Search - Behexen :: By Blessings of Satan

TEN stars... ESSENTIAL Black MeTal!!!

Michael E. Mitchell | Minocqua, WI USA | 04/22/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hear a lot of MeTal. The preponderance of it being Black MeTal. Behexen's "By the Blessing of Satan" ranks right up there in the top 3...YOU pick the other 2!

Everything about this album is so dark and vicious...and interesting, on top of that! THAT is the main thing, memorable, interesting songs, and Behexen put plenty of them on here. While for the most part these are basic BM songs, they are played with such ferocity and perfection and gruesome twists that you can't help but shudder with glee when you hear certain parts, every time you hear the album(like when you hear "the bell's toll", you'll know what I mean!).

I'd most closely compare Behexen to very early Emperor, but without the keyboards: the vocals, the cool guitar riffs, the darkness. But I'll go so far as to say that Behexen writes better songs; I DEFINITELY say that! Blasphemy to some, right, but I still say it. On top of that, the early Emperor comparison is bettered by Behexen by a much fuller sound, and vocals that are less mono-dimensional. I'll address the vocals now: on Behexen's first full-length("Rituale Satanae"), the vocals were almost annoying, being the high-pitched "Donald Duck" type (with a bit of variance, however); on their 3rd ("My Soul For His Glory"), the vocals are much lower for the most part, but have a lot of variance. On this, their second album, "By the Blessing...", however, the vocals are dead-on perfect, blending the 2 styles into a ferocious amalgam of contempt for humanity.

The songs on here are fantastic; Behexen's albums are chock-full of excellent songs, but the highest percentage of greatness is on this one. I can only describe them as being a Frankenstein Monster of all the coolest basic Black MeTal you've ever heard (no symphonic stuff here). There are also some great old-style thrash elements, most notably those types of monumental riff/main themes that were so memorable with Kreator (like "Terrible Certainty" and "Awakening of the Gods"...those massive chords progressing to sound almost melodic, but perverted to sound gigantically menacing); these sort of chord progressions can be heard behind the buzzsaw BM riffing of Behexen.

The photos of the band members demonstrate exactly what they intend to sound like...and they do. While the lyrics are entirely Satanic, they manage to pull it off in a way that is sincere, without becoming the parody that many bands do.

I honestly can't say enough about how perfectly dark and exciting this album is. Fans of non-symphonic BM from Darkthrone to Immortal to Black Death Ritual to (most)Mayhem must have this. And even fans of symphonic (unless they're monodimensional pansies) may appreciate this with all the guitar melodies contained within. Sometimes this album is extremely hard to get, so if you find one GET IT!!!!(Behexen also have a large amount of split albums, rarities, etc...every one of them is excellent)."