u/VO0OIID

Prometherion is a song from eighth album “The Apostasy” (2007), and was a pre-release promo song for the record. The title is a made up word from 2 Ancient Greek words, Prometheus and Therion. Latter one simply means “beast” (however, it’s a deity within the thelema, so that’s where Nergal was probably going with this), while Prometheus was a god who was main creator of humankind, as well the one who taught humanity how to use fire – for which he was condemned by the rest of the gods. On top of that, Prometheus was a Titan, which is a second generation of gods, while Olympians, the main deities of Ancient Greek pantheon, are third generation of gods, and are enemies of Titans. Probably because of all that, sometimes in black metal it’s possible to see that they draw parallels between the Prometheus and Satan, with latter being enemy of god and punished by him, as well as getting Adam and Eve banished onto Earth. It’s a big stretch, but Behemoth are not the only ones to do it.

Prometherion is one of those songs that was constantly played live during “The Apostasy” era, and I think it’s safe to say it’s definitely somewhere among better songs of the record. Even more, this entire album when full death metal mode, and Prometherion just might be the only or almost the only song on the album that bears any resemblance to any black elements whatsoever (riffs). I also like that they speed up for the chorus, it’s like “we gonna play really fast… and then play even faster during the chorus… bet you didn’t see that coming, huh?”. Damn, Behemoth were really fast back in 2000s! It’s a not common move indeed, metal bands typically do the opposite all the time. Also, this song just flows really well, better than most of the album, I would say. Last but not least, music video for this track was when Behemoth first introduced their armor outfit.

So, what do you think about this song?

Prometherion

Until You Call On The Dark (Danzig Cover) is a song from “Slaves Shall Serve” (2005) mini-album. It’s not necessarily horrible, but honestly, the more it goes on the more I don’t like it. I don’t really know anything about Danzig other than it’s a relatively big name, but this cover is some of the most neanderthal rock songs ever – just one simplistic riff, and one line of text, for the entire song! And it goes for over 4 minutes, so yes, it gets old fast. And while it’s not a bad goth hard rock song, it’s just way too basic for its own good… Maybe if it was twice as short or something. It’s a rare opportunity to hear Behemoth do a clean-vocals-only song (kinda), but I wouldn’t say it’s exactly worth it, it’s just kinda weak, even with metal production.

And we are done with “Slaves Shall Serve” EP now, as well as with entire “Demigod” (2004) era. Too bad had to finish discussing such perfect album on such unnecessary weak cover.

Until You Call On The Dark (Danzig Cover)

The Shadow Elite is an opening track of their latest thirteenth album “The Shit Ov God” (2025). I think musically it’s easily of the best songs of the album, however, I cannot not mention that this also are probably some of the laziest, low effort lyrics from Nergal ever, especially with such song title… I was expecting something more in line with hidden rulers of the world, etc., not some blatant heavy metal hymn (I mean they are well written, it’s just the topic kinda falls flat, we’ve got ‘millions’ of other bands for that). So yeah, as much as title was promising and actual lyrics kinda underdelivered, the goodness of song itself more than compensates for it. And I understand that most metal fans don’t really care about lyrics anyway, but common, this is Behemoth! Still, I would call it second best song of TSOG, after O Venvs, Come! Interestingly enough, music video is somewhat reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails video for Wish – which is definitely not a coincidence, since Behemoth covered that exact NIN song in the past.

What do you think about this one? And we are done with entire TSOG album. Even more, we are done with entire modern, post-leukemia era of Behemoth, from now on only pre-Satanist content remains.

The Shadow Elite

Wolves Guard My Coffin is a song from debut album “Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)” (1995). Depending on how you count, one might say it’s the last metal track on the record (…but not really). This is one of the stand out tracks of the debut, with most noticeably by fastest (and longest) vocal delivery Nergal has ever done period, during chorus. Vocal’s decreasing volume is actually some sort of studio error (or at least so I’ve heard), however a ‘bug’ quickly became a feature. I’ll also add that opening riff is the coldest sounding riff Behemoth ever had!

