It’s that happy time again when the dim lights in darkened souls burn a little brighter as one of the best bands of the past twenty years rock up with a new album. It is always great when you discover a new band and listen to their music for the first time but it is equally special when a band that you have loved for decades are bringing out a new album.
In my whiskey-soaked opinion only the mighty Mastodon have reached the genius levels of Behemoth in the past decade. Both of them driving heavy music forward without a thought for the road ahead.
Behemoth’s 12th studio album kicks off with “Post God Nirvana” a chilling opening salvo that lets atmospheric tones and beats and chants fill the foreground whilst a rasping guitar line occasionally reveals itself. Nergal provide the narration in true ferocious style. It is a typically unsettling start.
“Malaria Vulgata” ramps up the energy to full-on and blasts through the ears at a pace that has become something of a Behemoth hallmark. It is the band at the most visceral and cutting.
In the words of main man Nergal “The album title means going against the current. It’s the negative of the values and morals and ethics that I stand against. I’ve seriously been wrestling with destructive tendencies in pop culture – cancel culture, social media, and tools which I feel are very dangerous weapons in the hands of people who are not competent to judge others. That’s something which I find very destructive and disturbing and extremely limiting coming from an artists’ perspective. This is my middle finger to that.” That seems to sum things up rather neatly.
“Ov My Herculean Exile” is a stunning indignant stand of brutal power and intensity. Likewise “Neo Spartacus” is possibly one of the ugliest and downright dirty tracks the band have done for a long, long time and it’s all the better for it.
Engineering duties for the album was, once again, entrusted with the skills ears of acclaimed Meshuggah and Dimmu Borgir producer Daniel Bergstrand. Whilst mixing was handled for the first time by the famed Joe Barresi (QOTSA, NIN, AIC and Tool).
Album closer “Versus Christus” is a slow building blasphemous call to arms that will surprise and challenge those who thought they new everything about this band. This just proves that there are so many more strands to Nergal and his band than even he thought possible.
‘No compromise’ is the Behemoth mantra and in a world where the pressure to conform and fit in has never been more pressurized Nergal, Inferno and Orion continue forge their own path through the darkness regardless of assumptions or expectations.
Opvs Contra Natvram continues the hellish hot streak the band have been on for the past two decades or more and proves conclusively that in the dark world of metallus extremis they have no equal.
Donnie’s Rating: 9.5/10
Opvs Contra Natvram is released on 16th September through Nuclear Blast.
