Weekly album: Behexen - The Poisonous Path

Behexen -The Poisonous Path

2016 / Black metal

1. The Poisonous Path

2. The Wand of Shadows

3. Cave of the Dark Dreams

4. A Sword of Promethean Fire

5. Umbra Luciferi

6. Tyrant of Luminous Darkness

7. Chalice of the Abyssal Water

8. Pentagram of the Black Earth

9. Gallows of Inversion

10. Rakkaudesta Saatanaan

btcarey: Finland is an extremely fortuitous country. It’s not for their top-notch education, impressive healthcare system, or indestructible cellphones, but the country’s unwavering ability to produce some of the best metal bands in the world. Charging in the front lines of Finland’s Black Metal Battalion is the almighty Behexen. The phrase “black metal” can scarcely be brought up without reference to the legendary band or their classic album “By the Blessing of Satan”. For this reason when Behexen’s most recent album, “The Poisonous Path”, was released I had to check it out.

The album is more “clean-cut” or professionally mixed, than previous releases, giving the songs a less chaotic yet tight sound. As far as songwriting, the album’s pace is much faster than Behexen’s previous record with better, more memorable songs. The vocals are about the same as on “Nightside Emanations”, but the guitar tone is the best of any of their releases. It has an incredibly powerful, crushing tone with a sweet fuzz that really pulls the mix together.

This is an solid album and could even have the balls to be one of the top black metal albums of 2016. I recommend it to any fan of Finnish Black Metal.

Favorite Songs: “The Poisonous Path”, “A Sword of Protean Fire”, “Chalice of the Abyssal Water”

tp5170: Behexen has always kept the quality of their work rather high despite the numerous changes to the band’s musical style and it’s nice to see that they managed to keep the flag high also with the band’s fresh, fifth full-length release. ‘The Poisonous Path’ represents a return to a slightly more traditional black metal and the album sounds far more conventional than its predecessor ‘Nightside Emanations’ did. Now whether this can be considered a positive or a negative thing is highly subjective. Though I have to say that for me the biggest problem with the album is indeed the return to the traditional style as otherwise the album is of superb quality. The fact that apart from the excellent execution there is basically nothing, at least in my eyes that would separate this album from the rest of the bunch is frankly unfortunate. 

But like I said, I think Behexen has yet to release a bad album. ‘The Poisonous Path’ is far above the average conventional BM releases in almost every respect, but it lacks the innovation to be a true gem.

The thing is that today there exists simply so much black metal in the world that one needs to mix up the formulae at slightly to make it actually interesting again. Behexen didn’t really set out to do this with their new album, which is a shame in my opinion because even though the album is solid it doesn’t really stand out all that well.

Orostider: Behexen have been preaching their black mass since 1996 and have done it in several different styles. Their early material, the material I discovered Behexen from, was fierce and raw black metal. Just what I sought at the time being and won't be forgotten. Especially 'By the Blessing of Satan' which could quite possibly be my all time Behexen favourite. As the time passed by, Behexen's sound transformed into less lofi and raw form of black metal, but the core was still the same. For me the evolution reached it's glory on the split with Satanic Warmaster and 'Nightside Emanations.' 'The Poisonous Path' seems to follow the same path as 'Nightside Emanations'.

'Nightside Emanations' offered semi-modern sounding black metal with catchy grooves and powerful riffs. The high shrieks that were present on the first two albums were gone and were almost completely replaced with lower chanting vocals. The same pattern is repeated on 'The Poisonous Path.' These new Behexen releases are definitely more approachable than their previous material, but that doesn't mean quality loss. I enjoyed 'Nightside Emanations' and 'The Poisonous Path' offers the continuum I've waited for this ritual.

'The Poisonous Path' is a worthy successor by all means, but it would probably be more powerful it it wasn't as lengthy as it is. I wouldn't call the album repetitive, but the overall sound stays pretty much the same throughout the almost an hour long album. Apart for lengthiness and the somewhat dull snare sound, I have no complaints. This is what modern production black metal should be. I can always go back to the early years if I long Behexen's raw black metal days, so complaining about their new sound is pointless.