Wolves Guard My Coffin also became part of the “Evangelion” (2009) era setlist, replacing their usual From The Pagan Vastlands from the same album, and as you can imagine, modernized version sounds drastically different… And chorus is being split between Orion and Nergal now (and is a bit shorter). I think this is also one of the most easily modernized old Behemoth songs, it’s basically almost foreshadowing their future approach.

So, what do you think say? And which version do you like more? Even you don’t like old Behemoth, I would still highly recommend to check out at least live version, it’s one of their early gems! Personally, I prefer the original, but both are great.

Wolves Guard My Coffin

Evangelia Heretika (2010), live

At The Left Hand Ov God is a song from eighth album “The Apostasy” (2007). Lyrics are co-written by Krzysztof Azarewicz. This was also their first music video to be directed by Grupa 13, who basically are the main reason for creating Behemoth’s reputation as a band with strong music videos, especially back in a day when it wasn’t common and massively stood out. Personally, despite a few dated visual effects, I think it’s still one of their very best videos.

The title goes back to old, common expression when some really major helper is being described as someone’s right hand. There are a few variations in terms of who is god’s right and left hands, however, it is universally acclaimed that at some point Lucifer was god’s left hand, aka second best supporter. Nowadays it sounds really silly, but this alone was enough for prejudice against left-handed people, which typically included literary beating it out of them. This, by the way, was still quite true up till approximately second half of 20^(th) century, so it’s not ancient history, that change happened less than a century ago.

The was second song I’ve ever heard by Behemoth, and their very first music video that I saw, so it has a special place personally for me. A few years later after hearing Slaves Shall Serve I’ve decided to check out what this band was up to, and looked up this video… Let me tell you, I was not disappointed! I instantly knew this is going to be the next band I’m going to do a deep dive in.

Nergal is really spitting bars in this one, almost hip-hop mode, most of this song is like wall of growls! Instrumentally, the song itself is actually not as intense as most of “The Apostasy”, however, the vocals more than make up for it for sure. This song is also really nicely structured: cool intro, then the main wall of growls, then – a prolonged, nice instrumental part, with cool guitar solo, then Nergal returns to his unholy hip-hop once again, and it’s all rounded up nicely by really strong and atmospheric instrumental outro, with Middle East vibes – by the book perfection.

Live version is quite different, and worth mentioning in general. The is the only Behemoth song that when they play live, Nergal, Orion and Seth all are heavily involved in delivering the lines, taking turns. I believe this approach was pioneered by Nile, so this is most likely where they got the idea from. Also, it looks like Nergal has finally written a song that Inferno doesn’t have enough limbs to play: on certain live videos you can see that for the instrumental outro Inferno is joined by an extra drummer, playing right beside him (one could say being his right hand, hehe), which looks somewhat hilarious (I don’t think they play like that all the time though, maybe those were more of an exceptional ones). The is a very popular live video of At The Left Hand Ov God, by the way, which back in a day had more views on youtube than majority of their official music videos. I think it’s also the only song of the record that they typically play live, after “The Apostasy” era has ended.

So, any thoughts on this one?

At The Left Hand Ov God

Live 2008

This is a really big one, especially personally for me, so there will be a lot to say. Slaves Shall Serve is another song from seventh album “Demigod” (2004), and also received its own EP in 2005. Lyrics written by Krzysztof Azarewicz. It’s one of the most famous songs of the record, and one of those they typically play live. The song title is a direct quote from The Book Of Law, which is the cornerstone, foundation text for the occult order Thelema. By the way, according to the legend, Aleister Crowley wrote that text with the help from spirit called Aiwass, who was mentioned in Behemoth lyrics back in a day quite a lot.

