Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram (2022)

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.

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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.

IA - Golden King Of The Forest (2020)

Apparently it's been seven years since the last IA release...? Well, these guys might take their time, but you can count on them to deliver absolute quality!

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I'll be honest, the first time I heard IA was at the Roihuvuori town festival... I'll even admit I wasn't actually at the festival, but rather on my balcony. Roihuvuori is pretty small. Point is, immediately when I heard their music, I had to make sure I'd remember their name for years to come because they just blew me away.

With this song, they continue what they've been doing: shamanic metal. It might sound like a gimmicky non-genre "subgenre" of folk metal, but you'd be dead wrong to make that assumption because this isn't folk metal. It might have some influences from folk music, at least thematically if not so much musically (although it does, especially in the intro), but at their heart IA's music has a shamanistic spirit that most folk metal bands could never even dream of... so, they're better folk metal than actual folk metal bands.

Now, the question has to be asked: are they actually bringing anything new to the table? It'd be ignorant to claim that IA has reinvented the wheel, but what they've done is build on the existing wheel of progressive metal in a way that's their own while also remaining firmly grounded within the genre's expectations. Yet, it would feel somehow wrong to compare them to other bands. I mean, I could make the usual comparisons, but what's the point when IA could well stand on their own alongside those bands?

As for this single itself, it's extremely solid. It doesn't have any particular highlights, or rather it has so many highlights that none of them really shine through. There's one interesting psychedelic little bit in the middle that's extremely memorable, but I'd hardly call it the highlight of the song; I'd say the entire song is its own highlight and structured perfectly in such a way that it flows effortlessly, almost like a river, and looping it over and over again only makes it even better with each listen. That's rare enough to be remarkable!

However, with this comes the problem: even on first listen it became clear that in its entirety, this is not a very memorable song. There are riffs that are probably going to pop up in my head from time to time, but I'm not sure I'll remember that they're from this song. Not that I'd remember where half of the riffs I randomly remember are from, but that's beside the point.

The vocals are epic, at times achieving a vibe almost like ancient invocations. The guitars, bass and drums are all top-notch as well. Really, the only negative things I can say about this aren't even negative but rather it being less awesome than it could be if it was a different song; that is to say, this song considered purely by itself is damn near perfect and only when thought of in the context of progressive metal in general do its "flaws" become noticeable.

Enjoyability: 9/10
Relistenability: 9/10
Memorability: 6/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 10/10
Originality: 7/10
Epicness: 8/10
Nutshell: IA churn on like a river, like a volcanic eruption, like a meteor, like a stampede of wild animals... they're unstoppable.

DIR EN GREY - The Insulated World (2018)

In my mind, there has never been any question about the fact that this is the best band in the world, as well as one of the most versatile and unique. Maybe saying "every year Dir en grey release a new album is a good year" sounds cringy and fanboyish, but 2018 was a good year... and so was 2014... and 2011... and 2008... and... well, let's just say that every year is good due to nostalgia, but the point is that whenever Dir en grey release a new album, it makes a year significantly better.

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01. 軽蔑と始まり
02. Devote My Life
03. 人間を被る
04. Celebrate Empty Howls
05. 詩踏み
06. Rubbish Heap
07. 赫
08. Values of Madness
09. Followers
10. 谿壑の欲
11. 絶縁体
12. Ranunculus

The first time I listened to this album, I'll have to admit, I couldn't get past the fact that it's mixed and mastered to sound extremely muffled and "booming". However, on second listen, as I got past the initial reaction, it became clear that this may in fact be the best way this album could be mixed and mastered; the songs might not work as well otherwise. That said, I do think a less muffled version of this album would be interesting to hear...

As for the songs themselves, they're amazing. I'd go as far as saying that 詩踏み, 赫 and 谿壑の欲 are some of the best Dir en grey songs ever. Actually, Celebrate Empty Howls, Followers and 絶縁体 are great as well, and let's not forget Ranunculus even if I can't help but feel like it ends a little abruptly... you know what, there isn't a bad or even mediocre song on this album. It's an album filled to the brim with great songs.

While I personally prefer the single versions of 人間を被る and 詩踏み, I think they did the best thing they could by making them a little different (and rawer) on the album, because the single versions would sound out of place together with the rest of the songs.

Rubbish Heap contains the funniest thing ever to be found in any Dir en grey song: Kyo going "whee". Yes, yes, I know the lyrics say "fist" and not "whee", but let's be honest... nobody could ever hear anything other than "whee" in the first half of the song even if later on in the song he clearly yells "fist".

赫 is so beautiful and lush that it almost sounds like a song that was meant to be on Arche and accidentally ended up on this album, but it's really one of the highlights.

Speaking of beautiful, the choruses on this album are insanely beautiful. Of course, they've always had beautiful choruses in songs on every album, but here they stand out in stark contrast to how overall the songs are so heavy and muddy. And yes, the entirety of the closer Ranunculus is possibly the most beautiful moment on the album... it's like an anthem for finding the meaning of life. If only it was a little bit longer, with an epic finale... oh well.

Now, does this album do anything totally new either for the band or music in general? Well, not really, but it does combine metal subgenres in ways that are still relatively new and has experimental sounds; for example, did they use NoiizFilter in 谿壑の欲? Probably not, but as that kind of "squelches" are one of the first things that happen if you start experimenting with that plugin, I wonder... well, regardless of how the experimental electronic sounds on this album were made, they don't sound at all out of place and this album wouldn't be the same without them.

Enjoyability: 8/10
Relistenability: 10/10
Coherence: 8/10
Flow: 8/10
Originality: 7/10
Epicness: 9/10
Nutshell: If this is what insulation does to the world, more insulation please???