Behemoth
Demigod

THE REVIEW

Reviewing a metal album is always a challenge, especially for someone like me who inevitably tends to overestimate the genre, given that I adore it madly. Sorry... but I don't do it on purpose, I try to be critical, but in the end, I always find myself (de)scribing what I like, or at least what strikes me, surprises me.
Behemoth hit their mark, go straight to the point, devastate mercilessly as they pass. I usually take some time to "digest" this type of sound, which is cold, dark, I dare say glacial: we are talking about a black band "converted" to death (forgive the expression...).

This album, as I reiterate later, has the quality of being fundamentally accessible, despite being "heavy": this is because when musicians know how to play, they know how to "fill", they also know how to be listened to. It's not easy. It's hard to object to anything on the technical side, let alone on the stylistic one. Nergal's voice and ferocious guitar riffs, combined with his unusual taste for solos (and you'll hear several magnificent ones), some atmospheric arpeggios, some time changes worthy of the best prog bands, and Inferno, the drummer, precise as a clock, gave me immense pleasure. Bassist Orion is not very audible, but he is there: for someone, this exaggeration of the "mid-highs" might be a flaw, for me, it is a very precise stylistic choice - similar to that of Immortal - that gives an idea of a sound that evokes the most absolute cold. Good work also from the bassist anyway: very consistent and compact sound. If you are familiar with the fury of Immortal and the technique of Nile (by the way, the guitarist of the "Egyptologist" combo Karl Sanders performs a solo in "Xul"), you can have an idea of how "demigod" sounds.

This that follows is a very subjective impression: the album is hyper-technical and hyper-fast and hyper growl, but it is "listenable" (um, I can already hear them, the purists... :)), "fluid", like... let's say, "Reign in Blood" by Slayer. This group of Poles shows truly uncommon skill and originality, and confirms that when we talk about music, we should abandon any nationalism... ten years ago, indeed, we were raving about American death, then Norwegian black, then Swedish death (Swedish death...), then Italian rock, with English rock... not to mention that "every now and then" there are ALSO excellent Brazilian, Polish, Yugoslav, Greek, or Japanese bands, yes, little known but often superior to their renowned counterparts made in the USA, England & CO. And here we stubbornly indulge with whatever the (pseudo) music magazines thrust upon us... thank goodness for the underground (and the internet)!
Behemoth, in fact, fall into the (fortunate) "category" of metal "underground & no-compromise": tight rhythms, sounds rich in dissonances, maximum emphasis on the use of growling (I feel the voice is a bit filtered, maybe I'm wrong: without finding anything wrong in this, for goodness' sake). The production is definitely up to par, even in the most chaotic moments every note can be discerned.

To conclude: if you love minimal sounds, and you are willing to hear some dark (death/black) metal as it hasn't been heard for a while, make yourselves comfortable... "all things stir in me with joy and suffering my sermon stead fast and proud there is nothing but god in me"