First of all, let’s talk about the intro: official lyrics don’t mention vocal intro, and you won’t see it mentioned in lyrics in most of the sources. This is what Nergal is actually saying:

>Slaves Shall Serve As Crowns Are Falling
As The Apocalypse Is Nearing
Slaves Shall Serve As Inferior Life Force
Slaves Shall Serve As Undead Rivals

Now, the confusing part is that some of the sources claim he is saying all that in Ancient Sumerian, but I swear I can hear him saying it in English, especially some particular words. Which one is true? I guess it’s up for you to decide.

This song was my introduction to Behemoth, and also one of the introductions to really extreme, super-fast death metal in general, as well as introduction to… such lyrical themes. I stated to actively listen to Behemoth during “The Apostasy” (2007) era, however, I knew about them during “Demigod” era, through this song. Slaves Shall Serve was featured on (European version of) compilation “Headbangers Ball: The Revenge” (2006), however, Behemoth was second band to expose me to this type of sound. Unlike some other death metal fans, I wasn’t instantly into the genre and I’m not really huge on classics even now, and a lot the things I’ve briefly heard from death metal didn’t hook me up or interest in any way. The day that changed my opinion was when, on some other compilation, I found band Hate Eternal, with their song The Obscure Terror, and I what shocked by how relentless non-stop fast and uncompromising brutal it was, I’ve never heard anything like it before. Sometime later, I’ve heard Slaves Shall Serve, and I was blown away, even though it did partially remind by of that style I’ve heard on Hate Eternal song… However, that song was mostly with double bass drums and blastbeats being more in the background of the mix, so this one was really my first proper exposure to a more ‘in your face’ blastbeats. Then I’ve decided to open the lyrics and I was blown away even more… It was so advanced and complicated, and alien (as in unknown). Trying to get at least even very remote understanding what this can even be about was the first time I’ve heard about the existence of the occult. Anyway, in terms of music it was all a bit too much for me back then, so I postponed familiarizing myself with these 2 bands for several years, until I was fully ready.

Strangely enough, I’ll have to bring Hate Eternal once again into discussion of this song: there was a bit of a story when Hate Eternal plagiarized one of the most distinct melodies of Slaves Shall Serve (that you can hear in the beginning), for their song Behold Judas. So, the band leader and the songwriter is Eric Rutan (who was in Morbid Angel and is currently in Cannibal Corpse, by the way), however Behold Judas is co-written by bassist Randy Piro, and Piro is the one who ‘wrote’ that same section for Behold Judas. There is some stylistic difference between Behemoth and Hate Eternal, with Behemoth part sounding slightly faster, and Hate Eternal being more brutal, but no doubt, they are playing the exact same thing. Anyway, Rutan was not aware of this whole thing, so I guess Piro concealed what he did. Interestingly enough, there used to be a short video on youtube showcasing these similarities and it was taken down years later.

Going back to the actual Behemoth song: needless to say, it’s an absolute banger! And it’s also second and the last music video for the “Demigod”. I just love everything about it, and it has so many highly memorable parts to it, including that manic guitar solo at the very end. While I don’t necessarily think it’s the very best on the album, it obviously holds a special place for me, since it was my introduction to Behemoth, and Behemoth was my main gateway to the worlds of both black and death metal (and it was also only second Behemoth video that I saw). And don’t get me started on the lyrics! I think Behemoth truly outclassed 99.99% of metal music with their lyrical approach back in day; they put so much effort into it, the rest of the extreme metal scene tends to look like a kindergarten in comparison. I used to wonder if they used to put their main effort into the lyrics, and music just comes along with it, these are almost like real theological doctrines, for the advanced.

So, I’m clearly very biased with this one; what do you make of it? Also, if you happen to listen to Hate Eternal as well, how would you compare these two bands?

