Review by Frost on December 17, 2021.

I've been waiting to get my hands on this one. Riding the heels of Behemoth's 2014 LP The Satanist is no simple feat. It's not the best Behemoth album in the world, nor is it my favorite. As a matter of fact, Zos Kia Cultus (Here and Beyond) sits atop the pedestal for me with its devilish brazenness, occult-like virulent nature, and vicious fiery brutality. There's an organic quality in that album that draws me in more than the others. Evangelion had it, too. In fact, I think Behemoth is at their best when they're not compressing the hell out of their sound to try and be as Earth-shatteringly loud as possible.

In enters the first confirmed single from the Poles' upcoming offering, I Loved You At Your Darkest. Nergal has made no secret that The Satanist was a passion for him. As an artist, a musician, songwwriter, and defacer of Bibles, he took great pride in that album. So much so that only a couple years after it came out, the band was already doing tours around it. Now I don't just mean they were promoting the album as they were touring because that's standard procedure for a band to do: tour to gather enough hype for the newest song or album. I mean they were playing full sets of nothing but The Satanist. It was nuts to hear how an album only a couple of years old was being played in full in big venues.

Now I feared this new song wasn't going to live up to anywhere near the monumental status that the single from their last LP garnered. That whole album is in a league all on its own at this point, deservedly or underservedly, depending on who you ask. And as a standalone track distinct from the rest of the album, it's okay. Merely okay.

There's no special tricks that the band pull from their arsenal here. It's more or less a side-B from The Satanist, merely dressed up to be made a little less posh. You've got the typical trademarks of your black/death metal Behemoth has become well known for: dissonant chord progressions, occasional tremolo picked riffs, progressive and fast drumming patterns that blast frequently, the punchy bass lines that give a necessary low-end in the clean production, and the fiery vocal performance from frontman Nergal. The problem is that it lacks the epic, anthemic, soul crushing grandiose blasphemies of the last album. Also, I don't think this means anything, but this is the second black metal song (of course this isn't strictly black metal, but it falls under that umbrella and Behemoth is more associated with black metal thanks to their early material) that has children in it performing vocals. I don't know if this is going to be a trend in black metal circles with bands using children in their songs, but I don't think that'll happen. I sure hope not because children are not good singers, nor are they very enthusiastic singers, so this just felt unnecessarily tacked on.

Maybe the success and subsequent inflation of The Satanist hindered the impact of this song because it's nowhere near as large in scale. Looking at the song as a separate entity, it's not all that bad and has its replay value, but I'll wait for the full album to determine whether or not it works in the full context of the album. Maybe then I'll rate the song higher, but as it stands, it's pretty typical Satanist-era Behemoth, just kinda...on a diet.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10