Behemoth is a name you don’t have to go far in asking about to get an opinion in our scene, ever since the release of the Satanist, they have catapulted themselves if you will into the more mainstream. They turned heads for better or worse depending on your stance and got everyone’s attention. The benchmark to everything else they would write from that point on was set, and hot damn was that set high. As time passed and rumblings of a new release being due, it was a wonder how they would follow up their seminal release. Worry we need not though as I Loved You at Your Darkest hit the spot dead center, the continuity was there, albeit in what felt a somewhat more commercial way. An active decision maybe? Or just the way the process worked? Either way, it didn’t matter or take anything away from the album or band, they ticked all the boxes and answered all the questions asked, and if that was more commercial in any way, well, it doesn’t hurt to gain more fans than would otherwise not be into the earlier material the band has under their belt.
Now in 2022 though, the time is nigh for the 3rd album after the Satanist and I Loved You at Your Darkest, will it be on par and make their own unholy trinity of magnificent releases? Or have they peaked and set to fall down the cliff of success they have climbed for the last decade or so. Either way, the reinvention if you will, has created something special about this band and nothing could take that away….unless it were their own Saint Anger… and I can tell you now, thankfully, this is not!
‘Post God Nirvana‘ seeps out of the speakers, setting an uneasy, dark, rallying cry for what is to come. The short, but biting ‘Malaria Vulgata‘ cripples you with its chokehold. Soon forcing songs down your throat like spiked pills you have no choice in swallowing. ‘The Deathless Sun’ with fantastical hooks turn you inside out, ‘Ov My Herculean Exile’ plays with the atmosphere, less being no means not heavier than constant blast beats and tremolo picking. ‘Neo Spartacus’ tells the tale of Spartacus, leading a revolution against all that is going on, something Nergal himself is not far from what with the oppression from the Polish Catholic Church amongst others in his native home. With the state of the world, it’s easy to see the creative style in which this song is lyrically written, we all have some Spartacus in us, “I am Spartacus, and so are you!” Nergal ends on.
‘Disinheritance’ for me is the pinnacle of this album, it has everything you could want. ‘Off to War’ charges ahead in great fashion and soon finds its way to ‘Once Upon a Pale Horse’ which takes the throne for the most accessible track from the album that not long finds itself shifting again with the penultimate ‘Thy Becoming Eternal’. By far the most unexpected surprise comes with the closer, ‘Versus Christus’ piano and clean vocals?! Hello! A fine ending indeed.
Opvs Contra Natvram is definitely an opus indeed, full of anger and ferocity, its writing is dark and fork-tongued. Many people found themselves doing many things during the chaos of the pandemic, Behemoth has clearly looked inwards and pulled hard on what they found deep inside. Taking what has thrust them into the limelight since the Satanist, they’ve somehow taken the darker side of their previous twenty years and blended them into a very fine poison. In time, this album could quite easily peak the listenability of the previous two studio releases, Opvs Contra Natvram is just quite simply, next-level Behemoth.