Slaves Shall Serve

Behemoth just released a new song, so why not discuss it now? But before jumping to the song straight away, I would like to give some basic info about the release, especially since it’s very likely it will drop already after I finish with these song discussion posts. So, the “I, Scvlptor” mini-album will be released on 4^(th) of September, this year. Other than this song, it will feature two versions of another new song, Lord Ov The Horizons, as well as new cover In League With Satan (Venom Cover) (this will be second time they are covering Venom, by the way). The rest of the EP will be relatively not as new: Begotten was already available and we already reviewed this one, same for the live cover The Return of Darkness And Evil (Bathory Cover). The remaining songs are Rise Of The Blackstorm Of Evil and In Thy Pandemaeternum, which we have also already discussed and are their early material rerecordings. To be more precise, Rise Of The Blackstorm Of Evil is from “The Return Of The Northern Moon” (1993) demo, and In Thy Pandemaeternum is from “Pandemonic Incantations” (1998). Won’t lie, I’m extremely looking forward hearing these two! Overall, this EP is going to be quite big, as long as the actual TSOG album, which is very likely to make “I, Scvlptor” their longest EP.

Surprisingly, new song did not disappoint. First of all, it terms of music video, I think it partially reminiscent of Nomen Barbarvm video, Nergal (or whoever is responsible for artistic style in these vids) started to add some post-USSR dystopia-like vibes to these videos. The music itself is relatively unique – you can easily tell it’s very late Behemoth style, but at the same time, I don’t think they ever really did a track like that before, sounds relatively fresh with its approach. That prominent bass line could be almost on Godflesh record, if it was a bit more fat with its bass; has that simplistic, rhythmic industrial aspect to it. Guitar riffs and vibes, however, are more in direction of something like Morbid Angel’s God Of Emptiness, but more orchestral and blackened at the same time. I’m not sure yet what to make of it in terms how much of it do I actually like, but it’s definitely a good, decent enough song, a worthy addition to the current era.

What do you make of it?

I, Scvlptor

And now the amount of days has increased to 164.

Alas, Lord Is Upon Me is a song from ninth album “Evangelion” (2009). Alas is an Old English word for unfortunately.

As great as “Evangelion” record is, this is the only song that I don’t fully enjoy. I never skip it though, due to that really awesome final blastbeaty climax. My problem with it is that it seems like it’s was supposed to be an atmospheric song… only it isn’t, it just feels empty to me, there is no atmosphere to it, other than sense of emptiness (including as if something is missing from the song itself, unfinished). So yeah, I don’t mind it, but I don’t exactly like it neither, it’s a bit of a filler. I like “whore of salvation” line though.

Clearly, the band thinks otherwise, as not only this song was regularly played live during “Evangelion” era, but also got a relatively high budget music video… Which do people even remember it exist? I think the last time I saw it (before now) is when it just came out.

So, do you agree? Or do you think it’s a good one?

Alas, Lord Is Upon Me

Christians To The Lions is a song from fifth album “Thelema.6” (2000). The title refers to Roman Empire public executions of early christians in gladiator arenas, in a rather self-explanatory way. It’s easily the most famous song of the record, partially because the band plays it live non-stop ever since the album dropped. In fact, the band is so confident with it, they even used Christians To The Lions as the main ‘promotional single’ for the live album “XXX Years Ov Blasphemy” (2024). It’s one of the most straight forward songs of the record, but the more simplistic tunes are the ones that are often more easily memorable, right? I’m pretty sure everyone knows it and everyone likes it, so not much to add here… I just wish some other songs received more attention as well. And if for whatever reason you don’t know this one, then definitely go check it out!

If you are a CD owner, you probably know that there is also an unofficial music video on it, however, it is an unofficial video, so don’t expect much… But at least it’s much better than that crappy Antichristian Phenomenon video!

Christians To The Lions

Live, 2001

XXX Years Ov Blasphemy, live

Xul is a song of seventh album “Demigod” (2004). The word xul means “evil” in Ancient Sumerian. According to Nergal (album insights, near the lyrics), it was also chosen due to curious coincidence, play on words, with xul backwards being lux, which is “light” in Latin (here is your demo version of God = Dog title I guess, haha).

