Behemoth
Chaotica
(The Essence of the Underworld)
[Metal Mind]
part I: Storms to Unleash
1. The chant from the eastern lands
2. The touch of Nya
3. From the pagan vastlands
4. Hidden in a fog
5. Ancient
6. Entering the Faustian soul
7. Forgotten cult of Aldaron
8. Wolves guard my coffin
9. Hell dwells in ice
10. The dark triumph (originally on 'The return of the northern moon' demo 1992)
11. Cursed angel of doom (originally on 'Endless Damnation' reh. demo 1992)
12. Transylvanian forest
13. Moonspell rites
14. Sventevith (storming near the Baltic)
15. Pure evil & hate
16. Forgotten empire of dark witchcraft
(total playing time 72:58)
part II: Thunders to Erupt
1. Intro
2. The dark forest (cast me your spell)
3. Spellcraft & heathendom
4. Dragon's lair (cosmic flames and four barbaric seasons)
5. Lasy Pomorza
6. Rising proudly towards the sky
7. Thou shalt forever win
8. Grom
9. Total disaster (cover of DESTRUCTION)*
10. Freezing moon (cover of MAYHEM)*
11. With spell of inferno
12. Hidden in a fog
13. Sventevith (storming near the Baltic)
(total playing time 70:53)
*previously unreleased
Ha, luckily for latecomers like me there's guys like Sybren to recommend a band like Behemoth to me and luckily there's this double CD-release on Metal Mind Productions, comprising of the first two full length albums, the 'And The Forests Dream Eternally' release and a few odds and ends.
This is from when Behemoth were REALLY good... The CD starts with all 9 songs from 'Sventevith - Storming Near The Baltic' and that's a fucking corker. Thin, distant but clear production without very much bass sets up the frame for varied, melodic black metal. A technique they often use is that of acoustic strummings over a blasting guitar riff and this particular use works greatly to apply melodic accents and deliver additional atmosphere. The synths here aren't cheesy but have a clear purpose and meaning within the song (unlike in their later works) and the vocals, ah, the vocals... Wonderful high-end sorrowful wails and cries account for some of the greatest moments on this album (for example the one at the end of 'Entering the Faustian Soul'... shivers). Excepting the outro ('Hell dwells in ice', cheesy bad-english murmurs over some acoustic melody) all songs and interludes are GREAT examples of raw yet melodic black metal, in honour of our pagan ancestors. 'The Dark Triumph' is a very early song but the potential can be heard here, a simple progression of major chords backed by choirs, articulated by the same kind of production (only somewhat more muffled than on the 'Sventevith...' album). Songwriting hasn't quite matured yet here, the ideas are loosely arranged behind each other but the atmosphere is so dark and primitive that the overall song is quite worthy. 'Cursed Angel of Doom' (would this be a following of 'Fallen Angel of Doom' by Blasphemy?) is somehow a less intense piece of work, perhaps because of the apparent lack of melody, or too much repetition. It brings us however to what is to me the crown of this doubleCD, namely all five tracks from 'And The Forests Dream Eternally' from 1994, yes! The feeling for melody on this release is amazing and especially shows itself in the brilliant guitar leads (esp. 'Sventevith' and the acoustic playing along with the metal parts)... The production is fucking raw and dirty, with lots of treble. Nergals vocals are all over this, insanely wailing, shrieking, crying, to great effect. A great first part of this doubleCD.
