Behemoth - The Satanist

(CD Album Review)

****
Poland's Finest Release their masterpiece!

With it being five years since Behemoth's last album and the well documented case of main songwriter Nergal grabbing Leukemia by the bullocks and telling it to f**k off. It's seems forgotten that the bands last album 'Evandelion' was one of the finest Death Metal / Metal record ever recorded. At the time of just before Nergal's diagnosis the band were on their way to being one of Extreme Metal's most important bands and jumping into the mainstream anyway.

There was every reason to believe that the band's follow up was going to be catastrophic in all the right was regardless. With 'The Satanist' we have a band reborn and with a new focus and they have delivered a piece of art as a statement. One they have delivered with no regard for what the world thinks and with sales and profile status the last thing on their mind. The Album opens with 'Blow you trumpets Gabriel' a bleak, dangerous sounding song which builds to a astonishing end and when the actual horns kick in it actually sounds like the end is about to begin.

Opening with a slower paced song indicates the band are in no rush to make their point. The second track is when we get a hailstorm of blast beats and the more familiar Behemoth is here. 'Messe Noire' has Nergal sounding at his most venomous, this track is where we see a more stylistic change in their writing. The band started off as Black Metal and while keeping with the imagiary the musicality over time has merged more into a Technical Death Metal and they have mixed this with middle eastern tones.

These tones have merged into the background of the music and they sound more in the Metal genre than they have in years. This album as a whole has more in common with God Seed or Ihsahn then say Hate Eternal or Nile. Tracks like 'Amen' and 'Ora pro Nobis Lucifer' tread more familiar ground while title track 'The Satanist' is about as close to accessible as Behemoth come! Take the vocals and lyrical content aside and you have an almost post-punk song! that is until the apocalyptic ending of course. Closer 'O Father, O Satan O Sun' is the bands new anthem bringing the album to a victorious finish.

Behemoth have always stood out among the crowd and never limited themselves to a genre. This album transcends genre's and simply a powerful piece of music. It takes a few listens to fully sink in. Personally 'Evangelion' is still my favorite but I won't argue Behemoth have totally outdone themselves on this album. This is Behemoth at their most potent. It's a stunning piece of work.