Demigod

To me, Behemoth really lost some of their appeal when they decided to drop their earlier, blackened allure for a more streamlined death metal aesthetic. The writing was on the wall as early as Thelema.6, but the parlous genre balancing act present during the mid-period albums really fell by the wayside by the time Demigod swung around. On a surface level, this is certainly heavier than anything the band had committed to disc up to this point, but is that enough to sell an album on it's own? No matter how subsonic and earth-shifting as Nergal's multi-layered roar may be here, this material still pales in primal appeal to Thelema.6, even after taking into account the latter's flagging production.

If Behemoth gained anything in the downtime between Zos Kia Cultus (Here and Beyond) and Demigod, it was a cinematic scope and more massive-sounding guitars. Despite plenty of quality riffing, the earlier albums almost universally suffered from pretty meager guitar tones. You can go ahead and throw that flaw right out the window, because the guitars here sound rich and meaty; well deserving of the exotic subject matter at hand. Despite the first two tracks featuring an almost identical main riff, Demigod busts out of the gate angrily enough. Dissecting individual riffs is certainly no problem, and most of them slide up and down the phrygian dominant scale, occasionally tacking on a little melodic tail or fluttering tremolo section on the end. The biggest issue manifests itself by the time the listener reaches "Towards Babylon", at which point you realize that Demigod is on full-speed for almost the entire duration, never giving the atmosphere a chance to shine through. The only two tracks that are the exception to this rule are the more mid-paced "Conquer All" and the enthralling closer "The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor", which finally gives the aforementioned cinematic scope a chance to work it's damp sorcery on the listener.

Occasionally you'll get a churning tremolo like on "Xul" or some more spirited, controlled chaos like the majority of "The Nephilim Rising", but the bottom line is that the entire middle section of Demigod is slowed down by dead weight. Nearly everything between "Towards Babylon" and "Mysterium Coniunctionis (Hermanubis)" is wholly skippable and unworthy of Behemoth's good name. The Middle-Eastern overtones are also a lot to stomach this time around, almost constantly rearing up and forcing the proceedings into more terse waters that begin to stagnate as the band refuses to vacate and try anything else. Where is the lithe leadwork from "Vinvm Sabbati", which served as a much more effective ode to the deities that Behemoth so proudly kneels before? Maybe Havoc's departure forced Nergal to spread himself too thinly here, but the band managed to deliver a significantly heavier crusher in The Apostasy, even under a more sterile production environment. It's nice to see Orion here, but he is an accomplished guitarist in his own right (Vesania) and probably would have served as a better second mind to spark variation on the six-strings other than the faceless Seth. The only member that continues to demolish expectations is Inferno, who has come a long way from his humble beginnings around the Pandemonic Incantations era.

A final note has to be made of "The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor", which despite being over eight minutes long, manages to cram in as many interesting ideas as possible - certainly more than the rest of the album combined. The grooving, descending riff around the 2:30 marked with the cymbals fluttering in the background is certainly one of the high points of the album. Everything just moves at a much more structured and less hurried pace. Please Nergal, give us more of that! I understand that Demigod is pretty much universally praised as some landmark of brutality, but are we really that shallow and short sighted on the matter? It certainly has it's moments, but is far from perfect. Get Thelema.6 instead, or give The Apostasy a shot if you are fond of the heavier inclinations being experimented with here.