Comparitive Study: Behemoth's 'Chant for Eschaton 2000' vs. 'Chant for Ezkaton 2000 e.v.'

In 1999, Behemoth released their fourth full-length album Satanica. This release was a prominent infiltration into the death metal camp, away from the Polish band's raw black metal roots. The concluding song was the near-flawless 'Chant for Eschaton 2000', a direct track that lyrically explored elation and enlightenment in an unconventional manner, using Eschaton or the end of the world as its backdrop. This song is an anomaly in Behemoth's musical repertoire, opting to exchange their death metal brutality with drilling guitar lead melody. The prominence of this track had the band frequently employing it as their closing number at concerts. Very recently, Behemoth have released an EP entitled Ezkaton. The centre-piece of this EP is the opener which is curiously entitled 'Chant for Ezkaton 2000 e.v.', obviously a re-recording of the Polish squadron's classic.

With 'Ezkaton' clocking in at 5:12, it is a full ten seconds briefer than its parent song. An intelligent inference would assume the band has upped the tempo on this re-recording. Indeed, this is the case and the consequence of this is the disappearance of an extra dimension present in the original. Right from offset, the reduction of the untamed guitar sounds on the original subtract the supernatural vibe injected into the song. The first repeated tom hits of the drums sound forced and unnatural. However, when the rhythm and lead guitars travel together for the first time on 'Ezkaton', the synergy sounds commendably heavier than the original.

Nergal's vocals on the original 'Eschaton' song were multi-faceted, layered at stages to emphasise an inhuman vocal style. This was juxtaposed with a stripped-down shout, marking its initial appearance on the line: "On your wings carry me over the abyss/Beyond the reason and across the burning seas." This sounded transcendental, appropriate in regards to a line referencing wings. On 2008's 'Ezkaton', these stylistic features are inverted with the stripped-down shouts of the original substituted for layered growls and the standard growls replaced by a militant shout albeit more throaty than the shouts in 'Eschaton'. Whilst the standard growls in 'Eschaton' sounded inhuman, the rhythm of the growls in 'Ezkaton' are plain and akin to those of hip hop vocals, although of course they are a far cry from spoken word. Another trifling attribute of 'Ezkaton' is the alternation of an amateur-sounding black metal rasp uttered for a single word and sandwiched between growls (the second utterances of "fly" and "slash"). It sounds preposterous and unconvincing, predominantly because the two assorted growls are not evenly matched in strength and with the weaker rasp suddenly hitting you from just one speaker, it underscores its power deficiency and heightens its failure.

The mixing of 'Ezkaton' results in the clean guitar of the original being melted into the harsher more prevalent rhythm guitar. This substantially reduces one of 'Eschaton's original highlights. Compensating for this is the ending of 'Ezkaton', which is fleshed out with a variety of guitar meanderings. This would have been a success had it not removed the grandiose keyboards at the close of the original.

Despite sleek and modern production, 'Ezkaton' pales in comparison to its ancestor. Whilst it is some distance from an unlistenable song, its negation of soundscapes of 'Eschaton' leaves it ultimately a wasted effort. If it is not broken, do not fix it at its finest.