It feels a bit odd to use phrase ‘weakest song’ for “Demigod”, since it’s a total masterpiece of the album from front till back, but if I would pick one song that I like the least – it would be Xul. Nothing really bad about it, just feels a bit… less original, I guess. Especially since it’s positioned between two absolute bangers. The one thing that I do find slightly disappointing is that the guitar solo at the end of the track is played by Karl Sanders, leader of the legendary death metal band Nile, and it feels like the most underwhelming guitar solo on the record, and far from their best solos in general… Feels like a bit of a waste of cameo, in a way.

We never really hear Behemoth venturing into any political territory, this song, however, features a quite interesting line “hell is democracy”, so I guess Nergal is not exactly a democrat enthusiast.

So, what do you think about this one, and which song do you label as ‘least interesting’ on “Demigod”?

Xul

Furor Divinus is a song from tenth album “The Satanist” (2014). Quite frankly, I think it’s rather bad, and I sometimes might even skip it. Very similar to Amen in a way that it’s one of few “The Satanist” songs that tried to sound as their previous intense stuff, and just utterly fails at it, sounds quite blank, without any particularly memorable riffs; I’m sure if you take any random blastbeaty song from any previous blackened death metal period albums – it’s going to be better than this one, probably a lot better actually. So yeah, it’s not utterly horrible or anything, but this is where Behemoth has shown that old, gold days are over. In fact, I even prefer Amen over this one, it has more interesting things going on. So yeah, I would say this song has that aging extreme metal band syndrome (at earliest stage), when style is still there, but the inner fire is beginning to fade away. Good thing they realized they shouldn’t do entire album like that! That would have been a fail for sure. Of course, if you never have heard Behemoth before then it probably would be quite impressive, I imagine, but it’s hard to be impressed if you know well all previous nine albums.

If you disagree, let us know why! And we are fully done with “The Satanist” album now, including all of the side content of that era.

Furor Divinus

Day Of Suffering (Morbid Angel Cover) is one of the few “Antichristian Phenomenon” (2001) mini-album songs that didn’t make it into the “Thelema.6” (2000) extended edition. Quite frankly when I was creating the initial list of songs for these song discussion posts I forgot this cover even existed, which probably says it all already. This cover is pretty much replica of the original (just with more aggressive, brutal vocals), and I don’t really like neither the original nor the cover.

Morbid Angel is probably the most important band in pioneering of death metal, and this specific song is of their second album “Blessed Are The Sick” (1991). It was an interesting band to pick for cover, considering how much compared to Morbid Angel Behemoth used to be, but like… couldn’t they picked up Maze Of Torment to cover or something? Seems like a rather underwhelming choice of a song.

When it comes to Morbid Angel, I’m really much more of a Steve Tucker type of person, I don’t really like classic stuff with David Vincent that much. So, personally for me, Morbid Angel is: Gateways To Annihilation > Formulas Fatal To The Flesh > Altars Of Madness > Kingdoms Disdained, and with Heretic not being good as a whole album, but still has some decent songs. The rest is either outdated and didn’t age as well as other albums (B and C albums, especially B-album), or total dogshit (D and I albums, especially I-album, which is probably the most hated death metal album among any big bands period).

Strangely enough, this song is missing half of the band, being replaced by session musicians: Inferno is replaced on drums by Adam Sierżęga, and Havoc is replaced on second guitar by Bony… which makes it the only Behemoth song not to feature Inferno while he was already in the band.

So, what do you think of this cover, if you know it? Also, what’s your opinion on Morbid Angel? And we’ve done the entire “Antichristian Phenomenon” EP now.

Day Of Suffering (Morbid Angel Cover)

Messe Noire is a song from tenth album “The Satanist” (2014). Messe Noire means black mass in French, which is a common term to describe satanic worship ceremonies; lyrics are co-written by Krzysztof Azarewicz.

This one really took its time to grow on me, initially I was rather confused by it, like what was the band going after with this track. It was only a year after the release, when the music video dropped, that the song finally clicked with me. So, initially I didn’t particularly like it, but later on I realized it’s one of the better songs of the record. The song itself consists of two parts. First one is heavily dissonant, sounds absolutely nothing like any other Behemoth song at all. Second one very contrast, with really slow and melodic delivery, with long guitar solo. Looking back, I’m a little bit surprised I didn’t instantly pick up on dissonant vibes of the track, since I’m very much into dissonant stuff, but to be fair, Messe Noire sounds nothing like other dissonant metal bands; it’s a really unique song, with a distinct style of its own.

