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Rating: The fourth album of Behemoth, "Satanica", saw the light in 1999. It's a "hybrid" generated from the fusion of Death and Black Metal. The Polish band distances itself from its origins' sound and moves towards more complex and sophisticated music, which their genre did not allow, as Black is famous for its simplicity.
This "split" for Behemoth is equivalent to the starting point for a climb to success in the world of extreme metal. Nergal and Inferno, with the addition of L-Kaos as a second guitarist, produce a truly remarkable product. Violence, technique, and expressiveness are each at the service of the other to create an ensemble of great level.
The tracks are powerful, supported by a pounding rhythm that sometimes gives way to slowdowns where "melodic" openings occur. These, in particular, are truly appreciable, merging perfectly with the rest of the track without clashing or feeling out of place. The guitar riffs are imaginative and technically challenging, entering the listener's mind without ever leaving, creating a hypnotic effect. The solos are really very special, technical, varied, unpredictable; it's truly a pleasure to hear the notes flow one after the other without being able to imagine where this music will take us. Furthermore, at the end of the tracks, they opted to insert brief synthesizer pieces, perhaps this instrument doesn't quite fit with the harsh soul of the album, but the final result is not negative at all; on the contrary, the synth manages to give a very evocative atmosphere to each conclusion. The vocals are not very well defined, a bit scream, a bit growl, a bit filtered, but despite that, they are never unpleasant to the ear and always right on point; there is not a vocal intervention that seems out of place.
Songs like "Decade Of Therion" and "Ceremony Of Shiva" are true pearls, where every element intertwines in a play of sounds that cannot leave the listener indifferent, but also tracks like "LAM" and "Chant Of Eschaton 2000" are of very good level.
In essence, Behemoth are truly the authors of a great performance, "Demigod", considered by many their masterpiece, is nothing but the child of this wonderful work called "Satanica".
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Decade of Therion (03:20)
ΑΠΟ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΚΟΔΑΙΜΟΝΟΣ!
ΑΠΟ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΚΟΔΑΙΜΟΝΟΣ!
We transgress the context of commonplacenes
We deny normality, trample morality
We destroy angels with sound
We destroy angels with silence
Currents of tantric anarchy seize our bodies
Into the cosmic dance of four scythes
The curtains of Absurd Theatre are raised
Synchronicity - Mother Chaos on the stage
"Wisdom says: be strong!"
Thrilling words are spreading down the spine
Vibrating... "be strong!"
Exhausted I'm running towards the last shines of consciousness
Which is absorbed by shadows of madness
ΑΠΟ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΚΟΔΑΙΜΟΝΟΣ!
ΑΠΟ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΚΟΔΑΙΜΟΝΟΣ!
Here are the star and the snake servants;
-they rise the hexagram
Sun - in the triangle hidden ; Sight - sacred visions entwined
And union with Nothingness body I'll find
Strength - go along the Mars path, fighting if we must;
Light - oh, you are Ahathoor, goddess of blue sky
There is might of dawn, in non-quality state I remain
Of commonness crippled time or sand - glass you don't see again
Sigillum dei, picture of myself I'm drawing
With life, venom and hell I'm sprinkling it
His name is Esial, I want him more
02 LAM (04:14)
Children of technocracy invoke synthetic spirits
Plastic crosses choke perspiring necks
MAAT - I cast dices, but curtain of future is still hermetic closed
Rise! Rise up my Soror, and you, my Father -
High! Towards the stars when the white fire
Which purifies and melts all false sacrament
Ashes' power equal thousands suns
Mysterys' structures are like chaos of known
Objectivism is subjective mandala of reality
Fractals - flaming spaces consume ego's order
Kaos Keraunos Kybernetos
Lamipsos
Illumination in the face of thousand faces
Gnosis obtained by descending into the tunnels of self - knowing
When thunders of ecstasy strike black waves of unconscious sea
I swim, float, drift, scream... "Aiwasss"
And barriers of self change in legion of escaping bats
L.V.X.
