Behemoth – I loved you at your darkest

Being a black metal band generally seems to involve playing to audiences small enough that the tiniest of venues is too large, and if any band dares to actually become successful the black metal audiences tend to desert them as “too mainstream”. Given that you’d be forgiven for wondering why any band would choose a genre that seems obsessed with not having success. Behemoth are an incredibly rare band – they’re a band that started as Black metal and are still heavily linked to black metal but have also achieved success – both commercial and critical. Their music is normally described as “Blackened death metal” as it’s more a blend of black metal and death metal. It’s a career that was heading upwards till 2010 when Nergal’s battle with leukemia put things on hold – and many fans feared it was the end of Behemoth. After his recovery though the band has gone from strength to strength, releasing the excellent “The Satanist” album, and now it’s successor, “I loved you at your darkest”

“It doesn’t get more blasphemous than this,” declares Behomoth mastermind, Nergal about the band’s upcoming album, I Loved You At Your Darkest. “It’s a verse from the Bible,” Nergal reveals. “It’s actually a quote from Jesus Christ himself. For Behemoth to use it as the basis of our record, it’s sacrilege to the extreme.”. Sadly Nergal appears to be misinformed – while that line is often quoted as being in the bible (Romans 5:8 to be precise) the line doesnt actually appear in any version of the bible I’ve checked (the actual verse is “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”. Same spirit but different words

The album kicks off with a childrens choir which isn’t something I’d expected. It seems to be there for shock value more than anything else with it’s lyrics including “Jesus Christ, I forgive you not” which is sure to anger the Polish state which has previously prosecuted Nergal for Blasphemy. It doesnt really work very well as an intro to the first real track – Wolves ov Siberia, which reinforces my view it’s there for shock value and to stick two fingers up at people accusing the band of blasphemy

Check out the video for Wolves ov Siberia…

It’s an epic album – it’s heavy as hell with insane drumming, crushingly heavy guitarss – everything you’d expect from blackened death metal, but it’s far more than that – you’ve got choirs for a start which add an extra dimension, and there’s a clear tendency to experiment with elements that are more rock than metal. It’s a sign that the band are continually looking to evolve rather than let themselves be stuck in a rut making the same album over and over again. It’s a difficult balance to get right though – as the sound changes there’s always a risk of alienating existing fans as you gain new ones, but I think Behemoth have got it right – they’ve grown their sound with this album rather than changing musical direction.

A fantastic release from Behemoth.

Track listing:

1. Solve (Intro)
2. Wolves ov Siberia
3. God = Dog
4. Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica
5. Bartzabel
6. If Crucifixtion Was Not Enough
7. Angelvs XIII
8. Sabbath Mater
9. Havohej Pantocrator
10. Rom 5 8
11. We Are the Next 1000 Years
12. Coagula (Outro)