Behemoth look impressive and threatening like Kabuki Zombies as they dramatically take the stage. Music that follows more than delivers the Extreme Metal that is implicitly promised.
They are Metal royalty and they have done it the hard way.
Until the late Nineties they were considered traditional Black Metal. They became Black Death Metal in the latter part of the decade with the switch to darker satanic tones.
You could also name them Plague Metal or Bring Out Your Dead Metal.
The core trio formed around then too, with Zbigniew Inferno Prominski drums and Tomasz Orion Wroblowski bass. Patryk Seth Sztyber is the touring second guitarist.
They have been banned at various times from playing in their own country.
Nergal has highlighted these as freedom of speech issues.
The Rolling Stones never faced such opprobrium for Sympathy for the Devil or Dancing with Mister D. Except they had to confront the horrors of Altamont. Rape, murder/ It’s just a shot away.
Around 2010, Nergal faced leukaemia and eventually needed a bone marrow transplant to survive. This was after he was pronounced terminal.
That he is still leading the charge, leaping around the stage and declaiming from a deep gravel voice to throaty Screamo, is a testament to his indomitable spirit.
The guitars produce bolts of melody and satisfying molten riffs. It may be mayhem, but it is not chaotic.
The music is technically difficult and there is something deeply satisfying about it. Rhythm is hard to pick. There is no Funk or Roll, as in Rock’n’roll.
It is all cerebral. In the head. It does not loosen the backbone or the groin. Instead, the music vibrates through your genome like a Large Hadron Collider blast and mutates.
There is raw power here that is truly awesome, and necrophilia is only a small part of it. They are made up like Beast Gods of the Undead and enact some transformational rituals.
Eight fucking years since we were last here, Oooork- Land! growls Nergal.
There’s yer Blues’ reference finally. Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and I’m a Man/ Mannish Boy.
Once Upon a Pale Horse and security has a little work to do to escort a crowd-surfing nut who was lucky not to hand on his head. Another drunk guy turfed, is also the smallest in the auditorium.
Heavy drum attack and molten meshed guitar riffs are Daimonos.
Bartzabel has a tasty melodic opening until the drum tattoo signals the hostilities to recommence. Nergal is wearing a black Kali crown.
Undiscovered Rings of Saturn open the evening.
The duo is in the dark for at least the first ten minutes. They are purely theatrical as ambient steam noise gradually gives way to metal machine music. Heavy gravitational rumbles eventually herald majestic synth tones.
They wear similar masks, and they hold up some goat’s heads to conclude.
Sciolism enter the stage next. Local trio who plays hyper technical blackened Death Metal.
I find it therapeutic. A little like meditation.
The final song in their set has a surprise. Almost conventional Rock opening. Into the neverending emptiness/ Nothingness. Scream!
Behemoth finish the show with Ojcze Nasz. Blood red light beams bathe the stage and Satan is mentioned.
Close to the end, Nergal humbly tells us the band are giving their all. Truly awesome and majestic show.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Undiscovered Rings of Saturn
Sciolism
