Demigod

With all the past buzz about this cd, I wish I could write a simple review for this, something like “sorry, not brutal.”

All the elements are in place for this to be a killer cd, and Nergal decided to fuck up any semblance of greatness with his vocals. This is the most present factor in the album, and because of it, fan boys everywhere are screaming “BR00TAL!”. Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. If you layer your voice several times in the mix, so much so that I can’t understand the words (not that it’s important in death metal anyways) then you’ve made a conscious decision to stymie the great music that’s going on behind that overpowering voice.

For that reason, this cd is going to get a bad review. I’m trying to think of a number that contrasts the greatness of drummer Inferno with the poorness of Nergal’s voice.

There’s a good deal of Nile comparisons that could be made about this cd, not just because of the guest appearance by Karl Sanders, but also in the content of the cd and the atmosphere that is attempted to be invoked throughout. Behemoth can’t pull off atmosphere like Nile. As for brutality, it can be achieved in a number of ways. It can be done with pure simplicity, which obviously is not the case here. It can be done through a build-up, a crescendo of sorts, but everything here is full blast almost all the time. It can also be done by a non-stop assault, which I’m sure is what Behemoth was attempting. The only problem here is that it fails to fulfill that attempt.

The guitar riff patterns are usually short repetitions of a particular power chord, then break into a tremolo pattern or some sort of scale-riding. You can find this especially present on “Xul”. If there’s a bassist here, you won’t hear it. He’s lost in the sea of drums, guitars, and oppressive vocals. In fact, if you were to take Nergal’s vocals out of the equation, you wouldn’t find this to be especially aggressive at all. Nergal is far more aggressive than the music. The second worst performance was by the guitarists, who can’t match the intensity of the drumming with any sort of coherence. To me, Demigod is like a poor man’s Temple of Knowledge by Kataklysm. The fact that Xul is in both recordings is more than coincidence in my opinion.

Tracks that I can appreciate are “Conquer All” and “The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor”. The latter has such a better flow than the rest of the cd. In many respects, it follows the kind of hardcore riffing pattern you’d find on any number of Hardcore music projects. To me, this is how the whole cd should have sounded, where the vocals compliment the structure of the song. If you have choppy guitar, you have choppy vocals. Oh my, what a concept. As for the former song, the band is allowed to play in “Conquer All”, and thus the song actually does what it’s supposed to do, which is apparently be “br00tal”. One thing is for sure, and that’s throughout the rest of the songs, either Negal is ruining the guitar riff, or vice versa. After I stop listening, that’s all I can think of.

I love to make fun of bands that dress in makeup and make image more important than the music. I’ve always found fault with that in bands, and Behemoth is no exception. I felt I would describe the musical content of the cd prior to mentioning this, but it must bear mentioning. Zos Kia Cultus had much better tempo and cohesion, and I will always hold it a much superior and more brutal effort than Demigod.