BEHEMOTH: SLAYER’S FAREWELL TOUR
From the Slayer Farewell Tour 2018
Hollywood Casino Ampitheatre
Tinley Park IL
Fri 5/25/18

Behemoth:

Slayer’s Farewell Tour back in 2018- like Testament, who opened the show, Behemoth had a rather short set- 6 songs total: opening with “Ov Fire and the Void”, then into “Demigod”, into “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer’, into “Wolves ov Siberia”, into “Chant for Eschaton 2000”, and closing their set with “O Father O Satan O Sun!”.
If you’ve been a fan of metal for quite awhile, you’ll know that Behemoth are the real deal, with releases over the past few years that are dizzying in magnitude and scope.
Back in 2014, Behemoth’s album “The Satanist” topped Metal Hammer’s Album of the Year poll, which for at the time, for this Polish metal trio, was quite the big deal.
Nergal, who fronts the mighty Behemoth has continued the ascent to metal mightyment, and turned Behemoth into one of the most prolifically brilliant and significant bands in modern extreme metal.
Which brings us up to the present day, or at least, to 2018, when Nergal and Behemoth relished the opportunity to open for Slayer, on their Farewell Tour throughout North America, on the strengths of their release at the time: “I Loved You At Your Darkest”.
From the press releases that came out at the time of the album, Nergal asserts that “AC/DC are the best band on the planet”, noting that over 15 years ago, he would’ve said the same about the bands Mayhem and Morbid Angel. “That”, he says, “should give you a clear indication of why this album is more rock- based.”
All the arrangements are muscular, and full of dynamic melody and song structure, filled with graveyard dirt, with lots of mischief and a wicked sense of humor.
So yes, Nergal and Behemoth are blessed with bludgeoning chops, with an added flair of costume ware that goes way beyond the corpse paint credo of so many other bands in the extreme metal genre of Northern Europe.
So even though the setlist for Tinley Park is rather short, star power is forged in the presentation, with a genuine purpose and might, even with the sun setting to the west, and not playing in complete darkness, as what they’re used to.
The level of spectacle is still intact with Behemoth- Nergal knowing full well to take advantage of this 30 minutes, and incite the audience to never forget they saw Behemoth perform live.
Nergal- always a wired and charismatic focal point front and center, singing behind his sculptured mic stand that’s emblazoned with two menacing looking cobras and a seal of Behemoth just below, and even somewhat covered and hidden behind the gigantic mic stand, you can tell at any moment he was going to break out of his own skin and ignite the audience and band into whirling dervishes.
Behemoth gigs always have a feeling that before you know it, they were going to pin you up against the wall, forearm to your neck, punishing you to pay attention.
Behemoth create the kind of extreme metal music that is full of militaristic precision that binds all the souls to the present, and upping the ante with beats per minute might and wallop.
Put it this way- Nergal and Behemoth have reached a pinnacle from which the future looks exhilaratingly bright and optimistic, even up to the present day, with Covid 19 and the pandemic of 2020 being front and center.
No matter- Behemoth are here to create and expand on the extreme metal horizon, with voracious propulsion, and songs waiting to ignite.
Cheers- Bobby Talamine – Music Photographer