Concert Reviews
Behemoth: Live at the Chaos Millennium Fest
Leiria, Portugal, March 11th
2000
Live Report and Behemoth Background by Sandra Gonçalves - Metal
Rules!! Correspondent For Portugal
The Polish band Behemoth formed in 1991. Their career has been an
uphill battle but they have gradually been achieving their goals. The
first step was the demo "From the Pagan Vastlands" which sold
over 4000 copies, being later released on CD in Europe and the US.
Following this they put out their first mini-CD "…And the
Forest Dream Eternally" which generated good expectations for the
band. These expectations were later confirmed with their first album
"Sventevith (storming near the Baltic )", the sound was not very
original but they showed a promising future.
In '96, allied with the German Solistitium Records, they released their
second album "Grom" which took them for the first time on a
European tour with the Norwegians Helheim and the also Polish group,
Christ Agony.
After they recorded some old themes for the second mini-CD,
"Bewitching the Pomorenia" that helped introduce their third
album "Pandemonic incantations" that became their real big step
into the world of Black Metal. To Nergal (guitar and vocals) and the other
members, this became their real first professional work.
In 1999 appears Behemoth's fourth album "Satanica" released
by the Italian Avant Gard Music. Satanica it's a brutal, powerful and
devastating album that came only to reinforce the position conquered on
their previous album.
On the 11th of March (2000) Behemoth participated in the second Chaos
Millennium Fest that took place in Leiria - Portugal. The first part
of the fest belonged to the Portuguese Devileech and Malevolence.
It was not crowed but even with some technical problems the support bands
were excellent on stage.
Devileech played almost for an empty room but their performance was
very good. Malevolence made a very good show considering that they had
recorded previously the drums and keyboards. With themes like
"Brotherhood of Christ", "Insubordination",
"Oceans of Fire", "Martyrialized", "Erotica"
and "Dominion of Hate" they proved to be an excellent band (ed.
note: Check out an MP3 of this band in the sound
archive and read a review of their newest
CD Martyrialized - brutal and highly recommended for fans of brutal
yet melodic death metal).
At last Behemoth opened their performance by playing "Decade of
Therion." All the songs played during this concert came from their
two most recent albums, "Pandemonic Incantations" and "Satanica"
except for the "From the Pagan Vastland", "Carnage"
and "Pure Evil & Hate." The crowd were completely amazed
with the live performance of this band. They were really excellent on
stage during the whole night, despite some unimportant sound problems. At
the end they proved to everyone that good black metal bands are not only
born in Norway!
All photos ©2000 Metal Rules!! and Sandra Gonçalves
Click on any of the below pictures for the much larger full screen view.
Behemoth
Malevolence
