[Reaper16]

12. Behemoth – The Satanist


Often when people have near-death experiences or when they successfully fight off a potentially fatal disease, they come out of the experience with a renewed or newfound faith. They attribute a spiritual reason for their recovery. Nergal, the frontman of blackened death metal stalwarts Behemoth, had one of those experiences. He nearly died from leukemia recently. So it’s very, very telling that the first Behemoth album since that experience is titled The Satanist. It’s a bombastic blasphemy; a proud rejection of Christianity or any kind of positive spiritual belief system outside of Satanism. And because Satanism is just a provocative, trolling humanism, Behemoth’s message with this album is a defiant “**** you” to any “God has a plan” thinking. Believe in yourself and your ability to change the world or believe in nothing at all. I’m not endorsing that belief system, necessarily; I’m not saying I agree with Nergal. I’m saying that that defiance permeates these tracks. It amplifies all of the darkness. It infuses into the crushing guitar tone. It reverberates around the surprising symphonic sections. This album sounds like WAR. And it might just be the most confident, singular vision that Behemoth has ever put out.