Evangelion

Over the course of their career, Behemoth has constantly been a tour-de-force in the metal community, now, with Evangelion they appear to be slowing down.

With the good times, there must always be bad times, this album for starters, feels rather rehashed and sort of rushed to me. It doesn't appear to hold the same magic as many of their previous releases, however it has a stronger feel than that of Demigod.

The worst aspects of this album are the generally monotonous vocals and generally stale guitar work. The vocals don't hold as much variation as the previous releases, nor the oomph found on their black metal releases, but the good side of Nergal's vocals is that he is able to deliver them in a manner that can still be captivating for the first couple of spins. The guitars also have some high points, such as the bridge work on "Ov Fire And The Void" which sends a feeling of discomforting dread into your veins, whilst the riffing remains run-of-the mill with it's over use of the octave intervals as found on songs like "Conquer All", this only pertaining to the first few songs. Another point of interest for the guitars would be the solos that are heard on Evangelion. If any point of the guitar work was to stand out amongst the heard on this, it would be its much heavier and aggressive than the last two albums.

The highlights of this release are the drums and the more "brutal death metal" oriented approach to the middle portion of the album. The drums sweep in and assail your ears with avengence! They show an improvement on the already excellent musicianship. The only negative point of the drums on Evangelion would be some of the fills, good examples of these said fills are on the first three songs. After the first three songs are finished, you'll notice how the band has taken a much more brutal death metal approach, this being evident once you notice how the music blends together.

If you aren't a fan of most of Behemoth's work, but are willing to give this a try, I suggest the songs "Transmigrating Beyond Realms Ov Amenti," "The Seed Ov I", and "He Who Breeds Pestilence"; the last of that set having an intro that gives a little bit of the feeling their first three releases did, in particular Sventevith Storming Near the Baltic.