Behemoth

A Polish black metal band with affinities toward old Immortal, a footnote to the first wave of black metal.

From the Pagan Vastlands...
Wild Rags
1995

Production: Fuzzy and distorted, unclear jambox bedroom production that fits the atmospheric nature of the music.
Review: The dominant influence here is Immortal, but that comes through mainly in the love of melody and the vocals, with the added touch of heavy, low, thundering horses'-hooves bass drumming.
The addition, which some may interpret as gimmick but I think works much, much better is the use of acoustic guitar over unearthly black metal pushed slowly into the background. It follows the style of the more competent Scandinavian material, with flowing melodies interweaving with some intriguing death-metalish riffs played without as much of a rough-cut emphasis, building songs which rise and extrude and then return to lay more potent vocals over some beautifully-executed metal.

Tracklist:

1. From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne
2. Thy Winter Kingdom
3. Summoning (of the Ancient Ones)
4. The Dance of the Pagan Flames
5. Blackvisions of the Almighty
6. Fields of Haar-Meggido
7. Deathcrush

Copyright © 1995 Wild Rags

Of the immediate second wave of black metal, this is one of the better options. Simple and often unsurprising but aesthetically beautiful and rhythmically well arranged. Out on Wildrags in the US.

And the Forests Dream Eternally
Entropy
1993

Production: Reasonable although frothy and distorted, a foamy radio glaze on the music that works well to accentuate its analog earthiness.
Review: After a lengthy instroduction this EP opens into modernized versions of the slow and simple tunes of Behemoth's first album. There are four tunes here of which one is a Bathory "tribute" soundalike, leaving two solid fast black metal songs and one more epic tune where Nergal, the egomaniacal force behind this band, informs us that he played all of the instruments and not just guitar.
Of these remaining black metal songs, they are fast and simple in the style of Immortal's first album, using riffs that develop across languid song structures that preserve an emotional state for dissection in the simple bends of a few riffs. Nothing super complex but it works.
Integration of other instruments and use of layered song structures reveals where Behemoth is powerful, where some of these riffs that age toward the archaic reveal where they (he - Nergal) are not. Nonetheless this is expressive and architected music.

Tracklist:

1. Transylvanian Forest
2. Moonspell Rites
3. Sventevith Storming near the Baltic
4. Pure Evil and Hate
5. Forgotten Empire of Dark Witchcraft

Copyright © 1993 Entropy Productions

1. Diableria (The great introduction)
2. The Thounsand Plagues I Witness
3. Satan's Sword (I have become)
4. In Thy Pandemaernum
5. Driven By The Five-Winged Star
6. The Past Is Like Funeral
7. The Entrance To The Spheres Of Mars
8. With Spell Of Inferno
9. Chwala Mordercom Wojciecha
10. Diableria (The great introduction) live
11. The Thousand Plague I Witness live
12. Satan's Sword (I have become) live
13. From The Pagan Vastlands live
14. Driven By The Five-Winged Star live

Pandemonic Incantations (Solitstitium, 1998)
The middle period of Behemoth saw primary creator Nergal having weathered a few political and artistic storms over the condition of Polish blackmetal, even the rare band with PC beliefs like Behemoth, and in their last bid for a niche this band created a technical black metal with death metal influences in structure influenced by the best of the previous generation of European metal. Slickly harmonized riffs flow into one another before abrupt chords drop a chopping end to the process; gruff voices of harsh hoarseness follow the melody unfolding beneath a song made of buffeting power chords and the instantly changing signals of adrenaline lead playing. Little about this album will please the black metal purist, as it reveals its inner desire to explore metal in older styles, but the strength of its riffs and some of these more vibrantly aggressive songs qualifies it for repeated if infrequent listens.