The second part of this wonderful package comprises of the Behemoth record GROM and a few odds and ends, some covers, re-recordings and a song 'With spell of inferno' from the album after 'Grom', 'Pandemonic Incantations' (I do not know if this is the same recording as I'm not familiar with that album). From 'Grom' the cheese started to pop up in Behemoths music more frequently than before but fortunately, this album is still damn good. 'Grom' is varied black metal but still with a pretty raw edge. There is a female vocalist, there are acoustic interludes, the occasional use of synths but overall this is pure black metal of a dark and violent kind. Nergal's vocals aren't as impressive as on the other disc, as a matter of fact they're the worst thing of the album. His mad wails are gone and instead he now uses a low-pitched throaty rasp, but sometimes this fails and he ends up sounding overly pretentious, or something (just listen to the actual song 'Grom'). It works most of the time, but I prefer his earlier vocals. The music is always 'busy', lots of tempo shifts, alternating riffs (nice bass work by the way) and this all makes up for a damn fine black metal experience. It works best in a song like 'Lasy Pomorza' (somehow the Polish lyrics seem to 'fit in' with the music better as well), violent, full of temperament, also something of the earlier madness of the vocals seems to pop up here. The production is allright (although I preferred their rawer sound, the thicker and somewhat 'cleaned up' (only somewhat, mind you) sound works fine with the music on 'Grom') but when they re-record the old songs 'Hidden in a fog' and 'Sventevith...' this just doesn't work. Major failure here, these songs are pretty fucked up by Behemoth, they should've left the old recordings alone IMO. The magic guitar leads in the old version of 'Sventevith' are pretty much GONE here as well, what a pity. And damn those cheesy synths. The Destruction cover seems allright to me, but I don't know the original so I don't have much sensible to say about that. I didn't really like the Mayhem cover. Sure, technically the music is executed quite faithfully to the original, but the atmosphere is ruined by Nergals vocals, which veer on the wrong side of pretentiousness here. 'With Spell of Inferno' has a less thick production but is generally of the same type as 'Grom', a fast-paced black metal song with the vocals which are a tad cheesier. A break in the middle of the song with some synths makes the song quite 'listenable', but these synths are pretty cheesy as well. Why are so many bands trying to incorporate pseudo-neo-classical motives in their music? It's an unnecessary nuisance, and bears no additional meaning toward the song itself. Thus, great first part, 'Grom' is a damn fine black metal album but I think that the different odds and ends are only interesting for collectors.
© 2000 dwaallicht
1. The chant from the eastern lands
2. The touch of Nya
3. From the pagan vastlands
4. Hidden in a fog
5. Ancient
6. Entering the Faustian soul
7. Forgotten cult of Aldaron
8. Wolves guard my coffin
9. Hell dwells in ice
10. The dark triumph (originally on 'The return of the northern moon' demo 1992)
11. Cursed angel of doom (originally on 'Endless Damnation' reh. demo 1992)
12. Transylvanian forest
13. Moonspell rites
14. Sventevith (storming near the Baltic)
15. Pure evil & hate
16. Forgotten empire of dark witchcraft
(total playing time 72:58)
part II: Thunders to Erupt
1. Intro
2. The dark forest (cast me your spell)
3. Spellcraft & heathendom
4. Dragon's lair (cosmic flames and four barbaric seasons)
5. Lasy Pomorza
6. Rising proudly towards the sky
7. Thou shalt forever win
8. Grom
9. Total disaster (cover of DESTRUCTION)*
10. Freezing moon (cover of MAYHEM)*
11. With spell of inferno
12. Hidden in a fog
13. Sventevith (storming near the Baltic)
(total playing time 70:53)
*previously unreleased
Ha, luckily for latecomers like me there's guys like Sybren to recommend a band like Behemoth to me and luckily there's this double CD-release on Metal Mind Productions, comprising of the first two full length albums, the 'And The Forests Dream Eternally' release and a few odds and ends.
