Behemoth
May 7, 2016
The Observatory- Santa Ana, CA
Behemoth is a blackened death metal band from Poland. In February 2014, they released their tenth album The Satanist to positive reviews and multiple publications named it the 2014 metal album of the year. Two years later and the album is still going strong for the band. As a special thanks to fans, Behemoth embarked on a short US tour and performed the album in its entirety. The final stop on the tour was The Observatory in Santa Ana, California and fans were more than ready to let loose on this wild metal night!
The lights to the venue went out as Behemoth made their way to the stage and started the show with the first track from The Satanist album, Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel. The song has a slow pace most of the time, but picks up towards the end that got the crowd going and mosh pits started breaking out. The second song played was the next track on the album, Furor Divinus. This song had the more classic blackened death metal sound with death metal vocals that Behemoth is known for and is brutal enough to where mosh pits kept going and even crowd surfers started making an appearance. Behemoth has always had controversial issues due to their music and appearance. Despite their anti-religious lyrics and satanic appearance, the band themselves aren’t satanic nor followers of religion. Their use of such lyrics can be heard on the third track performed Messe Noire where the opening lyrics say: “I believe in Satan, who rend both heavens and earth. And in the Antichrist, His dearly misbegotten”.
Throughout the whole show, the fans were absolutely wild. Yelling, singing along, headbanging, mosh pits, and even the many crowd surfers kept the security up front busy working for their money. To further add to the theatrics to the show, frontman and metal icon Adam “Nergal” Darski came out to the crowd during In the Absence ov Light and offered them communion wafers which the fans rushed to him to try and grab one or more. The end of the album came to an end as they performed O Father O Satan O Sun!. Towards the end of the song, the band went off stage for a bit and took their respective spots on stage as they came back wearing the horned masks from their Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel music video as they played the finale to the song and the masks added much more intensity to the song and almost gave it a feeling of impending doom. The show seemed to be over, yet the stage remained dark. The crowd chanted: Behemoth! Behemoth! Behemoth!. That seemed to bring back the band for a few encore songs which the fans clearly wanted. Behemoth played the first encore, Pure Evil and Hate. It is one of the band’s most popular and violent songs so it’s no surprise to see the mosh pits break out once again and squishing and shoving amongst fans could be seen. Ov Fire and the Void and Antichristian Phenomenon were two more encroes played. Nergal took a quick break to talk to the audience before performing the band’s most known song, Conquer All. Fans could be seen singing along and was easily one of the best song played that night. At the Left Hand ov God and Slaves Shall Serve were two encores and fan favorites.
The time had come for the band to say goodbye and they closed out the show with Chant For Eschaton 2000. As the song came to an end, Nergal spoke to the crowd and told them, “It’s a great fucking privilege to be here with you tonight! We fucking love you, Cali! You best stay strong! We shall return! Hail Satan!”. Behemoth finished up the show and the crowd went wild giving it their all and releasing the remaining energy they had. Behemoth thanked the crowd again, shook hands with fans, and left the stage. Fans were extremely pleased with the performance and will for sure await their return.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
