Behemoth

Live at The Grove: Anaheim, CA on 04/16/2008

review by Travis Baumann

I have never really been a fan of these guys on CD. I bought "Demigod" a while back based on a friend's recommendation and honestly never got that into it, mostly due to the vocals. The vocals are heavily processed and to me, they sound very similar on every song.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how much better they sound live. The musicians are amazing with their speed and power but what stood out the most for me was two things.

The first being how much variation there was in the vocals both the lead and back up vocals sounded different on each song and had more feeling and more clarity than on CD.

The second was layers of ambient electronics and choirs and things in the background that I either never noticed on disc before or just are not as prevailent as they were in this live mix.

The sound system was awesome and it was incredible the cheering roar that greated Behemoth as they took the stage. Nergal, the lead singer shouted, "Are you with us?" which received a unanimous "Hell Yes" from the excited audience and they blasted into "Slaves Shall Serve".

The band looked awesome with Nergal in armor and face paint. He appeared as some sort of undead knight in Hell's service. The other members were garbed in huge spiked leggings and dark garb as well.

The stage lighting worked perfectly with the corpse paint on their faces, making them appear to turn colors as the lights hit them.

Behind the band was a huge projection of the dark god from the cover of their last album "The Apostasy" which added a nice back drop for their set.

For their second song they did "At The Left Hand Ov God" off of the new album. It was amazing being in the photo-pit to see and hear these guys.  Their sound was perfect and like I said, they are so much better live it is like a different band.

They did mostly material off of thier two last releases and some of the songs included "Prometherion", "Conquer All", "Antichristian Phenomenon", "Christgrinding Avenue", and "Demigod".

At this point Nergal took a moment to address the audience. After an appreciative moment to the crowd he mentioned that this day was the Pope's birthday and he happened to be in the USA as well.

Nergal quite easily whipped everybody into an anti-pope mentality with everyone raising middle fingers as he anounced, "This one is dedicated to the Pope!" and with that they lead into "As Above So Below".

After the song for the Pope, it was time for their last song of the set. Epic keyboards set the tone as they went into "Chant For Eschaton". This song for me was the most atmospheric of the set and a great way to end it.

I would have to say that I really enjoyed these guys live and they totally changed my opinion of them. I even find I enjoy their CD's a lot more after having seen them.

I can only imagine how much fun the hardcore Behemoth fan must have had with this show and gaging from the audience reaction and involvement I would say there was a lot of them there that were very pleased.

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