This compilation CD is a great idea from the Polish label Metal Mind Records. It presents 2 CD and 2 MCD from the early career of BEHEMOTH (now all these recordings are "hard to find" on their original forms) plus some extra tracks as a bonus for the fans (demo tracks and cover songs). The first CD features the "Sventevith - Storming near the Baltic" CD (out first on Pagan Records), the famous "and the forests dream eternally" MCD (out on Entropy recs. from Italy back in 1995) plus 2 tracks taken from the band's demos, re-recorded during the "Sventevith..." '94 sessions. The booklet (extremely nice with great pictures and the songs' lyrics) says the recordings have been re-mastered but to tell you the truth I haven't seen any difference with the original albums ! But this is cretainly because their sound was originally good so I haven't felt any significative "change". So if you don't know BEHEMOTH let me tell you these are probably their best releases, when the magic was still playing an important part in the band's success. They consist in melodic/medieval Black Metal with vocals that one could say are in BURZUM's vein, but this is probably due to the fact that Nergal screams with his whole strength, as I don't think the band intentinally tried to copy any other band. They had their own style at the time, and they were a very interesting band. The second CD contains the "Grom" CD recorded in 1996 and the "Bewitching the Pomerania" MCD out on 1997. Well I have to admit I do not really know these albums as since "Grom" BEHEMOTH changed its style from a medieval Black Metal to aggressive brutal death/black metal with more death metal vocals, and I'm not a big fanatic of this "new" BEHEMOTH style in fact... But those of you who already know and like tha latest CDs of the band will certainly appreciate these recordings, as they have basically the same structure and a similar sound. The "bonus tracks" appearing on this second CD are cover versions of DESTRUCTION's "Total desaster" and MAYHEM's "Freezing moon" recorded during "Grom" studio sessions, and it can be interesting to compare this version of "Freezing moon" to the one BEHEMOTH plays on the MAYHEM tirbute CD out recently on Avantgarde music... This shows are skilled have become the musicians, and it shows have far they've been since their very first recordings, 10 years ago... I think this compilation CD (well, in fact it's a digipak double CD edition) is limited to 2000 copies but I'm not sure...

8 / 10

© 2003 lord pesten