By the way, music video is dedicated to Swiss artist Giger, who, at that time, just passed away recently. The music video somewhat replicates his visual style. Giger is quite legendary painter, including in metal world, however, his greatest influence by far is creating xenomorphs for the Alien franchise. Worlds of movies and games were also never the same after him since, on top of xenomorphs, since he also introduced bio-mechanical aesthetic.

So, what do you think of this one? Do you like it? Did you instantly like it? And what do you think of the music video? I would say it’s really one of their very best ones! Probably even the best. Also, what’s your favorite Alien movie?)

Messe Noire

Entering The Pylon Ov Light is a non-album “Demigod” (2004) era song, from “Slaves Shall Serve” (2005) mini-album… And it’s awesome, it’s the very best Behemoth non-album song, imho. The production style, as well as delivery style are slightly different from the album material, so they probably removed it from album tracklist not too late into the production, and the stylistic differences are probably the main reason why it didn’t make it into the record, but make no mistake, it’s not some questionable b-side – it’s another great “Demigod” banger. First half of the song is more basic, but it’s the second one where the song shines, including one of the most intense guitar solos Nergal ever did, and some other great elements (including their potentially best rhythm-guitar riff) that really makes it not the worst song even on the “Demigod” itself. If there is one underrated gem in Behemoth discography –  it’s probably this song! The second half is just so epic! Even though it never made it into the album, I sometimes listen to it with the whole record, as a ‘bonus track’. First half is a bit too basic though, not overly too inspired, which might be partially the reason why the song never made it into the album. So… do you agree?

Entering The Pylon Ov Light

Versus Christus is a final song from twelfth “Opvs Contra Natvram” (2022) album. It’s not the worst song of the record, but still, I find it somewhat lacking. The best moment by far is when the choir, sings the song title, and… that’s about it, nothing else in here is particularly memorable (maybe other than clean vocals), especially since it’s relatively long as well. I usually skip this one, but not because it’s that bad, but because previous two songs, Once Upon A Pale Horse and Thy Becoming Eternal, are the very best songs on the record by very far, imho, so it feels a lot better to finish this polarizing album on the best note, not with just another mediocre track straight after the peak. I don’t hate the song – I feel like it could have been a good song, but something is missing. It's been some time since we heard Nergal doing clean, spoken vocals though, and never like that. There is also a music video, and I’ve never seen it before until writing this post… it’s decent)

What’s your take on this one? Do you agree? Or maybe not? And this is the last song of “Opvs Contra Natvram”, we’ve done the album it its entirety, there will be no more OCN songs from now on.

Versus Christus (youtube age verification required)

Congratulations, we’ve done 3/4 of the entire Behemoth discography! This is going to be the very last time I’m putting any stats in these song discussion posts; from now on it’s going to be onwards to the finish line. Hope you’ve been enjoying this journey so far!

Stats, so far

>!Sventevith: 4!<
>!Grom: all of it!<
>!Pandemonic Incantations: all of it!<
>!Satanica: 7 + hidden tracks!<
>!Thelema: 6!<
>!Zos Kia Cultus: 9!<
>!Demigod: 6!<
>!The Apostasy: 3!<
>!Evangelion: 5!<
>!The Satanist: 7!<
>!ILYAYD: all of it!<
>!OCN: all of it!<
>!TSOG: 7!<
>!Pre-debut songs: 10 + first demo!<
>!Non-album songs: 10!<
>!Covers: 14!<

Pan Satyros is a song from fifth album “Thelema.6” (2000). Satyr is a creature from Ancient Greek mythology (humanoid goat), while Pan is the name of one of the deities, who is associated with wild, and of flocks and shepherds. Visually Pan is often represented similar to a satyr. Needless to say, the image of satyr was the foundation for a lot of satanic fantasies in christian culture, including the image of Baphomet. Lyrics written by Krzysztof Azarewicz.

