Behexen - Nightside Emanations (2012)

Its been four years since Behexen's third album, 'My Soul for His Glory,' an album that seemed to divide their fanbase. Mostly forgoing the rougher production and "truer" qualities of their first two releases, that third effort was met with mixed reviews, though I personally did and continue to enjoy it strongly. If you didn't dig that one you might as well skip past their latest record, 'Nightside Emanations,' because this one continues in the same vein with perhaps some slight alterations.

Prior to getting my hands on this release I had no less than three people tell me its Watain-ish sounding, a description that I personally don't see as being bad, but somewhere along the way them there Swedes got branded sell-outs and posers from the would be kvlt and trve black metal legions worldwide. Regardless of such tripe I happen to still love Watain and listening to this record I see the comparisons.

Death's black light, Shine on me...

I'd assume these comments have arisen because Wraath and Shatraug's guitar riffs, their pace, structure and possibilities of catchiness all do remind of Watain. Solos, yes, melodic and often times awesome solos are heard on this beast too! Even one of the albums slower songs, 'Circle Me...' has that sort of epic occult feel that Eric D. and his wolf brigade have often displayed on their past albums.

Fortunately, this still does sound like Behexen, again a lot like 'My Soul for His Glory,' intertwined with Watain-y influences. After all, there is no mistaking Hoath’s vocal delivery, Horn's impressive drum work, the characteristic Behexen guitar work, which is split between the two groups now, and the usual lyrics centered around Satanism and occultism in general are ever present in this current work.

If such influences driving these Finns onwards bothers you than all I can say is too bad, since this is another solid effort from these guys. It might not live up to the bands earlier work in terms of speed, viciousness and trueness, but there's no denying this is Behexen.

The artwork both on the front and within the digipak is exceptional, I also enjoy the booklets contents and the fact that its attached to the digipak is pretty rad too.

'Nightside Emanations' could very well be the record that gives the band a boost into more well known territories, which would mean a complete rebuttal from kvlt retards, but if borrowing influences from other notably awesome bands and progressing to the next level is selling out, than so be it. I wont take their patch off of my vest anytime soon.

Behexen - By the Blessing of Satan (2004)

Since its release in '08 I had been telling myself that Behexen's third album, 'My Soul for His Glory' was their masterpiece, largely because that record felt more diverse and atmospheric, yet I was thinking this without even owning their sophomore release, 'By the Blessing of Satan.' I changed that a few months ago when I stopped into the Kvlt Shop in Helsinki and finally picked up a physical copy of this monstrous release.

Right from the start its all out war on this release as thunderous riffs, pounding drums and bellowing shrieks straight from fucking hell echoe throughout my living room. 'By the Blessing of Satan' and the following six songs all rely greatly on pummeling relentless blasting that is remarkably well infused with semi-melodic and occasionally very catchy riffs. The production is outright lo-fo and trebly, though every instrument is clearly heard and yet each instrument is heavily distorted too. The music utterly explodes out of my speakers in a loud murderously dark manner, while the vocals are delivered in a shrill poisonously abominable style.

I absolutely love the terrifying scream that opens, 'Sieluni Saatanan Vihasta Roihuten' and the bludgeoning chaos that ensues afterwards, but curiously enough some slower dirge like parts can be found in this one that are creepy and insanely atmospheric in their delivery. 'Black Metal Baptism' starts out slowly, but unleashes hell soon enough with a eerie lead riff and also a brilliant solo near the end and another calmer part following, then after the sudden ringing of a bell utter disarray enfolds once again - I adore this damn song! 'Watchers Of My Black Temple' features a mostly slower tempo throughout, occasional chanting, a wickedly dark atmosphere and both slightly gorgeous and melancholic riffs, while 'Under The Eye Of Lord' has these riffs that are totally headbangable and colossal in their conveyance. Generally speaking though, the whole forty seven minute album is immense.

'By the Blessing of Satan' is simply magnificent due to the pacing and flow of the album as well with tons of appealing riffs, the appropriate darkened mood and the members overall performance being that of perfection its challenging to find anything negative about this record. I'll still stand by, 'My Soul for His Glory' and say its a great record, but this one is a perfect black metal record.

The Finnish Winter Metal Patch Jacket

Those that have been hanging around this blog for a while will probably remember that I traveled to Finland last year for the mighty Tuska Open Air Metal Festival as well as various other misadventures, most of which involved a hell of a lot of alcohol. Finland made a huge impression on me, it felt like my home away from home and although I've lived in the same place my whole entire life I've never really felt at home here in Wisconsin. Be it the lack of metal or the fact that the average person is... well, just average and dull could be a big reason for this.

Therefore, when I returned I wanted to do something special to commemorate my journey to Finland. My first thought was to get a tattoo, but my mind continuously drew blanks on this matter. Eventually I figured I'd put that huge Amorphis back patch I had purchased at the, 'Helsinki Rock Shop' to good use. Although my first thought was on a hoodie I ultimately decided to put it on my old biker jacket, which I had resurrected in 2010.

