Behemoth - The Satanist review
| Band: | Behemoth |
| Album: | The Satanist |
| Style: | Blackened death metal |
| Release date: | February 03, 2014 |
| A review by: | wormdrink414 |
Disc I
01. Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel
02. Furor Divinus
03. Messe Noire
04. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
05. Amen
06. The Satanist
07. Ben Sahar
08. In The Absence Ov Light
09. O Father O Satan O Sun!
10. Ludzie Wschodu [Siekiera cover] [Australian bonus]
Disc II [DVD] [deluxe box set version]
01. Live Barbarossa
1 - Intro
2 - Ov Fire And The Void
3 - Demigod
4 - Moonspell Rites
5 - Conquer All
6 - Christians To The Lions
7 - The Seed Ov I
8 - Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
9 - Decade Of ΘΕΡΙΟΝ
10 - At The Left Hand Ov God
11 - Slaves Shall Serve
12 - Chant For ΕΣΧΗΑΤΟΝ 2000
13 - 23 (The Youth Manifesto)
14 - Lucifer
02. The Satanist: Oblivion
Not too many bands could throw a spoken-word, Kenny G sax muzak thing into the middle of a song called "In The Absence Ov Light" and not get laughed away into obscurity. Behemoth can get away with shit like that. They're just too cool to be dismissed. They sound cool and, with a theatrical sense that rivals well over half a Lady Gaga, they LOOK cool. I mean, I'm not gay, but I'd let Nergal and Orion double team me if they still want to.
The Satanist hasn't changed any of that. The already slightly precarious balance between their style and the substance of their music has changed. Since Thelema they've been making some of the most vicious and furious blackened, anti-Christian death metal around, all with an extravagant dramatic flair. With Evangelion they started emphasizing the evil mood creation bits and the ambient bits of their tunes more than they had before. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing when it came down to it, but the sheer testosterone of what they'd done on their earlier discs did feel a little watered down.
They did what they do and made it work on Evangelion. "Lucifer" is boring, but goddamn is "Shemhamforash" a neck breaker. That balance is almost completely gone here. The Satanist feels a lot like a bunch of "Lucifer"s. Sure, there's still some DM fury, but it seems to come secondary to all the build-ups. And while the build-ups can sound juicy, they never lead to any kind of exploding that's to be expected from the band that gave us The Apostasy not too long ago.
The extreme bits on this get boring quick. Every time you think, "shit, this is about to get good," songs will peter out and fall back into "just wait for it" mode. It either goes back to what feels a lot like filler, or the faster riffs are bland and melodramatic enough that you'll pine for any of their earlier albums, even the overrated ones like Demigod.
None of this is to say these guys are sounding bad necessarily. The mix is robust and the guys still play tightly; Inferno is still distractingly good at what he does and now the bass gets accented more, so Orion's chops are more audible, Nergal's voice is as powerful as ever, and so on. What they've put together here is tedious enough to surprise even their casual fans, in other words. It sounds like the kind of stuff made for expensive music videos, not the other way around.
Highlight: "Amen"
 | Written on 12.02.2014 by Wormdrink's real name is George and he's an American. |
Rating:
10
10
|
Rating: 10 |
What's my favorite scary movie? The Shining. With its subtle, psychological terror and slow-build that only Kubrick can pull off, it's a masterpiece. Sure, I get down with the gore-ridden creature features too. Everything from Evil Dead to Friday the 13th is cool in my book. Why is this relevant? Aliens. Okay, now you are more confused. Let me elaborate further. I think a lot of long-time fans come to a Behemoth album expecting a certain level of violence. Demigod, Thelema.6, Zos Kia Cultus; these classics are the "Aliens" of the Behemoth discography. Explosions, flame-throwers, disembowelment, "Game over man, game over!" I'm right with you, popcorn ready. The Satanist, on the other hand, is "Alien." Swarms of xenomorphs are replaced with a single, lurking threat in the shadows. The emphasis is on tension as each innocent is picked off one by one and dragged to their grim (and unseen) demise. While both styles are equally valid, I find the imagination to be a far darker place than anything directly fed to my senses. Read more ›› |
Comments page 6 / 8
Comments: 216
Visited by: 1040 users
| Winterthrone Posts: 289  |
Your site reviewers gave 7,6 to some really average speed metal and 6 to Behemoth's most accomplished album to date. Ridiculous. You have to rethink your concept. -+
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| Karlabos Posts: 5740  |
Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 21:05 "Average" is a relative concept. "Accomplished" also is relative. Some people will think some things are average, some will think the same is awesome. I guess you mean that the official reviewers should have ranked this higher because it's on top lists on everywhere else? Well, there are some sites/magazines that indeed overrate the most popular bands, where often there's money involved and stuff, but here on this site one can see that the reviewers prefer to point out their true opinion. Personally, I'd stick with this site's concept. Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 20:59 define "real" metal fans. Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 20:59 So basically we should listen to what everyone else does... Because they say it's good? Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 20:59 There are some places where reviews are made in an impartial way, and that's actually pretty cool, not everyone could review like that. But here on this site, the personal opinion is taken in concern when reviewing. And I disagree with the part "you have to know what will please Metal fans in general", no one is trying to sell anything here, so no need for merchandising. If most metal fans disagree with the reviewers opinion, then what? It just means the reviewer has a different opinion than most metal fans.
