u/VO0OIID

Aggressor (Hellhammer Cover) and Outro are final songs of second demo “The Return Of The Northern Moon” (1993). Celtic Frost are Swiss thrash metal band that used to be called Hellhammer in their pre-debut era, however, even their pre-debut stuff has some cult following, in certain circles, most notably among future black metal musicians that popularized the genre. This was the very first cover Behemoth recorded in studio, and as in today they have 19 covers. Soon, in September, that number will be 20, with addition of new Venom cover.

Personally, I don’t particularly care for this one. I understand they probably needed it to give a release a more proper length, but still, it’s a lot weaker than Behemoth’s own material on the demo, it’s the only song I don’t really like. Even more, I like the dark ambient outro more than the song its attached to. And speaking of the outro: it was later renamed, I believe it’s for “Demonica” (2006) compilation. So, if you ever see a title Goat With A Thousand Young and got confused by it – don’t worry, it’s the same outro, just renamed.

If you like old Behemoth, what do you think of this cover? And we’ve done entire second demo now.

Aggressor (Hellhammer Cover)

Outro

Dark Triumph is a song from second demo “The Return Of The Northern Moon” (1993). The song is a bit faster than other material on that demo, and really pushes the limits to what band members and sound production can handle. Due to how production is, it really feels unique, in a way, I don’t think I’ve heard any other black metal release with faster part sounding quite like it. Still, even though it’s faster than the rest of the record, it’s mostly slow / mid-tempo song. While not exactly among my favorites on the demo, it’s still definitely very good and interesting.

Unfortunately, none of that can be said about its obscure rerecording, that’s some real dogshit, easily their worst rerecording ever, imho. Never version was done during “Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)” (1995) recording session, however, it sounds nothing like the debut nor the original demo. In fact, it feels like they took everything good about this song, threw it all away and made it ultra generic and boring black metal song instead. A great example of how not to make a rerecording indeed! Good thing it’s very rare: it originally appeared on unofficial, pirate compilation “Chaotica” (1999), and was later rereleased on a more official compilation “Demonica” (2006).

Dark Triumph

Chaotica version

There are 3 versions of Transylvanian Forest in total, 2 of them are almost completely identical, while third one is an obscure rerecording. Transylvania is a historical region on the territory of modern Hungary (that’s in far east end of Eastern Europe), and is a birthplace of legends about vampires, especially the infamous Dracula, who is a fictional character based on real life ruler of those lands – Vlad Tepes.

Original version of Transylvanian Forest is an opening track for “And The Forests Dream Eternally” (1995) mini-album, while slightly different version is a final song on debut full-length “Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)” (1995). Ironically, while EP was recorded earlier, the LP was released earlier, so technically second version came out first. These versions are almost completely identical, main difference is that the original has 40 seconds crows intro, while album version has it reduced to 10 seconds. It’s not the only difference though, as album version has slightly different mastering, trying to at least remotely fit into the “Sventevith” production style. It should be blatantly obvious though to absolutely anyone who has heard “Sventevith” that Transylvanian Forest sounds absolutely nothing like the rest of the album, production style (and even delivery) is very different, being significantly more aggressive. The band thought that album isn’t long enough for the LP, so they added an extra song from delayed EP, however, it’s a rather interesting choice they made with going for Transylvanian Forest – they could have taken Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic) instead, and it would be then title track of the album… but they didn’t.

Overall, it’s one of the most upbeat and aggressive songs of old Behemoth, which is especially sharp contrast after really chill non-metal track Hell Dwells In Ice. I also feel like this song is influenced by Czech band Master's Hammer, and bears partial resemblance to a specific song, Pad Modly, from their debut album “Ritual” (1991). Master's Hammer influence on early Behemoth is well known, especially with Nergal much later on doing a cover on them, as well as joining them on stage for a gig.

And then there is also a rerecording from “Demonica” (2006) compilation, with this specific track originating from “Demigod” (2004) recording session… And it’s a massive flop. I understand they tried to modernize it, and make it sound like a “Demigod” song, but they tried way too hard, practically erasing everything good about the original, while making it sound like an extremely underwhelming leftover from “Demigod” album. It’s just bad; the only redeeming quality is that it’s way too obscure to be known by vast majority of the fans.

So, what do you think of this one? And we’ve done entire “And The Forests Dream Eternally” EP.

Transylvanian Forest

Album version

Demonica version

Behemoth has total of 3 Mayhem covers, this is the first one and I would personally say the best one as well. In fact, it’s so good I can barely even perceive it as a cover – this is exactly how Mayhem’s original should have sounded in a first place, if they weren’t so sloppy (especially the drummer); and this is much more like what’s their modern live performance sounds like, comparing to the original. It’s just absolutely great, one of my favorite Behemoth covers in general.

The cover is a final song of the third demo “From The Pagan Vastlands” (1994), while the original comes from self-titled mini-album of 1987. Imho, despite not being particularly good (other than this song), that EP has a cult following status, mostly because it was the first studio release not only for Norwegian black metal scene, but for Norwegian metal in general. Deathcrush specifically is probably one of the most easily recognized songs in black metal, and they play it live constantly. I’ve been to 3 Mayhem gigs, and they’ve played it twice. As a side note, I’m a bit disappointed Mayhem never did proper recording of this song with Attila Csihar, his performance of Deathcrush is truly the best. I remember first time I saw them live they opened their set with Deathcrush, and it was absolutely awesome; too bad there is no way to recall that experience other than by memory, so Behemoth cover is still the best version available, imho. This is especially true for drums, Baal nailed this one better than Norwegians.

If you know listen to Mayhem and / or know this cover, what do you make out of this one?

Deathcrush (Mayhem Cover)

Today we are talking about a really rare one, there isn’t studio or even proper audio version for this track – you can only get it in video format. To be more specific, you would have to go to “At The Arena Ov Aion – Live Apostasy” (2008) gig, however, that gig has a couple of cut-out songs that are available only in “Evangelia Heretika” (2010) DVD version, and this cover – is one of them. It’s possible this song is on some other, lesser known video releases, but the main point remains – you won’t find an official audio version anywhere.

Now, you might think… Song with title like that has to be extra cringe, right, in combination with band’s name? Well, it’s not that bad, actually. It’s not great, of course, but it could be a lot worse; sounds like a more or less ok ‘arena rock’ track. Turbonegro is a Norwegian punk rock band, by the way, and I hope reddit won’t ban me for the name of the band, lol.

I imagine most of the fans never even heard of this one, but if you do, tell us what do you think of it! It was so many years since I’ve heard it, not exactly my pick.

I Got Erection (Turbonegro Cover) (some other recording, not the DVD one)

Ov Fire And The Void is a song from ninth album “Evangelion” (2009), and the promo single for the record. It’s the mid-tempo tempo song of the record, which makes it stand out straight away. More interesting, this song is directly influenced by Morbid Angel song I, from “Gateways To Annihilation” (2000), which is often considered an underwhelming song by some fans (I don’t agree with that though, but it’s obviously not among the best tracks on that record). Anyway, Behemoth took a bunch of ideas from a less popular Morbid Angel song and remade it into their own hit song. This was also their opening track for setlists of that era (which seemed like a bit of an odd choice at the time, never before they started gigs with a slower song). Overall, I think like with time this song became just a tiny bit overrated, like it’s way more well-known than other pre-Satanist songs, but still, it’s obviously a banger. It was also one of more well produced music videos, back in a day when they were still just beginning to do that. Also, Behemoth had to reupload the video edited, to avoid youtube censorship. Still, one of their most badass vids, imho, even blurred.

Any additional thoughts?

Ov Fire And The Void

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