ALBUM REVIEW: Opvs Contra Natvram – Behemoth
Given their status as one of metal’s biggest properties, it’s astonishing that BEHEMOTH have never reigned in their aural extremity in order to ascend to the heights they occupy at present. The horde from Gdansk are truly in a league of their own and despite their success being something of an anomaly, it deserves celebration and demands respect. 2014’s game-changing The Satanist, and 2018’s strong follow-up I Loved You At Your Darkest, established the band at top of the pile, and now album number 12 Opvs Contra Natvram arrives with the intention of further solidifying BEHEMOTH‘s reign on the extreme metal throne.
Album opener Post God Nirvana might be the slowest song BEHEMOTH have penned to date, but its brooding atmosphere and splashes of HEILUNG-esque ritualistic tones helps set the scene before Malaria Vulgata lights the torch paper and ignites the inferno through a cacophony of gnarly riffs, thundering blastbeats and Nergal‘s iconic vocal snarls. BEHEMOTH are back and it’s a devilishly wicked start to their next chapter.
From there, as Opvs Contra Natvram continues to unveil its blasphemous passages, BEHEMOTH repeatedly showboat what they do best; a soundscape that is as suffocating as it is intoxicating. The Deathless Sun offers slick riffs that harken back to their Evangelion-era material and melancholic chants that really send shivers down your spine; single Ov My Herculean Exile croons as the black metal bedrock really helps the track feel all the more impactful; and Off To War! lives up to its namesake thanks to foreboding sweeping orchestrals and an up-tempo barrage of blackened riffage that body slams you into the ground.
Neo Spartacus twists and turns as the blackened riffs compliment the consistent barrage from Inferno‘s blastbeats and the dynamic changes of pace sprinkled throughout help keep you on your toes. Disinheritance hits with the seismic force of an atomic bomb as the band fire on all cylinders, and the subtle grooves that are found in Once Upon A Pale Horse are a nice touch, allowing the track to connect as it worms its way into your ears.
Album closer Versus Christus is arguably the most intriguing piece on the record. With a more subdued pacing, at least for the majority of its six and a half minute runtime, and focus towards clean vocals and piano work in its introduction, the song is a little jarring upon first listen – especially following the venomous Thy Becoming Eternal. However, the way in which the album’s finale unfolds and showcases BEHEMOTH at their most creatively experimental demonstrates that there is still plenty of life in this beast and ends the record in fine cinematic fashion.
Opvs Contra Natvram is exactly what we’ve come to expect from BEHEMOTH in recent times, but that doesn’t detract from its quality. Not one bit. This is a record that firmly knows what it is trying to achieve and over the course of its runtime Nergal and his cohorts dispatch blast upon blast of top tier extreme metal supremacy. It might not be as big a game-changer as The Satanist was, but Opvs Contra Natvram is still one of the year’s strongest releases and yet another feather in the cap of extreme metal’s biggest exports.
Rating: 9/10
Opvs Contra Natvram is set for release on September 16th via Nuclear Blast Records.
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