Artist: Behemoth
Country: Poland
Label: Mystic Production / Nuclear Blast Records
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
This review is a bit late. Somewhat deliberately. Releases by the bigger bands in the Extreme Metal genres are usually placed at the bottom of the queue and only tackled when there is sufficient time and energy available to deal with them. So, while this album is already a few months old, I now felt that this still deserved a few words. Not even so much because people do not know what to expect or what this album really sets it apart from the previously released material. Because I by now people who are interested in Behemoth have already checked it out and decided whether it is worth their money and besides, the current day Behemoth-formula has been tried and tested endlessly.
Still, I think ‘The Shit Ov God’ is worth the attention, maybe even more now then when it initially came out. The reason is that while Behemoth’s musical approach to the Extreme Metal genres have crystalized into something that’s very much recognizable, their imperium is expanding further. Consequently, over the last decade or so, Behemoth became the embodiment of what purists and underground metal fans see as the “true sell out”. Behemoth anno 2025 indeed has very little, if anything, to do with what they were when they first burst into the scene in the early/mid-90s with albums like ‘Sventevith (Storming Near The Baltic)’ (1995) and ‘Grom’ (1996).
Behemoth, however, has always been a band with ambition and a clear vision in what they wanted to become. If you take the chance to chronologically listening to all of the band’s recordings, you’ll discover that none of their albums really feel much out of place and the musical development is nothing short of a natural progression. A natural progression by a band, or rather, by Nergal’s vision of extremity. In addition, time has been kind to him and his talent allowed him to build this Behemoth empire. As, without a doubt, Behemoth is one of the biggest acts in Extreme Metal of our time.
That people now look at the band differently is only partly for musical reasons. For sure, there are people who just prefer Behemoth’s 90’s (or mid-00s) music over the band’s current approach. But I can’t shake off the feeling that the majority of people dismiss the band because they are popular. That’s a phenomenon that happened all the time, already when Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’ or ‘Metallica’ or even Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number Of The Beast’ came out, people were disappointed and had hard times getting over it. Or when bands like Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir or Amon Amarth became widely accepted and huge commercial powerhouses.
Behemoth never bothered about people starting pouring their hate. It even seemed to have only strengthened them on their road to stardom. I do understand that doing yoga or selling coffee feels rather far removed from what Black Metal used to stand for. And Nergal, being the poster boy or metro-man he is, doesn’t feel very close to the ugliness of Cronos or Tom Warrior – the early personifications of gnarly Black Metal. Still, when focussing merely on the music, Behemoth is doing what it wants and although its course has dramatically changed, it didn’t sell out that much at all.
‘The Shit Ov God’, the band’s 13th full-length album, is just a logical continuation, it has every element that made the band grow into what is today. If you’d take a look at the last couple of albums on Metal-Archives, then you see that the scores tend to be on the low end. But a more careful look learns that there’s a few people giving the albums a 0% score, which obviously doesn’t really represent the true value of an album. Neither do the 100% scores by the way. So, if anything, Behemoth divides Extreme Metal fans. And although there are always better and worse albums, and personal preferences often come into play, I think this sort of love and hate situation always make a band grow in overall popularity.
Personally I think their ‘I Loved You At Your Darkest’ is the band’s best album in recent years, while that album is commonly regarded as their worst. Regardless of what you think of it, it was an album that further widened the band’s view on Extreme Metal, something that Behemoth benefitted from in the two successive albums. ‘The Shit Ov God’, like all of its predecessors, is a result of the success and creative process of the albums before. That means, if you have dismissed Behemoth with the last couple of records, or already with the release of ‘Pandemonic Incantations’ (1998) and ‘Satanica’ (1999), the first albums to contain a substantial degree of Death Metal, then you probably won’t take the band back into your heart with this album. ‘The Shit Ov God’ is very well-executed Black/Death Metal album with a top-notch production that serves with everything that you came to expect, whether you love or hate it.
In conclusion, if you’re annoyed with the ‘Christ Is Cringe’ shirts and you don’t understand why the band is playing this big sold-out shows, or even look down on the younger generations going wild with Behemoth, think back of the time you got into metal yourselves. It probably will also be through bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Slipknot, Korn, Children Of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Sabaton or Ghost. Everybody needs a stepping stone and if they just enjoy a band because they simply like the music… All in all, the ‘Fuck Me Jesus’, ‘Cunt Hunters Of The Night’, ‘Dead Girls Don’t Say No’ or ‘Vestal Masturbation’ shirts aren’t really that different, are they?
