siLLy puPPy RETURN OF THE NORTHERN MOON is the third demo released by BEHEMOTH. It was released the same year as “Thy Winter Kingdom” but is substantially longer with seven tracks and closer to the half hour mark. It was also released through Pagan Records and not independently as was the case with the first two. The band is down to two members with Nergal covering guitars, vocals, bass and lyrics. Baal handles percussion and lyrics as well. It doesn’t take long to hear that BEHEMOTH upped their game considerably with this release.. This is the first BEHEMOTH demo actually worth hearing as the band honed their skills and with a better sense of production created a nice slice of evil as fuck black metal.

It starts out with a dreary fog horn type of synth run with monk-like chants as the keyboards gain intensity. It cedes into a more polished and sophisticated black metal sound with the buzz saw guitars bleeding in and a bass line keeping a rhythmic loop in action. Nergal has developed his tortured soul growls that would take them through their black metal years and the bass and guitars now have distinct separate musical parts including evil distorted tones and feedback. There are spooky sound effects like wolves howling that add the sense of Paganism to the mix and atmospheric keyboards to create frightful ambience.

With the atmospheric keyboards, independent guitar parts and bass and drums keeping rhythm, BEHEMOTH pretty much had their black metal sound developed on THE RETURN OF THE NORTHERN MOON and delivered it with full vitriol. What’s still missing here is some interesting song structures however and a clear lack of individuality. Easily lumped into the early 90s old school black metal camp BEHEMOTH pretty much sounds like many other early incarnations of 90s black metal bringing Darkthrone, Immortal and to my ears early Rotting Christ. The tracks stay mostly mid-tempo and never break into fast fury with the exception of the Hellhammer cover “Aggressor.” This one is decent and worthy of checking out but the band still has a way to go before they reach their full black metal potential.