Behemoth - 'I Loved You at Your Darkest' - Review

If for some reason you have been living under a rock for the last few decades, or who knows you might just be getting into the heavier side of music? If this is the case, welcome things are about to get really heavy! Behemoth is a three-piece blackened death metal from Poland, led by the only original member and architect Adam "Nergal" Darski. Nergal, who founded the band originally as a traditional black metal band in 1991 eventually filled out the lineup with a metal award-winning rhythm section in members know as Orion and Inferno. Being around that long they have accumulated a large back catalog that has helped lead the way in the evolution of extreme metal’s evolution. The album I Loved You at Your Darkest is their eleventh studio album and a follow up to the excuse the pun but behemoth of an album in 2014’s “The Satanist” which was a groundbreaking album not only for them be the album was a milestone in showing how far extream music has come. So how did they follow up something that has more accolades seemingly then words in this review? Let's dig in and find out!

This album starts out with an intro track, which on almost any album can be very hit or miss, this one, however, is a major hit! This track has a very cinematic opening that really sets up the next few songs with its dark atmosphere and features what I can only describe as a choir of angry Ghost children chanting what will be a chorus of a future song on the album. This always tends to be cool to see it all tie together in the album with an added spice of that it is not on the very next track. This chorus comes back in track three, almost as of a reminder that these ghostly little hell beasts are still there, watching you as you walk through the darkness of the tracks “Wolves ov Siberia” and “God = Dog".

After listening through the first few tracks I kept trucking along thinking maybe I am losing my mind or it is a trick of this black metal wizardry. But in this instance, I am not going crazy this album has for lack of a better word “clean vocals” which I never thought I would find in a Behemoth track! Much less on multiple songs in a single album, mind the reader who has not heard the album before reading this when I say clean it isn’t the metalcore super high winey type vocals (could you imagine). They are very chanty if not a bit like a Gregorian monk choir hymn, that also ranges to a very meaty borderline opera style of singing, which gives the vocals some variety from the roars as screams. This mixed with the kid's choir and some spoken keeps the vocals interesting the whole time to go hand in hand with the songwriting and dynamic range these songs go through.

Another stand out moment was the song “Bartzabel” with its slow groove and haunting presence give this song a bit more of a look at me I am different then the blasts beat ridden songs around me. Having heard others even call it the closest this band has gotten to a ballad, this has a lot of those cleans I was talking about. This all mixed with an honestly catchy hook I have caught in my ears and it haunts me in my dreams still as I write this. And additions like that is something a heavier band needs to get on the end of the year top lists for sure.

There were only a few low points, the outro was a bit underwhelming and it and another song or two could have been left on the cutting room floor. A little filler is fine but there was counting the outro two or three of them throughout the album and in a twelve song album that leans close to a fourth of the album! Sonically it was similar to the Satanist but different enough to see this is a direction they are evolving to. Could the next album be another true staple to their catalog overshadowing “The Satanist”? This album in the future scope of their career could be known as a transitional album in their evolutionary progress. I would not be shocked to see if this was the case but by no means would I call it “The Satanist” pt 2, but a few of the filler tracks feel like they could have been taken for b sides from that album.

Favorite Track(s):

Bartzabel was a major stand out, I never thought I would hear a catchy song from this band but here it is, "God = Dogs" is also an honorable mention for sure.

Rating:

Strong B+ to a soft A - good album can't wait to see what comes next.