A lot of Behemoth albums have (at least) one song with really extensive use of double bass, floor drums, and Pan Satyros is a such song from “Thelema”, which makes it stand out quite a lot, by the way. It even has a bit of clean, spoken vocals, which kinda acts as a singular replacement for chorus (there actual chorus in here, just continuous text). Overall, I would say it’s a really decent song, even fun in a way. It’s also kinda like Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer but from way before, and personally I prefer Pan Satyros over “The Satanist” (2014) track for sure.

Surprisingly enough, Pan Satyros was first played live only during “Evangelion” (2009) era, however, it was a permanent live song during those tours. Not sure if they ever played it afterwards though.

There is a minor detail about the lyrics that cracks me up a bit. For whatever funny reason, Aleister Crowley really disliked “why?” questions (makes you think, haha) and even referred to it as “dogs of darkness”. So, when in this track music stops and Nergal says the line “dogs of darkness to ashes reduced” – that’s about Crowley’s dislike of why’s :)

So, what do you think about this one? Personally, while I might not pick it in my top songs of “Thelema”, I think it’s definitely a strong one. I like the bass riff as well, it has a nice humming tone to it.

Pan Satyros

I’m going to take a break for a day, but will return afterwards.

Solve and Wolves Ov Siberia are opening tracks of eleventh album “I Loved You At Your Darkest” (2018). Wolves Ov Siberia was one of first three promotional singles of the ILYAYD (together with God = Dog and Bartzabel), and I remember I was really hyped for the album, thought it might be “Satanist done right”… Well, it turned out rather the other way around, however, the initial singles were on fire and easily the best three songs on the entire album, imho. This song specifically is like the most classic black metal sounding song they’ve done since the “Grom” (1996) album, and it’s awesome! And with how hard this song goes, it’s easily to forget how lacking in that department the rest of the album is (and the other way around, that such rather underwhelming record had such absolutely great opening track). I can also appreciate the band naming a song like that in 2018, considering tense geopolitical relations with Russia, it was a rather brave move to go with such politically inconvenient title, regardless of why they did it.

Solve is a decent intro track, however, it feels slightly off as an intro for Wolves Ov Siberia, since most of it is children’s choir from God = Dog… So yeah, it’s definitely cool, but the placement is a bit unorthodox.

So, what do you say? And we’ve done entire ILYAYD album now, even including all the side content of that era, so no more ILYAYD songs from now on.

Solve

Wolves Ov Siberia (youtube age verification required)

Forgotten Cult Of Aldaron is a song from Behemoth’s debut album Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic) (1995). Not sure what Aldaron actually is, probably reference to some kind Lord Of The Rings lore thing. I think there are no bad or underwhelming songs on “Sventevith”, it’s a very strong album overall, but of all songs there Forgotten Cult Of Aldaron is probably the least noticeable or discussed track of all, especially since it’s somewhat similar to both songs before and after, especially before. However, if it’s to be called worst song of the “Sventevith”, it’s still really good! Might also worth saying that before the debut Behemoth didn’t really use blastbeats, and songs like this one is really one of the very first attempts of what will later become Behemoth signature style of wall of drums from start till finish (not quite even as it is on the next album, but still, a noticeably faster than their pre-debut stuff).

Recoding of the album was somewhat peculiar, by the way, due to how much overprotective sound engineer was: he wouldn’t let anyone in the room while he is doing the mixing, so the band would sit outside for hours, with their label producer and some other people, then they would get a quick listen and tell him something like “no good, drums too loud, guitars too quiet” and then sound engineer would disappear back to his room for hours again, and a cycle would repeat itself many times. Looking back, Nergal said he finds it rather funny, but back then it annoyed him really a lot.

So, if you are into early Behemoth, what do you think of this one, especially comparing to the rest of the album?

Forgotten Cult Of Aldaron