Behexen don’t exactly rush things. It seems to take them a full four years between albums and if like me you managed to miss the last one 2008 release ‘My Soul For His Glory’ that takes you back a long way since you last heard recorded output. They don’t exactly play live very much either, certainly if you live in England, so I am right back to 2005 when I caught the band here after the release of the tumultuous ‘By The Blessing Of Satan’ album. A few changes have happened in the band since then. The addition of Shatraug of Horna, Sargeist etc and Wrath sees a whole new guitar department although singer Hoath Torog and drummer Wrath have been consistent since the group’s formation in 1996. We are told that the current album ushers in “a new age of darkness,” so let’s step in!
It is evident that the band have matured and are not all about blasting for Satan. Do not worry they still do plenty of that but their more worshipful and reverent stance shines through with the disciples walking in a much more sinister fashion down the left hand path. After an organ intro that would make Bach blush the ‘Wrathful Dragon Hau-Hra’ scorches with fiery breath. It’s a nice mid-paced gallop that rides out over gruff vocals and whiplashing, thorny guitar work. Already there is a strong sense of melody at play here and this is quite an accessible yet brutal sound that draws you in easily. We rage into the faster ‘Death’s Black Light’ which hits at a nut cracking (skull / hammer) velocity and is boosted by a filthy punk laden swagger and forceful shouted out vocals in case you missed the song title. This is one of the album’s stand out tracks and just when you think it is going to continue in a hell for leather fashion it’s time for a shift.
Everything slows down as worship to the old gods such as Samael and Lilith is conducted. ‘Circle Me’ gets a groove on and plods away in a crypt like fashion but exudes the foul stench of brimstone in its wake. The clean rasped vocals allow you to join in if you wish and the melody again unravels and uncoils magnanimously. The ritualistic feel continues into ‘We Burn With Serpent Fire’ and along the lines of Dissection through to Watain, Behexen give a lesson in violent twisting guitar riffs showing it is not just the Swedes that can play like this and shout out ‘Lucifer’ with the best of them. I think you actually get more out of the album due to the fact that Hoath Torog sings in such a fashion that you can actually translate what is being shouted out. Many a black metal band have indecipherable vocals and it makes a change here as it strikes that the lyrical output is very important to the band and they want you to understand.
The album continues mixing a ceremonial slower and more grandiose pace with sudden bursts of speed. A bell tolls ominously as we prepare to ‘Awaken Tiamat’ and everything here is sinisterly commanding until the contrast of the fast and ferocious ‘TempleOfSilent Curses,’ which takes off at a manic pace again before chants ominously fill the cavernous void.
I guess that some may find this a bit too clean and prefer the outright fetid and bestial battery of the old material and this obviously shows a band that have grown and evolved beyond this. Behexen are not afraid to let melody shine through here but there is no denying their intent and their fervour to the subject matter. Nightshade Emanations is an inherently pitch dark treatise to Satan and as the shimmering strains of ‘Kiss Of The Dark Mother’ concludes things the ritualistic atmosphere speaks for itself.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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