Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest

Behemoth I Loved You At Your Darkest Of all the many bands that have come and gone from the world of metal, there are, of course, some names that have become both famous as well as infamous to people both familiar to metal as well as strangers. For many outsiders, bands like Slayer and even Cannibal Corpse are what top the lists are “blasphemous” and “satanic”. And sure, that s**t isn’t nice, but us metalheads know the real evil s**t and Behemoth is right near the top, if not the very top, of the villainous pentagram.

The act has become synonymous with spitting right in the face of religion and doing their damnedest to make a spectacle out of it and succeeding at nearly every time. For f**k’s sake, their last album was titled “The Satanist”! Many of us wanted to know what Behemoth was going to accomplish with the follow-up to that universally acclaimed record, and we finally have an answer with a record whose name is somewhat deceiving but is lacking none of that classic Behemoth flair in its execution.

With “The Satanist” constantly being hailed as a masterpiece of its kind and one that can stand shoulder to shoulder with no other record, many wanted to know if this new offering from Behemoth would have the same sense of grandeur and such. In a way, yes but also no. I feel many of us can agree that the previous record was an experience from top to bottom that simply had too much going on to really digest even after a few listens.

That’s not to say “I Loved You At Your Darkest” isn’t a riveting experience of blackened death that only Behemoth can deliver because it absolutely is, but it’s a little more straightforward in its execution and something that’s very frank in what it’s going for: being as blasphemous as possible. That sounds odd especially for those of us who know that Behemoth blasphemes every day as an act, but “I Loved You At Your Darkest” truly makes its mission to shred apart every piece of any “holy” scripture possible and then piss all over it. Nothing we haven’t seen from these guys before, but it’s nonetheless entertaining.

For those of you looking for grand instrumentation and mastery over unorthodox to metal instruments that form something larger than life itself, I’m afraid you won’t get that with “I Loved You At Your Darkest” but please do not let that dissuade you from experiencing the black glory that these twelve tracks bring in boatloads one after the other. Behemoth lays down a vicious assault time and time again the likes of which we’ve seen from them before, but “I Loved You At Your Darkest” feels like it’s taking things up a notch with the intensity.

There isn’t one stone left unturned with Behemoth not stopping for one second to tear down the tyranny of religion and allowing a swarm to overtake the land to reign for the next 1000 years. And to say that every single one of those years is an eternity of true chaos and only the highest levels of blasphemy practice would be but the tip of the iceberg of what Behemoth brings to the table. But the fact that Behemoth doesn’t do anything overly intricate or anything to even set themselves apart from the greater blackened death world did bring down my enjoyment of “I Loved You At Your Darkest”, yet this massive record still has plenty to enjoy out of it.

I’ve never believed that a band’s name and legacy alone can carry them throughout their entire career as even the mighty can fall if they take even one wrong step. By no means do I think Behemoth have fallen from their mighty pedestal with this album, but it lacks a little bit of the grandeur that we’ve come to know and love from this act. Despite that, however, there’s no question in my mind whatsoever that “I Loved You At Your Darkest” is a massive album that demands no less attention than any of Behemoth’s previous albums, and still certainly proof that Behemoth still know how to f**king slay with ease.

“I Loved You At Your Darkest” releases on October 5th via Metal Blade Records, and you can pre-order the album via iTunes here.