BEHEXEN: "Nightside Emanations"

I don't think it's lying to say that Behexen's upcoming fourth full-length Nightside Emanations is the most expected black metal album to come out of Finland this year. The hype surrounding the band is well deserved when we take a look at the band's back-catalogue which includes e.g. the harsh yet magnificent By the Blessing of Satan and the more sophisticated yet not less evil My Soul for His Glory. Behexen hasn't derived from their four-year policy between albums even this time around, and now it's finally time to see what they're up to in 2012, after a full line-up change in the melody (guitar) department.

It is to be remembered, though, that most of the songwriting is still done by the drummer Horns (as far as I'm aware) who's been in the band since its formation in 1996, and that is probably the warm reason for Nightside Emanations still sounding Behexen and not just another band of Shatraug's, for example. Those influences aside, there's plenty of other kinds of influences in here to my hearing: most notably, I believe that the Swedish religious black metal phenomenom has given its contribution to a couple of tracks here. For instance, ”Death's Black Light” is a full-on headbanger that could've belonged to Watain's song arsenal, and most of the other tracks have a certain kind of vibe coming from that style as well. Luckily it's mostly just latent, and even more luckily we have such utterly possessed and devotion reeking manifestos in the very Behexen vein as ”Circle Me” which can't leave the listener cold.

”We Burn With Serpent Fire” makes sure there's some epic soundscapes incorporating solos, while ”Luciferian Will” rumbles in a confusing maze of palm-muted riffing and ”Temple of Silent Curses” proclaims messages of Satan in a robust, clean vocal performance. In a nutshell, there's a lot to discover in these nine hymns of the devil. But Behexen is in the bad situation of having three great albums in their history already, so truly impressing the band's fan isn't easy: that's why e.g. I'm constantly comparing this to the older albums, and hence must say that at least for now, this one doesn't beat the previous two.

Of course, Nightside Emanations can be a real grower, but the things that faintly bug me here are (a) the rather polished sound which makes e.g. the drums reverb in a somewhat unrealistic way, and (b) the feeling I've got that Behexen has lost a part of their identity to a certain kind of 'religious black metal' spirit. Nonetheless, if only I wasn't biased by my fondness of the older material, Nightside Emanations would be truly great. Another thing that might lower the score for now is that there's no lyrics provided within the promo, nor artwork. For a band with strong message, things like that can be very important, so when I eventually get Nightside Emanations to my hands in physical format, and when I get to play it with the lyrics, I could see this turning to full four points - and that would be the minimum.

3.5 / 5