Demigod

Skimming through these reviews, I notice that people are almost afraid to give this snooze-fest anything lower then a 90%, save for a handful. I dont think I'm listening to the same album. This is unlike anything Behemoth has released before, in a bad way. Where's the brutality found on Satanica and Pandemonic Incantations? Where's the insane technicality that was ample throughout Thelema 6 and Zos Kia Cultus? All I hear is watered down, boring and predictable "death metal" that is about as heavy as a box of tissues.

The first glaring problem is by far the vocals. Nergals new found "voice" is disasterous, to say the least. The few good songs that are on Demigod are destroyed as soon as you even hear Nergal breath. The multi-tracked growls are by far the worst idea any band has thought up. Wait, let me rephrase "growls", as they sound more like Nergal recording himself inhale four diffrent times and then tweak with the pitches so that they sound slightly different than the others. Listening to this sure makes me miss his amazing shrieks on Sventevith.

Listening to such songs as "Sculpting the Throne ov Seth" and "Before the Aeons Came", one can also conclude that Behemoth is borrowing some of Nile's ideas. Karl Sanders guest appearance cements my theory.

Instrumentally, Behemoth is at the top of their game. Blast beats are tighter than ever, riffs are fast and technical, and the Middle-Eastern scales that are heard in some of the aforementioned songs are very interesting to say the least. However, this album is also boring as all Hell. This is not "br00tal" or "Hevay", this is pretty soft, actually. The drums never do anything interesting, the guitar tone needs to be beefed up, as it sounds thin and weak, and the soft, acoustic intros belong somewhere else, like a Blowpeth album. Dont go down that route, Nergal.

Also, who thought it was a good idea to put in the meanings behind each song's lyrics in the booklet? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of someone trying to decipher what each song means themselves? Come on Nergal, when you mention "Sculpting the Throne ov Seth", we're pretty sure we know your talking about the Egyptian god Seth (or at least those of us who arent Hatebreed-like stupid).

Don't start here, try Pandemonic Incantations instead.