Review by Vinny for Behemoth - The Shit ov God (2025)

The derision that meets most Behemoth releases always amuses me. I grant you that The Satanist was the pinnacle of the bands output and that all albums since have been a pale reflection of what the band are truly capable of achieving. The “celebrity” status of Nergal seems to be a bone of contention in the main though. How much of this is him genuinely seeking the attention or just the knee-jerk reactions of a pious set of groups picking easy targets are not subjects I am well enough read up on to be able to comment on (I also don’t care that much in all honesty). The thing that annoys me the most about Behemoth is their one-dimensional, steadfast refusal to write songs about anything other than their hatred of God, or rather their inability to do so with any degree of maturity. Calling their latest record “The Shit Ov God” pissed me off before I heard even one note of it. I am sure that I can safely speak for much of the metal loving community when I say that we fucking get it now. You don’t go to church on Sundays and the chances of you making positive use of any bibles in your hotel rooms when on tour is absolutely zero.

The title track is every bit as grating as I thought it would be. It is like listening to Deicide repeatedly in the 90’s but you can understand all the lyrics, (Deicide were great in the 90’s but death metal’s incoherent vocals made them even more tolerable to me). Where Behemoth fails to register with me is in their insistence that this is their one true path, and that we all want to hear it. They can still write monstrous, blackened death metal as it happens and there are some moments on here that do remind me of why I became so enamored with The Satanist. However, it is all so juvenile in terms of the vocals and lyrical content that I cannot enjoy most of the album.

I guess fans of the band will be thrilled that they have released an album that is not a live album, let alone be excited by the blatant blasphemous provocation that again takes hold of the record from the start. But here’s a thought Behemoth, focus less on the blasphemous rhetoric and overly theatrical performances and concentrate more on delivering the music for a change. There are still good ideas here, but they are too hard to find if one of my ears is already threatening industrial action and the other is in a corridor conversation with the union rep. Sporadic moments of quality are not enough to save a thirty-seven-minute record that is just spewing little more than immaturity in gallons.