Since I Loved You At Your Darkest in 2018, an overall skippable record that amounts essentially to nothing, and considering their rapid ascent into shameless mainstream territory, I had almost fully excluded Behemoth from serious discussions on extreme metal. The band is dressed in gold by now, and it feels like it has the budget of the whole rest of the scene on its feet, with extravagant live shows, visuals and effects. Nergal, the face of rockstar satanists, smirks while sitting on the throne of all anti-religious themed bands of the world, and conveniently puts out another record of the same hate and malice against everyone. On a positive note, things have not gone off the rails as much as their last album, but on the contrary, there’s a handful of bangers in Opvs Contra Natvram. Specifically, tracks like “Malaria Vulgate”, “Disinheritance” and “Thy Becoming Eternal” contain the most brutality Behemoth can offer and reminds of the overwhelming assault the listener would get by listening to the band in the 00’s. “The Deathless Sun” has fairly attractive chorus and melodies and would do great in a live show, and the middle paced tempos in “Off to War!” make it an easy listening track, hinting that they should never play slower than that. At the same time, the fragility of the record’s more adventurous pieces like the mellow “Ov My Herculean Exile”, the ineffective introduction or the worst piece “Upon A Pale Horse” (whatever they tried to do here, it failed), present all the musical weaknesses of the band, clear as day. Lyrics are as frivolous as they’ve always been (special e.g. “Versvs Christvs”) with Behemoth, but at least all the art on Opvs Contra Natvram is wonderfully artistic, and just beautiful. This work, while not that bad, confirms for one more time how ridiculously overrated this band is, but it’s a step ahead from where they were four years ago, and there are a couple of great tracks. [2.75/5 - Average]
