Behexen - My Soul for his Glory (2008)

As another one of the earliest black metal bands to arise out of Finland, Behexen (originally, Lords of the Left Hand) have to this day released nothing but stunning records. Not nearly as productive as their brethren in Satanic Warmaster or Horna, Behexen seems to concentrate on quality over quantity, and here on their most recent and third full-length, 'My Soul for his Glory' they demonstrate what Satanic black metal personification is all about.

While their early creations, 'Rituale Satanum' & 'By the Blessing of Satan' are superb records I find myself actually enjoying this one more so. If it sounds odd to you then so be it, but I find a lot of this album to actually be catchy with tons of spine tingling riffs, mesmerizing solos, great varied song structures and hellish half rasped/half growled vocals. Most songs seem to feature both blasting parts as well as slower mid-paced highly atmospheric sections too.

'Let The Horror And Chaos Come' is a perfect example as it starts out with haunting ambiance and choirs before long dirty crunchy riffs enter the song followed by ungodly screams and a pounding drum rhythm, which chugs along perfectly when eventually the lead toward the end that's totally energetic and headbangable is delivered. 'Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss' is equally powerful with opening blasting anarchy, which move towards head bobbing groove eventually leading to this creepy chanting/bass guitar section and then a mesmerizing guitar solo. 'Demonic Fleshtemple' is almost entirely fast though with plenty of impressive parts, while, '6.6.6.' is a highly atmospheric ritualistic piece, which sounds like some unholy conjuring committed to tape. Much of the record and its remaining four songs follow in a similar path with plenty of bewitching riffs, killer solos, memorable diverse song structures as well as enough haunting atmosphere to please any black metal listener.

At thirty eight minutes this record seems perfectly timed with each of its eight songs sticking out and possessing me. It would be great to see a new Behexen record soon, but with half the members also playing in Sargeist it looks as if their attention is concentrating more so on that project for the moment...