Every year Behemoth release a new album is a good year. Sounds fanboyish, but... wait, I'm having a déjà vu. I said the same thing about Dir en grey, didn't I? Well, look, I'm a simple man. Anyway, in 2014, 2018 and now 2022 both of these two bands I generally consider among the top three best bands released new albums. The reason I'm saying this is that the 2018 Behemoth album, I Loved You At Your Darkest, was honestly disappointing. It's not bad, but it's for the most part very formulaic and just feels like they'd lost their spark. But with Opvs Contra Natvram, they dispel any suspicion of that.
01. Post-God Nirvana
02. Malaria Vvlgata
03. The Deathless Sun
04. Ov My Herculean Exile
05. Neo-Spartacvs
06. Disinheritance
07. Off to War!
08. Once Upon a Pale Horse
09. Thy Becoming Eternal
10. Versvs Christvs
The first song, Post-God Nirvana, is cool and has interesting sounds going on, but it is basically just an intro track that could've easily been one minute long. That said, I do think it's good that it's a "full song" because it's allowed to breathe; if it was shorter, it'd feel unnecessary. It definitely sets the atmosphere for the rest of the album. What I find remarkable is that on first listen, its ambiguity kept me on the fence between "oh no, this album will be even blander than ILYAYD" and "oh yeah, this album will kick even more ass than The Satanist" when neither expectation turned out correct.
In some ways, it could be said that this album is even better than The Satanist; in terms of the number of great songs, the two are practically tied. As an album this one feels more consistently fleshed-out and flows better. On the other hand, it doesn't really have any songs that made me think "instant classic" like Ben Sahar, O Father O Satan O Sun! and the title track of The Satanist. The Deathless Sun, Ov My Herculean Exile, Neo-Spartacvs and Once Upon a Pale Horse did immediately stand out on the same level as Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel and Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, though.
The reason I'm only focusing on comparing this album with The Satanist and not earlier albums is that I'd thought they began to undergo severe boomerification after The Satanist. On some level, Evangelion will always be their one album I consider the best and the album they peaked with since, well, every song on that album was an instant classic; I know for me nostalgia plays a part since it was the first album they released after I got into them, but using nostalgia as a subjective criterion for music enjoyment isn't bad. A lot of people think their older stuff is better, but I'll commit heresy and disagree. Yeah, their old stuff is great for what it is, but how I see (or hear) it, they gradually became the Behemoth they are now and matured a lot from The Apostasy to Evangelion, and then again from Evangelion to The Satanist. If I tried to compare this album with Evangelion, let alone anything before that, it'd be like comparing apples to oranges. If all of their albums had a ton of internal variety, then it'd make more sense... if that makes sense.
I have a bad habit of focusing too much on (the negative aspects of the) mixing and mastering when reviewing albums, but in this case I'll just mention that I wish this album's mastering was a little bit louder and "crispier"; not "dirtier" because imho the relative "cleanliness" works better with Behemoth's music, but this does lack a bit of "bite".
Every song from The Deathless Sun to Once Upon a Pale Horse is really solid, and their order is perfect. So, in other words, for most of its duration, this album feels like "this is an album" and not just "these are songs".
I like the flanger in Off to War! even if the rest of that song almost feels like a filler track. It's a good song, but without the flanger effect, it'd honestly be forgettable.
Thy Becoming Eternal is a good song, but at least so far I've found it disturbingly forgettable. Every time I listen to this album, it's like that song is just something that happens between Once Upon a Pale Horse and Versvs Christvs. It's not a bad song at all, maybe it's just its placement between those two highly memorable songs that makes it forgettable.
The first time, the intro of Versvs Christvs caught me off guard, as I'm sure it did a lot of listeners. In hindsight there's no real reason why it should have, but it doesn't feel like a Behemoth song with the moody piano and Nergal singing softly in a breathy whispery tone. It is a breath of fresh air, and the way it follows Thy Becoming Eternal makes it feel like cold air the first time, like "wait, what's going on?" before you get acclimated. By the time you do get acclimated, it's back to your regularly scheduled programming and the intro feels like a fever dream that you almost doubt even happened... until it happens again, this time not feeling out of place. In a way, they saved the best for last; it's perfect as the last song, it'd sound totally out of place anywhere else on the album, but... I don't know, it ends pretty abruptly, like it should have an epic finale that really blows your mind.
Enjoyability: 9/10
Relistenability: 8/10
Memorability: 7/10
Coherence: 7/10
Flow: 8/10
Originality: 6/10
Epicness: 8/10
Nutshell: Behemoth are still a behemoth.
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