Behemoth

[Jackie]

My girlfriend's (second) favorite band is quickly becoming one of those rare black/death metal bands I like.

At first these guys seemed to me like your average black metal that evolved to blackened death metal, you know, growling, blast beats etc.
Then I copied three songs to my iPod - Blackest ov the Black, Horns ov Baphomet, and Ov Fire and The Void... I gave them a "Jackie thorough listen", and I found that I really dig Nergal's vocals and phrase delivery. He has this special tone of growl that makes it not only sound powerful and beastly as the genre "demands", but it seems so natural, especially on Apostasy and Zos Kia Cvltvs, I kinda have mixed feelings about the Demigod vocals though, they are brutal but the constant double-layer is just too much and diction suffers a little. I was able to figure out his technique though and I FINALLY found a growl I can throw into our songs just as spice that sounds and feels right to me. It's a very energy-demanding vocal style though so I have to work on it, trouble is it's loud and I don't really feel like shouting in my house while mom sleeps and dad's recording xD

The tone is cool too, though I don't like the new one's tones on some songs. As far as tone is concerned, I found best results with either my MESA Recto preset or slaving the JVM OD2 Red into the 2:90. Nergal uses a Laboga Mr. Hector, a Polish amp maker's boutique-ish metal beast. Nice stuff.

The drumming surprised me too, despite the blasting, Inferno knows how to use his raw speed and slow bombing in a nice atmospheric way and to build/maintain tension and aggression and not just mindlessly blast away.

Last thing I want to mention, the lyrics... these took the most time to grow on me. They are mostly written in an old-English kind of "medieval" style and tone, so I had to get used to the "HARK!"s and "thou art" and stuff, but I think it adds to their "sounds like Nebuchadnezzar II wrote it" kind of sound. I like that despite the fact that he likes to shout "Satan, brothers" and other nonsense live, the lyrics paint a nice mysterious image of the occult and magick (Thelema, Zos Kia Cultus, Egyptians etc., early stuff was paganism too) and forgotten rather than just gore (stereotypical death metal) or cheesy satanistic wannabe epic and sometimes "lets burn churches" shit (stereotypical black metal). They're pretty majestic, some songs.

I really let the keyboard rip on this one... I just felt like sharing, that's what this place is for right?

Anyway... Oh, Serpent and Lion!
My favorite song right now is Horns ov Baphomet, don't ask me why it's not anything special, but I just love the way the vocals burst over the droning drop B riff, and that little harmonic melody at the end, that's my kinda scale.

[Jackie]

Not a lot of love for blackened death I guess. Oh well, I'm still blasting this shit through my head and I love it

[Todd Zila]

Thats cool Jackie. Im actualy glad you posted this (and comentary ) I dont hear the term "black metal" here in the states (usa) as much. But I have a few friends from your side of the water that are way into it (the ones I am refering to are from sweden, altho far from you). It seems like that type thing is huge over there with young people. Japan has some really crazy stuff too.

... death metal is big here, but it is slightly different. It seems as though adding electronic type sounds is a big thing now too. (digital samples etc) then you have the "dubstep" that is total electronic mayhem (not really my thing)

anyway cool post

[Bam Bam]

I like to listen to Behemoth and some other bands of the same ilk sometimes when I'm in the mood for some monstrous metal guitar mayhem. It's not my "go to" style of music, but it's cool nonetheless. I have trouble wrapping my head around the myriad of supposed subgenres of metal these days. I don't give a rat's ass if they're calling it death metal or grindcore or black metal or whatever the "genre du jour" might be at the moment. I listen. If it's well-written, well-played and well-recorded, I'll like it. Simple as that.

Bam

[Jackie]

New album is kick ass as hell!

[Evilriffz]

New album is kick ass as hell!

I was actually just going to ask if you had listened to "The Satanist". XM has been blasting a few songs from it and it has A LOT of dynamics for the style of music. Awesome stuff.

[Vomitile]

great band!!!!!!!!!!! saw them two times live , the first was hellfest 2012 right after nergal's health issue was gone, then again hellfest 2014 . Both times were amazing!!!!!! great musician and showmen as well!! if you like behemoth listen to HATE they are very similar!! both polish btw