BEHEMOTH — Satanica (review)

BEHEMOTH — Satanica album cover Album · 1999 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Satanica" is the 4th full-length studio album by Polish death metal act Behemoth. The album was released through Avantgarde Music in October 1999. It´s the successor to "Pandemonic Incantations" from 1998. There´s been one lineup change since "Pandemonic Incantations (1998)" as bassist "Mefisto" has jumped ship. Lead vocalist/guitarist Adam "Nergal" Darski plays the bass instead, while a new second guitarist has been added to the ranks in Leszek "L-Kaos" Dziegielewski. Drummer Zbigniew Robert "Inferno" Promiński completes the lineup.

Behemoth started out as a black metal act, but on "Pandemonic Incantations (1998)" they played a blackened death metal style, and "Satanica" sees them moving even further into death metal territory and away from their black metal past. In fact I don´t hear a single black metal trait on "Satanica". This is through and through a death metal release. Artists like Morbid Angel and Nile come to mind at various times during the album, but at this point Behemoth began to sound a little more distinct and forge an original style. The material on the 8 track, 35:11 minutes long album is predominantly fast-paced and technically well played death metal. It´s rooted in early 90s US death metal but it´s not old school in a derivative fashion. Nergal has a mighty roar and his intelligible growling vocal style is incredibly potent. He has a passionate aggressive edge to his growls that´s greatly enjoyable and it´s one of the great assets of "Satanica". In addition to the guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, the music also features some keyboards, but they are usually placed relatively low in the mix, and are predominantly used for atmosphere enhancement rather than as a lead instrument or as a symphonic element.

The material is generally well written too, although not that many tracks stand out. The playing is on a high level and although the sound production could have been better, it´s still a relatively powerful sound, which suits the material reasonably well. So "Satanica" is upon conclusion a quality death metal album by Behemoth, although the relatively one-dimensional nature of the material, and a sound production which could have been more defined and powerful, do slightly drag the rating for the album down. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though, and it might even be a bit too low.
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