behemoth - opvs contra natvram

boy, what a rager right here. the band's last album "i loved you at your darkest" lacked longevity but this one got me right back on the band wagon. everything i love about behemoth and more. the visual presentation is outstanding again. white/gold split out of 650 copies. nuclear blast. 2022.

behemoth - i loved you at your darkest

the new piece of behemoth and what a mammoth work this is. the pre-order process was somewhat sketchy. everywhere the record and its different versions were offered, only mock-up photos concerning the vinyl colour-ways were to be seen. those mock-ups indicated a clear merge pattern which would have been very interesting because i only know of opaque colours for merge patterns. i actually was tempted to get the u.k. version but shipping costs put me off.

so i went for the clear/bronze version, it was available via a few german distros and looked pretty cool in the mock-ups. though, i doubted the actual outcome would come close. when the package arrived i was truly blown away. the whole record looked simply amazing. the gatefold comes with partial gold ink printed on a lovely matte cardboard gatefold sleeve. it includes a booklet with fantastic hints to biblical events and their respective paintings.

there is the binding of isaac by abraham, the beheading of holofernes by judith, archangel michael and the weighing of souls, the moulting of apostle bartholomew and a few more which i didn't recognise yet. the colour-way of the vinyl is cool, too. it has nothing to do with the pictures shown beforehand but still nice. coke bottle clear (a teal tinge) with a bronze centre cut at 45 rounds per minute for perfect sound.

musically behemoth delivers a coherent piece of most delicious quality. they actually took the foundation of their death metal sound of "the apostasy" and "evangelion" and added a few new surprising elements like weird clean vocals or an almost catchy chorus. but don't worry, it all blends into the typical behemoth sound seamlessly. fantastic album all around. limited to 500 copies. going to catch them live next year in february. yeah! nuclear blast. 2018.

behemoth - the satanist

in the moment i try to limit my record spendings by setting up a budget for every month. again i have a huge backlog and i feel like i can't catch up with myself. i have records i bought two month or so ago and didn't even listen to for one single time. i can't give the records the amount of spins they deserve and therefore i need to step on the break.

i try to buy only new releases and some selected stuff off shops or ebay. we'll see if i can maintain my self-imposed restraint or if it will collapse like a house of cards. and to be a little more up to date i want to start to put up some new releases. today i start with the new behemoth record, called 'the satanist'.

i love how behemoth plays with their own image by chosing this album title. of course they are lightyears away from cheesy satanism. their lyrics are rich with spiritual images, historical references and mystical similies. i really have to use an encyclopedia trying to understand the hints. mysically they developed their own style and took it to the next level. faster, darker and even catchier. more of everything!

boy, be sure to check out the video for the single 'blow your trumpets, gabriel'. the images were kind of shocking but it is still that impressing that i watch it over and over again plus it's an awesome song! the presentation is awesome too. gatefold sleeve with great artwork, lp-sized booklet with all the lyrics written with the art of calligraphy, liner notes by nergal and black poly-lined dust sleeves.

only tiny downer is the vinyl not being 180gr heavy vinyl. but i generously overlook that. of my clear red copy, which comes on a very nice shade of red by the way, are 250 in excistence. there are numerous editions out there. some being exclusively sold by different mailorders like emp, nuclear blast or the band's webshop and some being available to a certain group of people (like nuclear blast gold customers). too much to list here. check discogs! nuclear blast. 2014.

animate rec pt. 1/2: behemoth - evangelion

behemoth - evangelion

way back at christmas 2011 i bought some stuff from animate rec for the first and until now the last time. from that time on i knew that they had this record here in store. but in 2011 i was still of the opinion that i should prefer a picture disc over a normal black vinyl version. nuclear blast just pressed black vinyl and a limited amount of picture discs for this album. the picture discs come in a common cardboard sleeve and not in those crappy plastic pieces of sh... so i thought it'd be ok to get one of them. of course they had sold out at nb two years after the initial release and so i had to seek other sources. it turned out to be a difficult task. couldn't find it in the usual places like ebay or discogs. it only crossed my path once in an american vinyl internet shop called invinylwetrust.com (which seems to have downsized a bit since i surfed there the last time) but it was pretty pricey and so i abandoned the idea.

in the meantime almost two years passed and i considered to buy another record at animate which i wanted since christmas 2011, too (upcoming post). i searched through the stuff to add something to my cart and behemoth came up in the b section. i already repressed my memory concerning this record. at this point i really hate picture discs and changed my mind. of course the scale turns in favour for black vinyl now. somehow i was lucky now not to have been able to score a picture disc before.

the album itself is a scorcher. blackened tech death metal at its best. 'evangelion' bursts with energy and especially the drummer is not of this earth - stunning to listen to. the lyrics are pretty cryptic so thankfully they included liner notes (but even with them the content is beyond my grasp sometimes). if you like fast death metal of any kind it seems unlikely you never heard of them but if so, do yourself a favour and check it out!

the presentation is almost perfect. sweet 180gr black vinyl, nice fold out insert with all lyrics and liner notes and great mystic artwork all around. only thing that sucks is the inner gatefold sleeve. waste of space and material. i spare you the view because this is what i do too when pulling the record out of the sleeve.

nuclear blast limited this black version to 1000 copies. i have #280. 2009.

hellion store: behemoth

behemoth - the apostasy

i really like the last three behemoth releases - demigod, the apostasy and evangelion namely. fast, technical death metal with loads of blasts and doomy melodies plus an mystical edge to the lyrics is just the right mixture for me. i knew that the local hellion record store had in stock since i saw it several times before. after i could pick up 'demigod' in the same store it was about time for 'the apostasy'. of the three behemoth records i like, 'the apostasy' is the lesser good one which doesn't mean this is a bad record. not at all. it's a damn good listen, i just enjoy the other two a bit more.

the vinyl copy i have is a re-press of 2009 made by back on black. regain records, which originally gave the album the vinyl treatment, pressed it on black vinyl only. so i'm happy that b.o.b. made a limited run on coloured vinyl. i scored it for a very reasonable €15 price tag.

the record comes with a gatefold sleeve and on heavy 180gr milky clear vinyl. so the presentation is pretty much top notch. only thing which is a pain in the arse is the missing of the lyrics. back on black did the same with the 'demigod' re-release. that sucks! i mean, i have the cd version too so i have them anyway but why just drop them, back on black? if it's not working with the layout of the inner sleeve then an insert would have made me happy too. ok, whatever - the album sounds great on vinyl.

back on black. 2009.

hellion record store: behemoth

behemoth - demigod
i didn't get in touch with this polish extreme metal band by the direct approach. i kind of re-discovered another extreme metal outfit, nile (listened to them as i was younger but found them too extreme at the time), as a friend gave me "annihilation of the wicked" last year. and so i checked more stuff of them. doing this i often find reference of behemoth and so, along the way i checked them out, too. next to "demigod" i have "the apostasy" and "evangelion" already on cd on my shelf.
one shiny day, as i looked through the well sorted vinyl supply of hellion store i came across this version. it's a re-press on back-on-black (originally released on regain records) and a note on the back said "limited coloured vinyl". good price, too, i picked it up. coming home and freeing it from the shrink wrap i was a little bit disappointed though. no lyrics in the inner gatefold, which meant no liner notes either plus the colour is grey... i mean, it matches the artwork quite well but grey just isn't much of a colour to me.
gatefold sleeve + opaque grey vinyl. back on black.