Behemoth

Behemoth formed in Gdańsk in 1991 as a trio, Nergal handling guitar and vocals alongside drummer Baal and rhythm guitarist Desecrator. Demos such as ...From the Pagan Vastlands circulated through the label Pagan Records before the debut album, Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic), arrived in 1995. Alongside fellow Polish bands Vader and Hate, Behemoth is credited with building the country's extreme metal underground almost from nothing.

The sound moved fast. 1996's Grom folded in female vocals, acoustic guitar and synthesizers, while Pandemonic Incantations two years later pushed toward heavier extremity. Signing to Italy's Avantgarde Music in 1998 produced Satanica, the record where Behemoth's black metal roots hardened into the blackened death metal attack the band still plays today.

Personnel shifted around Nergal through this period: drummer Inferno and bassist Les left the band after Satanica, with Inferno returning in 2000 alongside new bassist Novy and guitarist Havok. Signed to Mystic Production, that lineup recorded Thelema.6, denser and more technical, setting up the fuller sound heard on later albums including Demigod, The Apostasy, Evangelion and The Satanist, with orchestral touches, heavy percussion from Inferno, and lyrics steeped in occultism and anti-clerical themes.

Behemoth's standing in Poland has been complicated by legal disputes over blasphemy charges, and Nergal's public recovery from leukaemia in 2010 became part of the band's story. Live, they perform in corpse paint with elaborate costuming, pyrotechnics and staging that draws deliberately on religious ceremony, backed by acclaim that saw Loudwire's staff place Behemoth 50th on a 2016 list of the greatest metal bands of all time.