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| zwitek Posts: 5 |
Written by Nick_3f on 14.02.2014 at 15:07 Fully agree with this. The fact that Nergal said this must have got stuck like a peg in a Yankee's arse 
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288  |
This thread is increasingly hilarious. amazing how many people confuse their opinion (or mass/popular opinion) with fact. music is objective. individual mileage will vary. someone's opinion doesn't match yours. it's hilarious to see people fly off the handle. pathetic.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| zwitek Posts: 5 |
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| @gent_-_orange Posts: 905  |
Nothing wrong with injecting a bit of humor into a review and that seems to be what he was going for with that paragraph, IMO you shouldn't really judge his review based on that. Throughout the rest of the review he said why he didn't really dig the album and explained himself well. Well I enjoyed this album, Maybe its a bit generic at times but for the most part I was into it, but this is far away quality wise to something like Satanica or Zos Kia Cultus.
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| wormdrink414 Elite Posts: 1295  |
Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 20:59 I have a big Vice marathon to finish before my trust funds come in the mail today (yeah, I support post offices), don't have time to argue! You clearly are the voice of real metal fans, so I yield.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by zwitek on 17.02.2014 at 23:15 I love irony.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9162  |
Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 20:59 Everything about this is so wrong to the point where I'm actually giggling here.
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| mz Posts: 4827  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 18.02.2014 at 05:07 Was about to say more or less the same thing.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Written by Winterthrone on 17.02.2014 at 21:05 For the LAST time, because this is really turning into beating a dead horse now: our reviews are not objective. What would be the point of having a Staff with different individual tastes if we can't review albums to our own liking? We're not robots, it's not a matter of "oh, this album's getting great press in circles on other sites, so Metal Storm should praise it lavishly too." We're our own people, and we do our own thing. And you can't please everybody, somebody's always going to be pissed off at a rating, especially if it's a popular band.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
People's minds are so driven by numbers. My only complaint here with what Georgie did was give it a score at all. Seriously, I think if you had just given this N/A, you would've saved yourself a lot of shit 
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| angel. Evil Butterfly Posts: 2419  |
I had lots of fun reading all the comments even more fun than listening to the album I suppose ! Those pissed off die hard fans of Behemoth are awesomely funny !
---- The Fangirl.
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 |
What MS staff does not understand is that everyone has a different opinion so it is not useful to rate and review albums based on sole opinions because it leads nowhere. You can had your personal tastes but you have to explain theses tastes and not state 'em like if they were universal and you also have to stick to some objective points to make your review useful for everyone. Comparing Behemoth to Lady Gaga and making shit comments like sounds like Kenny G because there is a saxophone in the background of narration really is completely stupid.
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 |
I never said that one should like what the masses like, I just said you had to recognize the objective qualities of an album when you are a reviewer and not be guided only by your personal preferences. If you do not you are just bashing an album or raving...Which is not useful for anybody.
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7574  |
Someone should really send a tweet to Nergal with link of this review. He must be waiting for feedback[new album].
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| Lethrokai Posts: 507  |
Written by Winterthrone on 18.02.2014 at 19:53 I have to ask then... What are the objective facts when it comes down to this album? Saying this album is good is subjective. Saying the direction this album took was good is subjective. You could say it changed up the direction that Behemoth took their music in slightly... oh wait, the guy already did that. In the end, whether this album was "good" or not is ENTIRELY subjective. There is no rating that is ever given by anyone that is objective. And if someone ever wrote an entirely objective review of anything, then there would be nothing interesting to say about it at all. What makes a review interesting and actually worth reading is seeing how the reviewers OPINIONS compare to yours. They may be entirely different, but they still hold the exact same validity.
---- Sometimes you just need to roll the dice and look away.
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| Lethrokai Posts: 507 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 18.02.2014 at 20:48 Hammer. Meet nail. Nail. Meet head.
---- Sometimes you just need to roll the dice and look away.
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| Darth Revan Posts: 147 |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by Winterthrone on 18.02.2014 at 20:01 Recognizing the objective qualities of an album is not a review, it is a description. A review is literally "a formal assessment or examination of something," and to assess is to evaluate the quality, which is purely subjective. And besides, no one wants to read an objective review. How boring is reading something like "Album X was released by Band X in Year X. It features member A on guitar, member B on bass/vocals, and member C on drums. It sounds a lot heavier compared to their previous album. Other sites have been giving it good reviews, so we think it's great too." Come on man, that's just stale as fuck.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6106  |
Written by Winterthrone on 18.02.2014 at 20:01 No matter how many more posts you add to this review thread, all your words will boil down to five words: "I don't like the rating".
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| siyah Posts: 5 |
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| siyah Posts: 5 |
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| HumanSpirit Posts: 55  |
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 14.02.2014 at 10:58 lol calm yo tits, man! you dont even know me and already making very poor statments about nothing :p smoke a joint, dude.
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| Karlabos Posts: 5740 |
Have our arguments gotten so low that we must completely abandon them and appeal to profile stalking and pointing out random things which we think are funny? Next step probably is grammar correcting, I guess?
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| Himedal Posts: 162  |
Written by [user id=22378] on 14.02.2014 at 09:15 I double what you say. Frankly, I don't care at all about this review since I find it irrelevant.
---- What goes by is life to be taken The doom calls upon the forsaken
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