Back in 2009, Behemoth reached an artistic and commercial peak with the release of 'Evangelion’, which trumped all of their previous outings and topped the album charts in their native Poland.
A year later, frontman Adam 'Nergal' Darski was diagnosed with leukaemia. With his life and his legacy in the balance, Nergal fought back and following a bone marrow transplant began his journey to recovery. Now, five years on from ‘Evangelion’, Behemoth are back with ‘The Satanist’, an inspiring, expansive work of art.
Behemoth have always fully immersed themselves in any project they happen to be undertaking, and this is no different. In fact, Nergal's blood was mixed with the paint used to create Denis Forkas’ cover artwork.
Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, the opening song, oozes from the speakers like a poisonous mist. The sinister, astronomically evil opening riff is soon followed by bone-crunchingly crisp drums, giving away the record’s trump card: everything just sounds perfect.
Nergal's venomous bark is just monstrous here. On Messe Noire he sounds as though a bottle of bleach and razors have been shoved down his larynx, while the strained roars on the title track are unlike anything he's done before.
The grandiose, epic tone of the album is also supercharged by the inclusion of a choir, making Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel all the more haunting. The orchestral additions, including trumpets, naturally, are an extra cherry aloft the fetid, rotting remains of the cake.
The musicianship, songwriting, even the sense of pure, unadulterated evil have been supremely amped up, making for an intense, encapsulating experience. No second is wasted and every one of the nine songs are equal in both importance and quality.
Messe Noire ends with a truly victorious guitar solo, one that wouldn't sound out of place on a classic rock album, while the main riff to Ben Sahar must be cued up on Godzilla's iPod as he levels cities. Meanwhile, a slinky guitar melody builds at the beginning of the mid-tempo title track, proving to be a tactically placed change of pace and paving the way for Nergal's unapologetically raw vocals. They burst with emotion as the song ends with a gurgled roar and an obscene double kick assault, turning a ballad into an all-out thrash fest.
O Father O Satan O Sun! utilises a lone bass riff as a warning of things to come before an unholy cacophony of smouldering guitar and savage vocals join the fold. It's completely overblown and gratuitously ambitious, but Behemoth execute it with absolute ease.
No other big-hitters at the black, or death, end of the metal spectrum have painted a picture as vivid as 'The Satanist' in recent times. It is, without a doubt, one of the the most powerful extreme metal offerings to arrive this side of the millennium.
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