Pictured: Nergal, Orion, Inferno. Not pictured: Seth.
Behemoth is a Blackened Death Metal band from Poland, and one of the largest extreme metal bands in their country. Formed in 1991, they started as a straight black metal band, but changed their sound over time to include more and more death metal elements, while keeping the visual style and general themes of a black metal band. This came to a head with Satanica, where their style coalesced for the first time. Their first real big hit record was Demigod, which established several of their better known songs including a couple of their Signature Songs. This set the tone for their following two albums, where they slowly grew in prominence in the Blackened Death scene. Unfortunately, things seemed to be looking pretty grim in 2010 hot off the heels of the release of Evangelion: Vocalist and guitarist Nergal was diagnosed with leukemia, and it seemed as if all was lost... but thankfully, he managed to survive it thanks to a fan's donated bone marrow matching. Two years of intensive recovery later, and a year in the studio, Behemoth released The Satanist, which was yet another shift in their work towards adding progressive elements into their blackened death metal, and that only increased with their most recent releases: I Loved You At Your Darkest, and Opvs Contra Natvram.Members
- Adam "Nergal" Darski - Vocals and Guitar
- Tomasz "Orion" Wróblewski -Bass
- Zbigniew Robert "Inferno" Promiński - Drums
- Patryk "Seth" Sztyber - Guitar
Studio Albums
- Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) - 1995
- Grom - 1996
- Pandemonic Incantations - 1998
- Satanica - 1999
- Thelema.6 - 2000
- Zos Kia Cultus (Here and Beyond) - 2002
- Demigod - 2004
- The Apostasy - 2007
- Evangelion - 2009
- The Satanist - 2014
- I Loved You at Your Darkest - 2018
- Opvs Contra Natvram - 2022
This is not the page for a big-ass monster.
Behemoth provides examples of the following tropes
- All Drummers Are Animals: Averted with Inferno. Though incredibly fast and precise on the drums, he is one of the most low-key members of the group.
- Black Metal: Their first few albums especially before moving to Death Metal, but it still remains an influence nowadays.
- Bilingual Bonus: Taken up to eleven with the EP Xiądz. When it was announced, nobody knew what the title meant or how to even pronounce it. It wasn't until the EP leaked that some fans were able to figure out the title was of very old Polish that stands for Priest. Same could be said with the track Nieboga Czarny Xiądz, which stands for Unholy Black Priest. Considering Behemoth's shtick, this is obvious.
- Concept Album: The Satanist apparently is this.
- Cultured Badass: Nergal, who has six years of history and one year of Latin at the University of Gdańsk. He actually qualifies as a museum curator. It also explains the heavy amounts of Latin and historical elements in Behemoth's music.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Their pre-Satanica albums suffer/benefit from this big time, depending on who you ask.
- Epic Rocking: "The Reign of Shemsu-Hor" and "Lucifer" both clock in at over eight minutes each.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Nergal is Choleric, Inferno is Melancholic, Orion is Plegmatic, and Seth is Sanguine
- Gothic Metal: A major part of their sound on I Loved You at Your Darkest, though they are still death metal as a whole.
- Harsh Vocals: Slightly less so after Evangelion, as Nergal changed up his previous method of preparing for shows in order to save his voice.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Par for the course for extreme metal. Special points go to the beginning of "Slaves Shall Serve", which is in a dead language. That said, Nergal's vocals have become slightly easier to understand since The Apostasy.
- Longest Song Goes Last:
- "The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor" (8:27) closes Demigod.
- "Lucifer" (8:06) closes Evangelion.
- "O Father O Satan O Sun!" (7:13) closes The Satanist.
- "Versvs Christvs" (6:32) closes Opvs Contra Natvtram.
- Long Runner Lineup: The Nergal/Inferno/Orion/Seth lineup has not changed since 2004.
- Metal Scream: Nergal is one of the most prominent uses of the "Polish growler" style of death metal vocals along with Piotr Wiwcarzek
- Moral Guardians: Behemoth have had at least two run-ins with censorship in their home country:
- In 2007, the All-Polish Committee for Defense Against Sects accused them of promoting satanism and murder. No ban has come from the Polish government...yet.
- In 2010 Nergal was charged with denouncing religion for tearing up a Bible on stage in mid-set. He faced two years in prison if convicted; he was ultimately acquitted.
- 2011 brought both an inversion and straight case of Moral Guardianship. He was invited to take part in a TV show on public channel, which unsurprisingly whipped the Moral Guardians into a frenzy.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Even though Seth is a full member of the band, he is still a studio musician and live act first and foremost. This means he is sometimes not included in promo photos.
- New Sound Album: Behemoth introduced Death Metal influences starting with Satanica and increased them over time to the point where very little Black Metal sound is present. Starting with Zos Kia Cultus, they had evolved into (mostly) full-on death metal, though they still kept the black metal outfits, which contrasts with their sound somewhat. They began reintroducing more black metal elements into their sound again on Evangelion and especially The Satanist, with the latter being at least as much black metal as it is death metal. I Loved You at Your Darkest also introduced prominent Gothic Metal elements.
- Precision F-Strike: Behemoth don't fill their songs with coarse language as much as some other Death Metal bands, but when Nergal belches out a curse-word, it hits hard.
- Slaves Shall Serve ends with the line "Slaves shall fucking serve!"
- Blow your Trumpets Gabriel starts with "I saw the virgin's cunt, spawning forth the snake."
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: "Be Without Fear," "Shemhamforash," and "Lucifer" are just three examples. This is a common lyrical trope for Behemoth. And then there's The Satanist.
- Rock Trio: Officially considered as such, due to Seth's dubious membership status. All pre-2004 formations were also trios.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: On the more recent albums Nergal overdubs his voice with both high and low screams to give a more brutal vocal sound. This has caused some to call
They Changed It, Now It Sucks! - Shout-Out:
- The band's nicknames are all references to mythology or literature. Nergal was an ancient Babylonian deity, Inferno is a reference to The Divine Comedy, Orion is a character in Classical Mythology, and Seth is the brother of Cain and Abel, and is also an alternate name for Set, the god of darkness and chaos in Egyptian Mythology, which is probably where it came from.
- Many of their lyrics are inspired by the religion of Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley.
- Vocal Dissonance: Believe it or not, the skinny guy in this picture is actually Nergal.
◊ - Vocal Evolution: Since The Apostasy, Nergal's habit of eating chips to improve his growling was replaced with less throat-damaging ways, usually honey and a warm-up before performing, which incidentally made him a better live singer from 2017 onwards.
