BEHEMOTH DEFIES HEAVEN AND EARTH ON THEIR MOST EXTREME ALBUM YET — ‘THE SHIT OV GOD’ IS A SINFUL MASTERPIECE

Review By Ian Walker

Behemoth have never been a band to tread lightly — and with their 13th studio album, The Shit Ov God, dropping May 9th via Nuclear Blast, they’ve not only doubled down on their signature sound but torn open the sky and scraped the underworld raw. It’s bold. It’s brutal. It’s Behemoth in their purest, most sacrilegious form to date — and it’s absolutely unmissable.

Over three decades into their career, Behemoth still burn hotter than Hell. Nergal, the band’s ever-defiant frontman, has declared this their most refined and essential offering, and he’s not wrong. Produced by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (you’ll know his magic from records by Emperor, Enslaved, Kreator), The Shit Ov God is a surgical strike of blasphemous art, a violent ballet of darkness and conviction wrapped in pristine production.

Opening with “The Shadow Elite,” the album immediately sets an ominous tone — a ritualistic prelude that creeps like the beginning of an ancient heresy. From there, Behemoth plunge headfirst into “Sowing Salt,” a track that grinds with mechanical precision while dripping in hatred for performative salvation. The title track, “The Shit Ov God,” follows like a demonic proclamation, distorting the sacred into a sonic apocalypse. It’s blackened death metal at its vilest, but with an intellect behind its venom.

But it’s not all chaos for chaos’ sake. There’s a sophistication that cuts through the carnage. “Lvciferaeon” channels the esoteric majesty of Behemoth’s early black metal roots, while “To Drown The Svn In Wine” becomes a twisted psalm — both hypnotic and harrowing, its doom-laden aura oozing like thick incense in a decaying cathedral.

Perhaps the album’s most unsettling moment comes with “Nomen Barbarvm,” which acts like an invocation of lost rites, speaking in tongues and trembling with dread. “O, Venvs Come!” follows with a ritualistic cadence that intoxicates more than it assaults, before closer “Avgvr (The Dread Vvltvre)” swirls everything Behemoth have built into a final, infernal crescendo.

What The Shit Ov God proves is that Behemoth’s artistic ambition remains unyielding. The themes are provocative, even by their own standards — but not without intent. The album’s title is designed to polarize, to provoke conversation, and to challenge sacred cows. It’s a work of desecration and creation — art that revels in shadow so we might better see the cracks in the light.

Visually, the band continues to deliver on their promise of immersive, apocalyptic aesthetics. The cover art — constructed by Dark Sigil Workshop and longtime visual conspirator Bartek Rogalewicz — is arresting. Their Christogram inversion is a masterstroke, aligning perfectly with the album’s ideology: there’s transcendence in defilement, and power in absolute honesty.

Live, Behemoth are in a league of their own. With a European headline tour alongside Satyricon and Rotting Christ and only one UK date at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, fans can expect the theatrical firestorm of a lifetime. Behemoth are not just a band — they’re a ritual, a cathartic confrontation, a necessary evil in a world addicted to false virtue.

This is not an album for the faint-hearted, nor is it trying to be. Behemoth are playing for keeps here, and if this were to be their final statement (as Nergal provocatively muses), it would be a thunderous, blasphemous, and utterly breathtaking finale.

For extreme metal fans, The Shit Ov God is a declaration of war against complacency. It’s violently beautiful, intellectually confrontational, and above all — real. No filler. No compromise. Just Behemoth.

Track List:

1. The Shadow Elite
2. Sowing Salt
3. The Shit Ov God
4. Lvciferaeon
5. To Drown The Svn In Wine
6. Nomen Barbarvm
7. O, Venvs Come!
8. Avgvr (The Dread Vvltvre)

Final Verdict: Behemoth’s The Shit Ov God is their most dangerous, daring, and definitive record yet. It’s the sound of a band possessed by purpose, rage, and a vision few dare to chase. Unholy perfection.