03 Ceremony of Shiva (03:34)
Avatars of powers from four worlds
Bathed me in jewels of belief
I drink the nectar of Goddess - my eternal mistress
I am Shiva, Hadit or Beast himself
And multitude of forms surpasses myself
I kneel before Isis, I - her god and slave
Coiled serpent lifts up his head and looks in my eyes
Third power and third eye create The One
I am who I am not
I negate and confirm
I transgress - it is real!
Wheels of change turn with my breath
I touch the red - hot firmament (of golden darkenings of heavens)
And stars are falling down onto every side of world
With my tongue I penetrate scarlet abysses of Kteis
Overflowing my body with thrill and heart with warmth
Suddenly I'm shooting forth venom
'Cause I, I became a snake who rounds her flesh
Here and now, here and now
04 Of Sephirotic Transformation and Carnality (04:32)
Madness creeps through arteries of Grand Cosmic Body
Higher and lover, towards all directions
It violates old laws, repeals all orders
And seeks infinity in holy letters
Child in crown its guide - Ever Coming Son
But it rambles suspended between emanations of Increasing and Descending
Thousand paths across thousand spheres
Mind is torn apart by Macrocosmic Snowflake
Death!
Prismatic trees grow from mad rites
The knowledge of geometry elevated to the dignity of living substance
The Fool in the Universe knows nothing as usual
Transubstantiation of excrement and Styx waters is done!
Carnal alchemy
Sephirotic transformation
In new body god incarnates
Beyond duality, beyond understanding
Castrated man, bastard, secret chief is born
He builds the bridge of agreement -
- spectre of his fall
And he is devoured by the fire of the Abyss
05 The Sermon to the Hypocrites (05:04)
O, ye whose future is in other hands!
Foul feeders! Slipped, are ye on you excrement?
Parasites! Having the world lousy,
Imagine ye are of significance to Heaven
I, who enjoy my body
[I] would rather pack with wolves
than enter your pest - houses
Sensation... Nutrition... Mastication... Procreation...!
This is your blind - worm cycle
Know ye of nothing further than your own stench?
Heaven is indifferent to your salvation or catastrophe
The sword - trust - not salve - I bring!
Honest was Sodom!
Your theology is a slime - pit of gibberish become ethics
In your world, where ignorance and deceit constitute felicity
Everything ends miserably -
- besmirched with fratricidal blood.
06 The Alchemist's Dream (05:42)
Welcome to Theatre of Absurd
When the world and rason are audience
And actor illusion and experience only
Here gleams shiny mandala
In the chamber of creation and annihilation
And Lingam links with Yoni wisdom stone make
There is neither space nor time
Books are read backwards or from all side
Everything Will sinks and tears down phantom of mourning
Picture of universe in this simple formula -
"Love is the Law"
Proverb of juggler on the gate engraved
That life is delight
That death is also life
07 Chant for Eschaton 2000 (05:20)
Fly, fly high my Black Eagle
Let golden thread bind our eyes
May our minds and hearts blood unite
On your wings carry me over the abyss
Beyond The Reason and across the burning seas
Then, with your claw tear the earth to the halves
And usher me into the secrets of her bowels
Down to the light of the beginning and the end which shimmers
Circle! Round and round my Black Eagle
Let our senses be touched by ultimate pleasure
May the passion of hunting become all - devouring
Slash! Slash with your beak
Remove all gods from my way, and thoughts, and sorrows
And let me trespass the barriers of fear
Scream! Let the whole cosmos tremble
May echoes become my the sweetest mantra
Spirit of Freedom! Eternal Wanderer! Joyfull Solitude!
Higher and higher towards the stars of Awareness
Let worlds of imagination and fact become one
I'm you and you are me
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Other reviews
By post-ino
The mix between death and black here is carried out skillfully and never seems to be a cut and paste of their works from the early '00s.
'O Father, O Satan, O Sun!' incorporates practically all the aforementioned sounds without ever seeming redundant and constantly keeping the listener’s attention alive.