This is from when Behemoth were REALLY good... The CD starts with all 9 songs from 'Sventevith - Storming Near The Baltic' and that's a fucking corker. Thin, distant but clear production without very much bass sets up the frame for varied, melodic black metal. A technique they often use is that of acoustic strummings over a blasting guitar riff and this particular use works greatly to apply melodic accents and deliver additional atmosphere. The synths here aren't cheesy but have a clear purpose and meaning within the song (unlike in their later works) and the vocals, ah, the vocals... Wonderful high-end sorrowful wails and cries account for some of the greatest moments on this album (for example the one at the end of 'Entering the Faustian Soul'... shivers). Excepting the outro ('Hell dwells in ice', cheesy bad-english murmurs over some acoustic melody) all songs and interludes are GREAT examples of raw yet melodic black metal, in honour of our pagan ancestors. 'The Dark Triumph' is a very early song but the potential can be heard here, a simple progression of major chords backed by choirs, articulated by the same kind of production (only somewhat more muffled than on the 'Sventevith...' album). Songwriting hasn't quite matured yet here, the ideas are loosely arranged behind each other but the atmosphere is so dark and primitive that the overall song is quite worthy. 'Cursed Angel of Doom' (would this be a following of 'Fallen Angel of Doom' by Blasphemy?) is somehow a less intense piece of work, perhaps because of the apparent lack of melody, or too much repetition. It brings us however to what is to me the crown of this doubleCD, namely all five tracks from 'And The Forests Dream Eternally' from 1994, yes! The feeling for melody on this release is amazing and especially shows itself in the brilliant guitar leads (esp. 'Sventevith' and the acoustic playing along with the metal parts)... The production is fucking raw and dirty, with lots of treble. Nergals vocals are all over this, insanely wailing, shrieking, crying, to great effect. A great first part of this doubleCD.
The second part of this wonderful package comprises of the Behemoth record GROM and a few odds and ends, some covers, re-recordings and a song 'With spell of inferno' from the album after 'Grom', 'Pandemonic Incantations' (I do not know if this is the same recording as I'm not familiar with that album). From 'Grom' the cheese started to pop up in Behemoths music more frequently than before but fortunately, this album is still damn good. 'Grom' is varied black metal but still with a pretty raw edge. There is a female vocalist, there are acoustic interludes, the occasional use of synths but overall this is pure black metal of a dark and violent kind. Nergal's vocals aren't as impressive as on the other disc, as a matter of fact they're the worst thing of the album. His mad wails are gone and instead he now uses a low-pitched throaty rasp, but sometimes this fails and he ends up sounding overly pretentious, or something (just listen to the actual song 'Grom'). It works most of the time, but I prefer his earlier vocals. The music is always 'busy', lots of tempo shifts, alternating riffs (nice bass work by the way) and this all makes up for a damn fine black metal experience. It works best in a song like 'Lasy Pomorza' (somehow the Polish lyrics seem to 'fit in' with the music better as well), violent, full of temperament, also something of the earlier madness of the vocals seems to pop up here. The production is allright (although I preferred their rawer sound, the thicker and somewhat 'cleaned up' (only somewhat, mind you) sound works fine with the music on 'Grom') but when they re-record the old songs 'Hidden in a fog' and 'Sventevith...' this just doesn't work. Major failure here, these songs are pretty fucked up by Behemoth, they should've left the old recordings alone IMO. The magic guitar leads in the old version of 'Sventevith' are pretty much GONE here as well, what a pity. And damn those cheesy synths. The Destruction cover seems allright to me, but I don't know the original so I don't have much sensible to say about that. I didn't really like the Mayhem cover. Sure, technically the music is executed quite faithfully to the original, but the atmosphere is ruined by Nergals vocals, which veer on the wrong side of pretentiousness here. 'With Spell of Inferno' has a less thick production but is generally of the same type as 'Grom', a fast-paced black metal song with the vocals which are a tad cheesier. A break in the middle of the song with some synths makes the song quite 'listenable', but these synths are pretty cheesy as well. Why are so many bands trying to incorporate pseudo-neo-classical motives in their music? It's an unnecessary nuisance, and bears no additional meaning toward the song itself. Thus, great first part, 'Grom' is a damn fine black metal album but I think that the different odds and ends are only interesting for collectors.
© 2000 dwaallicht