r/Behemothband

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

It’s so cool to see Keanu being a fan of Behemoth, and Behemoth being a fan of Keanu. Fuck, gonna watch Point Break now, then play the Satanist vinyl.

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

I recently found this on my closet I wonder how much its worth

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

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