Behemoth
Chaotica -
The Essence of the Underworld
[Metal Mind]
29 tracks, 2CD (72:58 & 70:53)
This is Behemoth leaving their past behind in a sort of orderly compilation of their first four "real" CD releases plus some added bonuses. So, the listener is presented with the "Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)" and "Grom" CD's, the "And The Forests Dream Eternally" and "Bewitching the Pomerania" MCD's, two tracks from their demos, and two covers, all in one very nice thick 2CD digipack, numbered and limited to 2000. This release does NOT contain the "Endless Damnation", "The Return of the Northern Moon" or the "From The Pagan Vastlands" demos, which is a bit of a shame - I would have appreciated a 3CD including these even more.
Apart from that, there's little to complain about, because this 2CD contains the best material Behemoth ever wrote. I'll review this part by part:
CD 1 "Storms To Unleash"
Track 1-9: "Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)". This is Behemoth's typically obscure sounding brand of atmospheric but very raw Black Metal at its finest, great songwriting (especially the 'clean guitar mixed with distorted guitar' parts work very well), great vocals, great riffs.
Track 10: "The Dark Triumph", from the "The Return of the Northern Moon" demo. Not too dissimilar from Immortal's "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism", and quite good.
Track 11: "Cursed Angel Of Doom", from the "Endless Damnation" rehearsal/demo. Not earthshattering, but it's interesting to hear a more oldschool Behemoth here.
Tracks 12-16: "And The Forests Dream Eternally". This is undoubtedly Behemoths best recording, more direct and raw compared to Sventevith, and so wonderfully EVIL. Nergals vocals are amazing, and the song material is of very high quality. The closing track "Forgotten Empire of Dark Witchcraft" is simply one of the best Black Metal songs ever recorded.
CD 2 "Thunders To Erupt"
Tracks 1-8: "Grom". Here we see Behemoth getting more 'sophisticated', the typical obscure sound of the previous five releases is left behind and they appear as a tight and fast BM machine. Although they lose a lot of charisma with this approach, it's still a very good album. The drumming has improved a lot and the songs are intelligently composed, with great riffs and melodic ideas. One blunder keeps bugging me though: what the hell they were trying with the female singing on "The Dark Forest", it obviously failed - and the male chanting in that part isn't very enjoyable either.
Track 9: "Total Disaster". Yep, the Destruction cover, and very well done in the "Grom" style.
Track 10: "The Freezing Moon". Behemoth do another Mayhem track (they did Deathcrush on the third demo), and the results are actually quite good. Like the Destruction cover, this song is also thrown in the "Grom" blender, and although it doesn't completely succeed (Baal's drumming is seriously lacking compared to Hellhammer's work), it's not as bad as it could be.
Tracks 11-13: "Bewitching The Pomerania". Behemoth going ever faster and tighter, with a new drummer and Nergal still in his transition from high-pitched schrieking to Death Metal growling (he's somewhere in between here). They rework two older ones here, "Hidden In A Fog" from "Sventevith", and "Sventevith" from "As The Forests...", in the new 'brutal' style, and in this form they're also quite successful.
To conclude this lengthy review: if you didn't already understand, let me phrase this nicely: Unless you already own the separate CD's featured on this compilation, GET THIS IMMEDIATELY! Hell, this is some of the best Black Metal from the mid-90's in great packaging, over 144 minutes of great music for the price of one normal CD. You're an idiot if you let this chance pass (it's still widely available now, but 2000 copies aren't that many).
© 2000 sybren
This is Behemoth leaving their past behind in a sort of orderly compilation of their first four "real" CD releases plus some added bonuses. So, the listener is presented with the "Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)" and "Grom" CD's, the "And The Forests Dream Eternally" and "Bewitching the Pomerania" MCD's, two tracks from their demos, and two covers, all in one very nice thick 2CD digipack, numbered and limited to 2000. This release does NOT contain the "Endless Damnation", "The Return of the Northern Moon" or the "From The Pagan Vastlands" demos, which is a bit of a shame - I would have appreciated a 3CD including these even more.
Apart from that, there's little to complain about, because this 2CD contains the best material Behemoth ever wrote. I'll review this part by part:
CD 1 "Storms To Unleash"
Track 1-9: "Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)". This is Behemoth's typically obscure sounding brand of atmospheric but very raw Black Metal at its finest, great songwriting (especially the 'clean guitar mixed with distorted guitar' parts work very well), great vocals, great riffs.
Track 10: "The Dark Triumph", from the "The Return of the Northern Moon" demo. Not too dissimilar from Immortal's "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism", and quite good.
Track 11: "Cursed Angel Of Doom", from the "Endless Damnation" rehearsal/demo. Not earthshattering, but it's interesting to hear a more oldschool Behemoth here.
Tracks 12-16: "And The Forests Dream Eternally". This is undoubtedly Behemoths best recording, more direct and raw compared to Sventevith, and so wonderfully EVIL. Nergals vocals are amazing, and the song material is of very high quality. The closing track "Forgotten Empire of Dark Witchcraft" is simply one of the best Black Metal songs ever recorded.
CD 2 "Thunders To Erupt"
Tracks 1-8: "Grom". Here we see Behemoth getting more 'sophisticated', the typical obscure sound of the previous five releases is left behind and they appear as a tight and fast BM machine. Although they lose a lot of charisma with this approach, it's still a very good album. The drumming has improved a lot and the songs are intelligently composed, with great riffs and melodic ideas. One blunder keeps bugging me though: what the hell they were trying with the female singing on "The Dark Forest", it obviously failed - and the male chanting in that part isn't very enjoyable either.
Track 9: "Total Disaster". Yep, the Destruction cover, and very well done in the "Grom" style.
Track 10: "The Freezing Moon". Behemoth do another Mayhem track (they did Deathcrush on the third demo), and the results are actually quite good. Like the Destruction cover, this song is also thrown in the "Grom" blender, and although it doesn't completely succeed (Baal's drumming is seriously lacking compared to Hellhammer's work), it's not as bad as it could be.
Tracks 11-13: "Bewitching The Pomerania". Behemoth going ever faster and tighter, with a new drummer and Nergal still in his transition from high-pitched schrieking to Death Metal growling (he's somewhere in between here). They rework two older ones here, "Hidden In A Fog" from "Sventevith", and "Sventevith" from "As The Forests...", in the new 'brutal' style, and in this form they're also quite successful.
To conclude this lengthy review: if you didn't already understand, let me phrase this nicely: Unless you already own the separate CD's featured on this compilation, GET THIS IMMEDIATELY! Hell, this is some of the best Black Metal from the mid-90's in great packaging, over 144 minutes of great music for the price of one normal CD. You're an idiot if you let this chance pass (it's still widely available now, but 2000 copies aren't that many).
© 2000 sybren