Slaves Shall Serve

Behemoth – Slaves Shall Serve

A follow-up to the tremendous Demigod, this EP serves as sort of an epilogue. It is a must for any Behemoth addict, which would be me. This album is an even split between studio tracks, covers, and live tracks.

From the studio we have ‘Slaves Shall Serve’ of course, and also the previously unreleased ‘Enter the Pylon of Light.’ Both are powerful, brutal tracks featuring machine-gun double kicks and blast beats from everybody’s favorite, Inferno. I really can’t say enough good things about ‘Slaves’. It started life as a standout track on Demigod, and is the centerpiece of this little EP as well. Can the first track be a centerpiece? Whatever.

Next up we have a couple of covers. ‘Penetration’ is from a British sort of Industro-Goth Metal act called “The Nefilim”. See, this is what covers are good for. I might never have given The Nefilim a second glance if not for this. They have a techno-organic kind of sound, like early Ministry. It has a relentlessly driving metal beat, but is too short.

The other cover is ‘Until You Call on the Dark’ by Danzig. I’ve never been a big Danzig fan, and after hearing this, I’m still not. I’m sorry, but Danzig tunes all sound a little half-baked to me, and clean, or even clean-ish, vocals on a Behemoth track just isn’t right.

Fortunately this is over soon enough and we get to the two live tracks. Inferno RAGES on Demigod live, like a drum machine possessed. Unlike some Black/Death bands, Behemoth does not rush through songs just because they’re fast. To me, this says that they are not simply playing as fast as possible, they are playing at a deliberate tempo, which just happens to be very fast. I believe this is every bit due to Inferno’s mastery behind the drumkit.

'Slaves Shall Serve' live again stuns me with the quality of live Behemoth, considering the complexity of some of their tracks. Good way to round out the EP. I ended up giving it only 80% because of that Danzig track, but that’s just personal taste. Still a must for Behemoth fans.