Review Summary: A blasphemous fire to purge religious sanctity.
Behemoth has become somewhat on an enigma in metal, often straddling the line between black metal and death metal quite precariously, while at other times revealing themselves to be entirely one genre or the other. Satanica is the first album to make the black metal to death metal transition, an album that would begin the blossoming of Behemoth's black metal roots into something bigger.
Satanica is absolutely relentless in nature. The monstrous blast beats and shouts/growls off this record would be enough to curdle the blood of any Christian. It's so primal and invigorated, with hyper speed tremolos and ripping shreds replete off this record. It's a powerful exercise in aggression, and it does a damn good job of it. Two songs make perfect example of this, "Decade ov Therion" and "Lam", with the former having one of the most rapid fire, anthemic, enthralling introductions of any metal album, and the latter presenting the most furious, stripped-down blast beat intro likely in existence. However, it is also these two tracks that reveal one of the more present flaws off the album. "Satanica" is very one-track minded-in its relentless pursuit of aggression and sheer ferocity, it becomes ever present that the album is reliant off its own speed and brutality just a bit too much. It makes the less catchy songs pale in comparison, causing any memorability they could have had to dwindle. This album could have easily benefited from at least some level of diversity, which isn't really found until the final track.
This would be a minor footnote for the album if simply not for how awkward yet staple it is to the album. This would be the track "Chant for Eschaton". It's such an epic yet off putting closing track. The main riff is slightly sinister yet amazingly catchy, perhaps one of the most memorable of all their riffs, however it is simply not complemented well by Adam Nergals weak, almost grunt-like vocals. He becomes oddly quiet and includes a single clean chant, which unfortunately hurts the song slightly in that Nergal simply doesn't have a strong singing voice. It's rather dull and lifeless to say the least. However, it hints at variety, showing that even in their simplest moments, Behemoth has more songwriting creativity then they let on.
In spite of its evident drawbacks, this album is an absolutely crushing cacophony, nothing more or less. From incredibly technically proficient drumming, to spiteful denouncements at religion delivered by sacrilegious shouts, to carpel tunnel-inducing tremolos, this album is absolutely unforgiving, weaving a blistering path of destruction and leaving nothing in its wake. Off "Satanica", Behemoth bursts down the golden gates of heaven, trampling all in their path.
