Satanica

Ah, Behemoth. One of the most prolific and, in my opinion, greatest of all modern metal bands. Not commercial, not compromising, and not weak - quite the opposite in every respect of those three things. But the reason why they are so great is because of the style of metal they play. They used to be an underground folk influenced black metal band with nothing whatsoever to do with death metal. Then they started moving more towards death metal with their Bewitching the Pomerania EP and then slightly more so on their third full length album Pandemonic Incantations. Even so this was a messy period where the band clearly hadn't quite found their niche yet. They were experimenting a lot with their sound, and thus Pandemonic Incantations was a bit of a disappointment - different from their earlier black metal albums certainly, but not unique or great enough to really mean that much.

That all changed in 1999 when this album was released. Satanica.

This was the first true blackened death metal album in a lot of ways. While that may not be an entirely accurate statement with regards to the entire black and death metal underground throughout the world, this album was clearly one of the first and best examples of death metal with black metal influences done well without seeming contrived, overly experimental, or silly, and certainly the most prominent one.

Satanica has all of the key elements in place that make modern day Behemoth the great and mighty crushing metal machine it is to this day: crushingly heavy guitarwork, pounding drumming, excellent technicality, interesting melodies, and Nergal's unique vocals. This album is completely different from anything that came before it: it's more intense, more violent, more brutal, and certainly more unique. It really stands out to the point where from Nergal's unique and brutal vocal approach to the specific style of the guitar playing and drumming you can quickly tell it is Behemoth. No other band really has quite this sound. The earlier albums, while good in their own way, were basically just black metal albums with a little bit of keyboards and some folk influences. Good at times but not uniquely special. And the transition EP and album were disappointing to say the least. This album is really where everything came together to create one great force of music, a mighty metal machine of amazing power and vitality that is now one of the greatest metal bands in the world.

Unfortunately, it isn't perfect. Of course no album is really, but the truth of the matter is that despite this album's excellence, it doesn't quite measure up to the awesomeness of Zos Kia Cultus and Demigod. Those two albums are in a class of their own anyway, but one can't help feeling just a little disappointed that there isn't more of that true anger, brutality, and epicness that those albums wield in this one. There certainly is some of it; the fourth and seventh songs in particular are good examples of this kind of thing - but overall this album isn't as great as what followed a couple of years later. It's still excellent though, just not as excellent.

In terms of overall quality, the songs range from average to good to fantastic. The second and sixth songs fit into the first category, the third, fifth, and eighth fit into the second category, and the first, fourth, and seventh fit into the third category. Thus the album doesn't maintain the consistently brilliant quality throughout like Zos Kis Cultus and Demigod do. However, the average songs are still decent, the good songs are more than worth listening to and the fantastic songs are definitely essential listening if you are a Behemoth fan. Decade of Therion is a fantastic opener, crushing and brutal yet somewhat melodic. Not anywhere near as angry or as vicious as the stuff on their next few albums but still heavy as fuck. Of Sephirotic Transformation and Carnality is brilliant, combining catchy but angry and vicious melodies with great vocals throughout. The Alchemist's Dream is incredible, beginning with some weird sounds then following with some of the most awesome riffs Behemoth ever wrote, and as usual great vocals from Nergal. The most interesting part of this song is the middle section, which has no vocals and is all drum and guitarwork, very heavy but with some very interesting melodies and quite different from the beginning of the song. The uniqueness of that entire song is what makes it so great.

As for the good songs, Ceremony of Shiva is good, with some strange but surprisingly not particularly eastern melodies despite the title and the lyrics, which are all about some strange eastern ritual, and this also seems a bit odd considering the intensity of this song. Even so it works fine for the most part. The Sermon to the Hypocrites is pretty good too, a lot slower but still good. Chant for Eschaton 2000 is weird and mostly mid paced, kind of experimental sounding, but again good.

Finally, the average songs are a little disappointing. LAM is simply too fast, which after Decade of Therion feels a little repetitive. It also has some weird stop start moments which are a little annoying at times. Starspawn has the potential to be a good song but is simply rather forgettable.

The album is also fairly short compared to Behemoth's other later blackened death metal albums; at only 35 minutes, it's over pretty quickly if you listen to it in one go. Even so this isn't a bad thing, as short but intense is often good, it's just a little disappointing considering that all of the later Behemoth albums are 40 minutes or longer.

Besides the great guitarwork and drumming, this album's other strengths are that it has enough variety with the eight different songs to keep it interesting, with every song having a fairly different sound(which is definitely a good thing), and Nergal's brilliant vocals. Like on the later albums, his vocal approach is in between death growling and black metal shrieking; the best way to describe it would be a brutal shout, or a vicious howl. It's neither very high nor very low, but overall it is actually closer to a death growl than a black metal shriek, although not entirely. Either way, like the unique guitar sound and drum sound, Nergal's vocals stand out as much on this album as they do on every other one of Behemoth's later albums.

In terms of melodies, this album hardly employs any of the eastern and/or flamenco melodies that would become commonplace in nearly every Behemoth song starting with their Zos Kia Cultus album three years after this album was released. The only eastern stuff that is really obvious is in Ceremony of Shiva, and even this isn't very eastern sounding compared to some of the songs on Zos Kia Cultus, Demigod or The Apostasy, and even less so than some of the songs on Thelema 6 too.

Lyrically, the album is kind of bizarre, showing a mixture of occult obsessions, black magic rituals, hatred against Christianity(obviously), and some eastern stuff, most notably again on Ceremony of Shiva. It's different from the lyrical themes of some of their following albums but still interesting.

Overall, this album is excellent: it's well paced, brutal, complex, interesting, and filled with all of current day Behemoth's trademarks, from Nergal's sudden vicious screams/roars/howls that appear out of nowhere, to the sounds of the instruments that is unique to Behemoth. Any Behemoth fan should already have this album. If you don't, and you like Behemoth, I suggest you get it immediately. While it isn't the brutal monster that is Zos Kia Cultus, or the crushing blast beast that is Demigod, it's still a great album and it's where Behemoth defined their style. They would refine it further with Thelema 6, and then even more so with Zos Kia Cultus, but it is still a great start.