Behexen - Biography
For all of their ceaseless bitching and moaning about Christianity, black metal dudes seem to spend an awful lot of time squabbling about orthodoxy, casting out adherents as apostates, ascribing opposing views as heretical, engaging in shrill arguments about dogma (and you haven’t heard shrill until you’ve heard a standard-issue black metal singer), taking unyielding sides in internecine feuds and schisms — and that doesn’t even begin to address the Byzantine issues between Finnish black metal and Swedish black metal; Swedish black metal and Norwegian black metal; or Norwegian black metal and Finnish black metal. Thankfully the Danes remain neutral. Oh, and black metal versus death metal? You don’t even want to go there.
That said: In the bewildering micropolitical realm of subgenre metal, Behexen are Finnish death metal and, relatively speaking, fundamentalists. High-pitched, shrieking vocals, filtered through ten-thousand cartons of cigarettes; crunching guitars; bass; pounding, double-kick drums; velocity; no excessive ornamentation; no undue frills; no mercy. The only thing that most black metal acts seem to agree upon is the primacy of Satan, so, well, there you go. What can we say. The Prince of Darkness is a reoccurring theme in black metal. The members of Behexen are: Torog on vocals; Gargantum and Reaper on guitars (although the latter has been in and out of the group; Horns on drums; with contributions from Shatraug on bass guitar.
Behexen were together for several years and a handful of EPs before the release of their debut album, Rituale Satanum (2000 Sinister Figure Records). The interplay is especially taut, and Gargantum has a keen sensibility when it comes to executing staccato riffs without sounding stiff. It may sound like a contradiction, but there’s requisite degree of looseness involved when playing at breakneck speed. Done properly, it feels like you’re launching into the stratosphere. Done poorly, it feels like you’re launching into a Grand Mal seizure. These guys know their stuff. The follow up, By the Blessing of Satan (2004 Woodcut Records), continues in this vein, with even more engaging, drop-of-a-dime chord changes, and some moments that approach sheer thrash Valhalla. That same year, Behexen paired on a split LP with Horna. Horna/Behexen (2004 Grievantee Productions) featured three long-form tracks that confirm Behexen’s ability to grab the listener’s attention, and keep it in a headlock.
The band issued two more crucial titles in 2008. From the Devil’s Chalice (2008 Woodcut Records) was a lavishly produced EP, issued as a boxed set of three 7-inch singles, packaged with stickers and various paraphernalia, and pressed in an edition of 666 copies. My Soul for His Glory (2008 Moribund Records) was the next full-length album. The opener, “Let the Horror and Chaos Come,” starts with a downright cinematic black mass reverie, before segueing into the thermonuclear “Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss.” With My Soul for His Glory, Behexen seem to have nailed the perfect triangulation between filth-black mood, unreasonably heavy riffage, and sheer, unmitigated, apoplectic rage. It’s an album that simply seethes with undiluted hatred, at unspeakably loud volume, and even the denizens of the realm of black metal can agree: That’s what it’s all about.
