Behemoth- The Satanist (2014)

Behemoth- The Satanist (2014)

Just when you thought Poland’s Behemoth were a thing of the past, they come back out of nowhere with a truly winning record aptly titled The Satanist, and really ready to reinstall themselves as some of the best extreme music merchandisers in the world, yes, Poland mainstream kind of absorbed them in the past, but life has hardened main man Nergal, who triumphant from his battle with leukemia has received new life to feed the beast, and the beast has just become bitter and angrier.

The Satanist opens with the wonderful and devastating Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, a great titled and a great tune, with a powerful bass brought forward in the mix, Nergal voice appearing more malevolent than in past, and a song that lurks painfully, like an unstoppable and monstrous force reaching to you, no matter how fast you can run, the apocalyptic nature of the tune finally ends up devouring you, the complex layered sounds work to great effect, and the band really comes out of hell with a powerful sound, a hurricane a devastating force of nature that just cannot be stopped, with the right touches of symphonic black metal and brutal death metal when each one is really needed, making them a devastating noise artifact, just check the furious beginning of Furor Divinus, where the band again hits its peak, powerful drumming, amazing epic guitars and Nergal demonic growls, making a powerful mark in the mind of the listener, Is Behemoth one of this year greatest extreme metal exponents? I bet they could, just give a listen to the tremendous way the band unleash their attack without going crazy with blast beats and becoming a brutally revolving merciless machine, with powerful shots as beats.

Messe Noire is another powerful offering from this renewed band, they sound mature and wild at the same time, they know when to apply their maximum discharge for best effect and they balance their songs in a very clever way, they sound perfectly tuned, with intensity reaching the top, not wasting a single note and not falling into senseless symphonic arrangements, yes, they sound epic, but at the same time brutally effective and lethal waiting for the right moment to free their most demonic attack, like in Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, were truly the gates of hell are opened and chaos reign supreme, the band excels in delivering a powerful and amusing display of energy, combining each of the performance of their instruments to amazing results, the drumming, the bass and the guitars ensemble in a perfect way, keyboards and vocals become the tip of this amazing and totally volatile mix, making the band unbeatable at this precise moment, just as the second part of the song shows vehemently.

Brutal is a word that can’t make enough justice to the beginning of Amen, the band is powerful beyond our imagination and they manage to perfectly capture this on tape, in what might be some of BM/DM most brutal recorded moments, as it all meshes and clashes like hell really rising from the bottom of earth.

Even when the band slows down a little on the title track, they sound so confident, so full of themselves, having learned perfectly the tools of the trade and assuming their position as truly veterans and ambassadors of Poland`s incredible extreme musical scene, just reaching magnificence on the elegant Ben Sahar, with rhythms and arrangement building slowly a powerful armor for the tune, with Nergal reaching epic status as drums, guitars, bass and keyboards revolve around him, the result is simply astonishing, and as the records reaches its final part, we are simply demolished by the mighty In The Absence OV Light, were Nergal discharges his most vicious and most painful musical tricks.

The Satanist comes in a perfect time, just as the years starts and we seriously miss powerful and devastating music, Behemot surprise us with a top caliber recording, one that shows the band at the peak of their power long after some of us thought they were thru.