Kev Rowland Here we have a deluxe reissue of Behemoth’s second album, 1996’s ‘Grom’. Following on from a series of demo tapes, with 1994’s ‘...From the Pagan Vastlands’ being widely acclaimed, they released their debut, ‘Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic)’ in 1995, with a line-up which at the time only had founders Adam "Nergal" Darski (lead vocals, guitars) and Adam "Baal Ravenlock" Muraszko (drums and backing vocals) plus a couple of guests. However, by the time they went into the studio for this they had been joined by bassist Leszek "Les" Dziegielewski, plus guests Piotr Weltrowski (December's Fire) on synthesizers and singer Celina. This was the last album to feature Baal, and the only one for Les, with the band stretching their black metal wings even further.

I am not sure why they have decided to reissue this in 2023, as that makes it 27 years as opposed to 25 or 30 but given this has been reissued multiple times it is nice to see it finally get the approach it deserves. This is available digitally, as a 2 CD media book, and a gatefold 2 LP. Physical formats include bonus audio material and booklets containing exclusive archival content. Rare bonus material contains cover versions, rehearsals, and live tracks and while I would have preferred everything to have come from the original period, I can fully understand why they finish with a modern take of “Lasy Pomorza”. What makes this album so interesting from a casual listener’s point of view is the way they are bringing in so many diverse elements, with the acoustic guitar on the title cut being a nice way of changing the approach, while Les’s bass is clear and distinct as he adds melody against Nergal’s buzzsaw. It is the diversity which makes this so interesting, although there is an argument for the guitar to be a little higher in the mix and for Celina not to have been used at all as she is not the best singer in the world. The additional tracks will certainly be enough for those who already have this album to purchase it again, while it is interesting to hear that Nergal is already itching to get back into the studio to follow up on ‘Opvs Contra Natvram’.

Warthur A more successful black metal adventure than Behemoth's debut album, Grom is conceived as a celebration of the band's pagan beliefs and sounds like a devastating war cry. Between the lo-fi production and Nergal's fearsomely aggressive lead guitar and vocals, this is perhaps the angriest and most aggressive black metal since the early years of Mayhem. The band had not yet begun their transformation into the blackened death metal powerhouse they are today, but there's a few signs here and there of the coming change - for instance, at points Nergal moves away from his black metal screaming vocals to deliver a brief snippet here or there in a death metal grunt. On the whole, this album is compelling evidence that Behemoth could have had a reasonable enough career as a black metal project - however, their artistic tangent would lead them in a different direction.

UMUR "Grom" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Polish black/death metal act Behemoth. The album was released through Solistitium/Atratus Music in 1996.

"Grom" pretty much continues the raw yet melodic and varied black metal style from the debut album "Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) (1995)". Everything is just a notch better on "Grom" compared to the debut. The sound production is more powerful (yet still a bit amaturish), the musicianship is much better (especially the drums are better played than the case was on the debut) and above all the tracks are better composed. We´re not talking a revelation here, and it´s obvious that the band were still struggling to find an identity at this point in their career, but it´s definitely an improvement. The vocals on the album are mostly raspy but there are both male and female clean vocals too. None of the clean vocals on the album are very impressive though. In addition the raw black metal attack (which is at times very influenced by the blackened thrash metal scene of the eighties) there are also acoustic parts and some folky elements too.

"Grom" is better than I expected after listening to "Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) (1995)", but it´s still not an album that is able to captivate me much. The band would turn towards blackened death metal on their next release, which would also showcase a more mature and slightly more original sound. Had they continued down the black metal path they tread on both "Grom" and on "Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) (1995)" I´m not sure they would have experienced as much success as they did later in their career. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is deserved.

darkoat Behemoth have gone through massive improvements as musicians and now they are finally able to really convince me as one of the best acts in the Black Metal scene. With "Grom" they have acquired a much deeper tone to all the different approaches in their style, be it the atmospheric stuff or the fast and brutal attacks. The production does justice to the excellent tracks - bass and drums are powerful as fuck and simply crushing!

The melodic side of Behemoth is now perhaps a little less evident, but their characteristic melodic riffs are still to be found as well as the acoustic guitar inputs, which see their atmospheric side at times enhanced by male epic-toned singing and some guitar solos on some moments that sound quite expressive; intentionally or not, some of the atmosphere brings to my mind traces of Gothic Rock, but the original drive of the Poles' Black Metal is in no way hindered, much the contrary, it is much stronger - the stuff is much faster and powerful and at times comparable to Mayhem or Immortal. Traces of Celtic Frost as well as bits of other older acts can also be felt and some quite 80's Thrash-oriented moments. The variation throughout the album is also notorious and generally each song possesses a small detail of its own - 'Dragon's Lair' features some keyboard orchestrations, some excellent epic moments and even a bass guitar solo!, 'Lasy Pomorza' and 'Grom' are sung in Polish and have a somewhat Folkish flavor, 'Rising Proudly Towards the Sky' has a melodic line somewhat similar to Dissection and features a great keyboard solo and a quite Thrashy finale and there are even some female vocals, used on 'Grom' and 'The Dark Forest'!

At the end of the day, it's still Behemoth, but in my opinion now they are better than ever! Intense and fucking brilliant! This fucking rules, and guess what! - it's even original!