Behemoth are hard at work (aren’t they always) on follow up album to their sledgehammer statement of intent ‘The Apostasy’ (2007). Details of it are yet to be released but just in case you forgot exactly who they were in the meantime this stopgap MCD has been released to make the wait a bit more bearable. Behemoth are one of the few metal bands who really bother with EP’s and this is actually their sixth. I have to be a little bit cynical as although an alright marketing tool and a little something extra to offer the fans this could well be looked on as surplus to requirements.
It contains studio tracks, a couple of covers and some live numbers. As we have very recently had ‘Live Apostacy’ it kind of makes the latter a bit pointless, especially as one of them is ‘Chant For Ezkaton 2000 E.V.’ which is also presented here as the lead track of the MCD anyway. Good track it is with its incessant winding guitar clamour,
strong melody and angry barked vocals but although re-recorded for this, most Behemoth fans will already have it on ‘Satanica’ an album also re-released recently just in case you missed it the first time.
This does leave a few new things to tempt you. The first is ‘Quadosh’ which has a mid paced delivery about it rather than Behemoth firing out at full throttle. It’s also pretty damn bass heavy to my ears and rolls over you like a tank. Vocal contributions are added by Big Boss and Igor from Polish compadres Root but I have to be honest there really is nothing particularly special about this track at all. A couple of covers follow, they do always seem obligatory on these sort of releases and as the likes of Children Of Bodom have proved, can be great fun. Masters Hammer song ‘Jama Pekel’ does not come as a great surprise or push any new boundaries from the Behemoth mindset. It’s a good well executed cover and storms along pretty much like one would expect. Their cover of Ramones number ‘I’m Not Jesus’ however is much more adventurous and no doubt an excellent dig at the Polish authorities who have been causing all manner of problems for Nergal recently. They make The Ramones sound like a death laden hardcore band and put what sounds like a sampled mass in the background of the recording. This is pretty much the highlight here though and I could only really recommend this if you wanted to own absolutely everything the group released, otherwise you could easily pass this by.
http://www.behemoth.pl
