BEHEMOTH — Thelema.6 (review)

BEHEMOTH — Thelema.6 album cover Album · 2000 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Thelema.6" is the 5th full-length studio album by Polish death metal act Behemoth. The album was released through Avantgarde Music in November 2000. It´s the successor to "Satanica" from 1999. There´s been one lineup change since "Satanica (1999)" as guitarist Leszek "L-Kaos" Dziegielewski had a rather short tenure with the band. He is replaced here by Havoc. The bass on the album is handled by session musician Novy. Drummer Zbigniew Robert "Inferno" Promiński and lead vocalist/guitarist Adam "Nergal" Darski complete the lineup.

"Thelema.6" is a continuation of the blackened death metal sound on "Satanica (1999)", but with an increased focus on the death metal part of the band´s music. Nergal´s intelligible growling vocals are high in the mix and they are quite brutal and effectively convey the anti-christian/occult themed lyrics. Much of the album is played at a high pace, featuring high speed tremolo picking and blast beat drumming, but Behemoth do lower the pace on occasion and play heavy mid-paced sections too.

"Thelema.6" is relatively well produced although the drums feature a clicky artificial sound, which could easily have been replaced by a more organic drum sound, and the album would have greatly prospered from the that choice. The high in the mix growling vocals are probably also an aquired taste, but personally I appreciate their dominant place in the mix.

Upon conclusion "Thelema.6" is a quality death metal album by Behemoth, which further strengthened their position as one of the leading Polish acts on the scene. I can´t help feel that some of the tracks flow together and lack a bit of identity though. It´s like the same features are repeated again and again on every track, and there aren´t many tracks off "Thelema.6", which truly stand out after listening to the album. It´s not a major issue because each track individually are as strong as they are, but more variation in the songwriting could have made the album even more interesting. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still more than deserved though.
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