The Apostasy

by

Behemoth

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Great bands make great albums. Behemoth are living proof of this fact. This Polish quartet began their string of great albums in 1999, when they released "Satanica." Then they honed their sound for the next couple of albums (2000's "Thelema. 6" and 2002's "Zos Kia Cultus") before releasing the godly "Demigod" in 2005. This was a watershed release of sorts because it incorporated classical and ethnic influences (including Egyptian-like melody) into the band's patented brutality, making it the first experimental record of their career.

Now, two years later, Behemoth are continuing to expand their sound. This year's "The Apostasy" is a perfectly natural progression from "Demigod." Sure, it is still loaded with the typical, world-renowned Behemoth goodies: devastating dual guitar riffs, Slayer-inspired leads, Inferno's earth-shaking drum beats, Orion's powerful bass lines, and Nergal's raw, visceral roars. But at the same time, it also manages to be so experimental, challenging, unpredictable, and innovative that it would make fellow death metal icons Nile green with envy.

The highlights on hand here are many. "Slaying The Prophets Ov Isa," the first song after the intro, is a blastfest from beginning to end, and is one of Inferno's many moments in the spotlight. He sounds simply inhuman as he mercilessly beats the listeners eardrums with steamrolling, seemingly octolimbed trapkit obliteration. "Prometherion" continues down this same path with super chunky riffs, scorching leads, absolutely ridiculous drumming, and a booming outro.

"At The Left Hand Ov God" is the album's first curveball. It begins with a bit of tranquil flamenco plucking before segueing into brutal death metal territory with thunderous, driving double bass pummel and a superbly wailing solo. The intensity level eventually comes back down for a creepy outro consisting of tribal drums and ominous chanting. The next two songs, "Kriegsphilosophie" (which evokes being trapped in between two ships while they shoot cannons at each other) and "Be Without Fear" (which features more catchy, chunky power chords, pounding drums, and a ripping solo) are as crushing as anything Behemoth have ever recorded.

Next up, "Arcane Hereticae" adopts doomy French horns, and "Libertheme" tastefully weaves melodic solos in between its bludgeoning, rapid-fire rhythm. Then, the listener is dealt the album's most colorful and experimental track, "Inner Sanctum,".which is highlighted by brief piano keys, some vocal variation (including occasional clean singing that wouldn't sound misplaced if it came off of a Strapping Young Lad disc), and a brief yet pretty acoustic solo. Finally, the album wraps up with "Pazuzu" and "Christgrinding Avenue," two tracks that will have you looking outside to see if the sky is raining boulders.

"The Apostasy" is not only a top contender for the best heavy music release of 2007 (and easily the best death and black metal release of the year so far), but it is also Behemoth's "Master of Puppets." Or, in short, this is, quite simply, a death metal masterpiece and soon to be classic. Metalheads worldwide should make sure it becomes apart of their collection.

Sometimes when you scratch below the surface, you find brilliance. This is what you have to do with Behemoth's Apostasy. Right off the bat, I should say that this is my first Behemoth album. As a point of reference artists I am listening to right now are Bloodbath, Akercocke, Dissection, Opeth, and Ahab. Behemoth has been likened to a more subdued version of Nile. I should also say that I do not like Nile based on my numerours attempts to listen to Black Seeds of Vengeance, which I regard as pure noise.

After reading Terrorizer's glowing review of the live Apostasy album, I went out and bought the studio album, as the live Apostasy album isn't available in the States (why?). My general view is that there is songwriting depth and interesting things happening BEHIND the mix, if you will. Take Inner Sanctum and Left Hand ov God and Christgrinding for example - interestings song with variety. The problem is that throughout the album the guitars, which are creating nice atmosphere - are totally drowned out by the drums and vocals. So you have to scratch below the noisy surface to get the goodness.

Yes, I know Inferno is a great drummer. He's drummer of the year in the Terorizer magazine. But do I need to hear only his drumming drown out everything else? Please. Tone that drum sound down, so I can hear some of the instruments on this fine album. And the vocals. Ok, I know distortion is the name of the game in black/death metal, genres I like. But this is not working here. I find Nergal's vocals distorted to the point of being grating and again overpower everything (Except the drums of course).

So I guess I have summed up why I think this is just 3 stars. The songs have great potential, and I think so does Behemoth. But they are overplaying the areas which are either weak (Vocals) or don't need to be emphasized (drums). All I can hear is dut-dut-dut-dut-dut -breather -dut-due-dut. I am craning to hear the guitars, forget about the bass. Funny, but on the one track I heard on the live album (courtesy Terrorizer), they had the mix on Left Hand ov God just right. And it sounded great!

Hopefully they fix this on the next album, though I thought I read an interview in which they were thinking of recording the drums on more channels....hmmm.....I might just skip it then...shame.