"My Soul for His Glory" is the third full-length from longstanding Finnish black metal crew Behexen (on Hammer of Hate), who I had never heard much from in the past. Apparently this album's been getting mixed reviews from some of the band's more "hardcore" fans, but... I don't understand where all the complaints are coming from at all. The compositions offer up a wide variety of black metal aesthetics, from the usual doses of blazing tremolo picking and blasting percussion to forays into that more discordant and cold, crawling riffing style, as well as a number of surprisingly stripped down and simplistically pounding "old school" black metal rhythms—to the point of flirting with an almost hardcore/punk edge to some of the chord progressions in rare instances. But everything's nice and consistent overall, it's not one of those situations where each song sounds like it should be from a different album or something like that. All of the varying approaches share common ground, and the songwriting's pretty damn forceful, too. Plus the recording's nice and balanced, with a good bass presence, natural sounding drum tones, and a shitload of texture to the guitars; the cover art looks cool (I don't have the complete package)... it's all solid in my book. I don't know what the hell some people are complaining about, but fuck 'em.
Behexen "Born in the Serpent of the Abyss"
This one's now distributed digitally through MetalHit.com for a mere $7.20, and will probably be more widely available on CD later this year as I think Moribund Records will be doing an "official" US release. But The End already has the CD in stock as well, so... either way you should be set.
Get It
MetalHit.com (mp3)
Amazon.com (mp3)
eMusic (mp3)
iTunes (mp3)
The End Records (CD)
Comments
i thought BY THE BLESSING OF SATAN was a masterpiece. tight musicianship, punishing sound, awesome song writing. that album felt like the apex of that particular type of black metal, it seems nearly impossible to do it any better. so its always gonna be interesting to see what they do next.
7.23.2008 | By Marcus Garvey
I"m really enjoying the black metal binge that you’ve been on lately. Wrnlrd, Hennes Siste Høst, Orthrus, Wolfsschanze, Haust (though not full on black metal) and now Behexen. These are all great band that I might otherwise have missed out on if it wasn’t for your site. Thanks.
7.23.2008 | By paul
I got this album a while back, and my thoughts have pretty much mirrored your’s. It’s definitely a solid album, and I dig their thick, meaty sound.
7.23.2008 | By jniff
This doesn’t have the scathing punch of the aforementioned “By the Blessing of Satan” album but it’s not bad at all. I don’t see what there is to really nitpick about. The distant clean singing? Whatever.
7.23.2008 | By james
“BY THE BLESSING OF SATAN” is their best, IMO. Listen to the first song and you’ll notice you’re walking around saying “Satan!” to yourself all day long.
7.24.2008 | By bro
it’s true…. BY THE BLESSING OF SATAN is their best output to date. you’ll understand the disdain towards MSfHG after listening to By The Blessing… that said, MSfHG is still a solid album.
7.24.2008 | By -cja
PS - the US version is via Moribund and it’s been out for a while now. the HoH version i believe is a digipack and has been around for months… i want the vinyl already.
7.24.2008 | By -cja
One of the guys in this band has a voice that reminds me of TITD. Did anyone else kind of get that reaction?
7.24.2008 | By kevin
I like this album, especially the title track. It’s pretty standard stuff but quite varied, as was pointed out, and has a sick, bestial vibe to it.
8.6.2008 | By Justin