the emphasis is much more on atmosphere rather than blasturbation.

As should be expected from an artist of Adam Darski’s caliber, this record takes you on a journey and practically demands to be listened to from start to finish. The opening cut and lead single, “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel”, sets the perfect primer for the rest of the CD and sums up nicely the diversity on display here. However, things don’t get really interesting until the title track and its follow-up, “Ben Sahar”. Together, these two songs see Darski & Co. exploring some unfamiliar soundscapes and territories that are beyond description, but rest assured when you hear them you will stop whatever it is you’re doing and take notice.

Perhaps the best compliment I can give this record is that each song has it’s own unique character and identity that makes it unmistakably different from the others. Of course, it also has its unifying themes that bring it all together as well. There are some choirs, horns, synths and other such ear-candy that weave their way throughout the album with such subtlety as to only enhance the music and are neither distracting nor take away from the other instruments. Also present are a number of guitar solos that have a curious vintage flair to them. This is not entirely out of place as it seems an appropriate match for the cover art, but one has to speculate what brought this out of Nergal.

The only major criticism I have of this album is that there are some avant-garde qualities to the arrangements that make for an overall sound that is at times maybe a little too similar to Deathspell Omega, a group Darski happens to be a huge fan of. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there is something to be said for a band that will stick to their guns rather than alter their sound to resemble someone else. Besides that, an eyebrow-raising moment on “In the Absence ov Light” is the only other negative thing this critic has to say about “The Satanist”.

As stated earlier, this album is likely to cause a schism amongst Behemoth’s fans. Some will praise it as a breath of fresh air, a conceptual masterpiece, etc. Still, others will say that the latest offering from Poland’s finest is too far removed from their earlier work. Indeed, it is difficult at moments to believe that this is the same group that released “Demigod” just 10 short years ago. Only time will tell how this new opus will be remembered. My impression is that it is what it is: an honest to god record, straight from the heart, played with conviction, that compromises for no one. Viva blasfemia!

Highlights: Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, Amen, the Satanist, Ben Sahar

Little has the extreme metal world not known of the difficulties in the build-up to Behemoth's 10th album, the beautifully blunt, brutally brazen "The Satanist". Strong personalities like Nergal simply don't roll over to let life-threatening illnesses take hold. Instead every ounce of strength is mustered in overcoming the odds, meaning such a starkly titled release should be seen as nothing but a victorious proclamation on behalf of their fantastically captivating and confident mainman.

It takes a certain amount of balls to do anything different in the stymied extreme metal scene, and here, for the past few albums at least, Behemoth have taken that challenge to heart. Thematically the band look into the Thelema and Satanism in thought-provoking ways - part of the irony of such an album title than many are sure to read the wrong way - while leading your 'come-back' album with a track titled "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" is definitely a means with which to turn heads. That song though is one of the most disappointing of the nine. The slow, pounding opening gives way to Nergal's spittle vocals with (sampled) brass sounds and "Hail!" chants effectively building tension as the song progresses, but the crescendo it reaches is messy and over-layered, with staccato riffing sitting uneasily with the angelic heavenly vocals and Inferno's merciless pounding behind the skins. It sounds like Behemoth simply trying too hard to be extreme at these points, while I imagine this forced brutality and reliance on sampling will need a certain amount of artificial help to work well live.

"Furor Divinus" which follows is a big improvement. The early riffing reminding me of Weapon before the blasting speeds up into Belphegor-esque proportions, settling on a blastbeat-driven and decidedly frosty black metal lead rhythm. Such moments bring to mind their 2002 effort "Zos Kia Cultus", my bet for the all-round strongest effort from the Poles, so certainly no bad thing. Suddenly finishing and leading into Nergal proclaiming "I believe in Satan!" for the opening of "Messe Noire", this again displays signs of the band losing control of the reins at the crucial moment as the unsettling synth sounds struggle to adapt to the thumping riffs of Orion and Seth alongside it. The excellent, victorious solos in the latter stages do end the song on a high note before "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer" rolls into action with perhaps the best riff of the album. It's classic Behemoth all over with Nergal espousing both diction and lead riffing like they're going out of fashion and a much better flow thanks to the removal of much of the synth which cluttered the earlier songs, positively guaranteeing the inclusion of this one in upcoming setlists.

"Amen" is the kind of punchy, vicious assault on the senses that would make Marduk proud, although the clarity of their force gets a little lost in amongst Inferno's battery. The song slows to a bass-led interlude closing in the same destructive in which it begun, leading into the nuanced opening of the slower title track. It's melodic lead guitar lines somewhat drown out the backing synth harmonies as the song somewhat plods along devoid of the purpose that is apparent elsewhere, while "Ben Sahar" commences in a similarly progressive manner til the breakout of an archetype Behemoth neck-snapping tempo leads the song towards "In the Absence Ov Light". The deathly apocalypse that is it's rambunctious blastbeat-infested opening marks the first of three distinct sections, making way for a brass-backed spoken word interjection from Nergal - in Polish, natch - before viciously breaking for destructive waters again. The contrast of heavy to soft in the song perhaps sounds odd on paper but oh boy does it work well. Closer "O Father O Satan O Sun!" is the most thoughtful in construction of the lot, bookending the album in two slower tracks and in turn revealing Nergal's disposition to unearthly forces with an interesting dialogue through the progression of the song that only ends when the fading sounds of amplification and brass herald their final call.

Regardless of the result of their efforts I have never failed to be impressed with the honesty and tenacity of Nergal, through a time in which he has reached celebrity status in his homeland and conquered serious illness. No thoughts of softening their stance, "The Satanist" marks a return of epic proportions and, even if such a sheer force of will has sent a few of the tracks past the periphery of effectiveness, one is hard-pressed to not feel thankful for what this unbowed foursome bring to the world of extreme metal.

Originall written for www.Rockfreaks.net