The whole idea was to create a, 'Metal Jacket' that consisted of just patches from Finnish bands or Finnish related subjects. At first this seemed like it would be a fairly easy idea, but soon as I really went looking around I found that not many of my favorite Finnish bands had patches available. From there it became clear to me that I had to do something different to make sure my unique idea was even more unique.



By some stroke of luck I came across a guy on eBay who was creating custom patches. You'd think something like this wouldn't be hard to find, but before coming across this chap (I think he was from the Czech Republic) I contacted several American custom patch shops and they all told me it would infringe on copyrights, even though I told them they were for private use and not being resold for profit. The first two obvious choices were Swallow the Sun, whom I've been a follower of since their debut years ago as well as Barren Earth who absolutely blew me away and continue to amaze me with their debut release, 'Curse of the Red River.'


On the more older Finnish band spectrum I absolutely had to include patches from Sami Tenetz mighty, Thy Serpent. You'd think Thy Serpent might have a patch floating around out there already, but no. The patch below comes from a band named Vordven who had a fantastic release back in '99 titled, 'Towards the Frozen Stream' as well a stunning EP in '01 called, 'Woodland Passage.' These bands are important to me because besides Beherit these were two of the more blacker sounding metal bands from Finland that I heard and purchased CDs from first years and years ago.

The Barathrum and Kalmah patches are not custom, but they seemed fitting since I've known Barathrum for a long time and although I haven't heard much of their work I plan to change that soon enough. Also the seller on eBay said this patch was, 'Supa Rare,' so it seemed hard to pass by. As for Kalmah, I've been a fan since the first album and I generally like what they did on their first couple of albums too. I haven't heard much of their recent work, but I suppose that might change since their patch adorns my jacket now.

... and how would a Finnish Metal Patch Jacket be complete without a little Behexen and Horna hanging around the bottom!? Right, it wouldn't! In a way it feels sort of odd having these patches and that's mostly because of the Amorphis patch, I guess its just a big contrast of styles and all. I remember when I was in the shop rummaging I also saw a, 'Tales from the Thousand Lakes' patch, which seemed appropriate for the old schooler in me, but my undeniable love for, 'Skyforger' got the best of me and I went with it instead.

Finnish doom/death legends also had to be a part of this jacket, no doubt about that! This patch was originally on one of my sleeves, but after sewing it on I found it nearly tearing off when I would wear the jacket and move my arm in a certain way. I also had Impaled Nazarene and Abhorrence on the sleeve, but those were removed and still need to be sewed on elsewhere.

On my left sleeve I have a patch of the Finnish flag, which I found at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport a few hours before I left. Some might find it odd for an American to wear the Finnish flag on his sleeve, but I do it with pride, because as I said Finland felt like my home away from my home. To date no ones questioned it, which is semi disappointing because for the laughs involved I'd just love to have someone call me a traitor to my country or at least have someone mistake me for being Finnish.

The patch below the flag is the final custom one and its of the band, Routasielu, which I can't simply recommend enough. By far one of the coolest bands I've heard in a long time and one I continuously find myself coming back to. It seemed wise to be this patch below the flag since the band writes all their lyrics in their native Suomi language, but I guess I could have easily have put the Horna patch here too.

On the right arm we have, Moonsorrow & Beherit whom are another two bands I've adored for many years now. Moonsorrow defines what epic folky metal is all about while Beherit and both their old and latest creations rank quite high on my list of favorite things. Regrettably the Beherit patch has suffered some damage during the winter, but that's mostly because I always carelessly hang my backpack off my shoulder, usually forgetting there's a patch sewn on there. I had originally thought about going with a Moonsorrow back patch at first too, but I guess those that know me, know that I've got quite a bit of love for all things Amorphis. So, it really wasn't a hard choice in the end.











The front remains mostly untouched other than that spiffy Amorphis pin on the pocket. I'll more than likely add add the aforementioned Impaled Nazarene and Abhorrence patches somewhere on the front, as well I've got ideas for more custom patches. However the custom patch thing was fairly pricey and I don't have much extra money to spend these days, but that's fine as I don't plan on retiring this jacket any time soon.

Finally a shot of yours truly out freezing his ass off while modeling his creation, forlornly too. I had been hoping for a snowy day to do this shot, but as far as I can tell winter has passed Wisconsin by this year, which is highly regrettably on so many levels. Honestly it wasn't even that cold when this was shot, haha.

As a final thought I have to say I've put a lot of thought, time and effort into this thing and I hope it shows. Its still not done, of course, but I wanted to show it off before this so-called winter season passed by entirely. If you like what you see feel free to share your thoughts as well link it up on your facebook pages, forums or whatever as I think it would be cool if fans of Finnish metal, Finns themselves and maybe even some of the bands saw this.

I think from now on I'll also try and do something special on this blog like this at least once a month. I've got lots of cool stuff to show off, which I think might tickle some interest around this place. Metal and beer reviews are certainly fun, but diversity is definitely the spice o life, don't you agree?

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...