Ever since The Satanist, Behemoth have become a polarizing band. They are as close to being commercially accepted as any black/death metal can hope to become, while the albums they have released since 2014 have been largely superfluous. I Loved You at Your Darkest was OK, Opvs Contra Natvram was largely forgettable, so I did not have high hopes for this one.

Let's just get it out of the way. The album title is so bad, so cringe, that I question if there really is any real passion left in these guys. Yeah yeah, I know the quote is borrowed, but that doesn't make it any less moronic. I have therefore been on the fence for a while if I even should review this. Nergal did not help the matter by talking in a recent interview about how he was jealous of Arch Enemy for releasing bangers only (his words), and wanting to emulate that. However, seeing the surprisingly good press it got shortly after being released, I (unfortunately) decided to give it a shot.

The good press remains a mystery to me. In my ears, this is another definitive step in the wrong direction. Most of the songs come off as uninspired and plain and it is easy to hear that they strive for more to-the-point, catchy songs. The problem is that they're not particularly good at it. And I mean, is Nergal actually singing "Oh captain, my captain" on "To Drown the Svn in Wine"? What is this, fucking Alestorm? At the same time, there are some glimpses where the songwriting is sharp, including on "Sowing Salt" which kind of reminds me a great deal of pre-The Satanist Behemoth. Parts of "Nomen Barbarvm" and "O Venvs, Come!" are also passable, but that doesn't cut it for a band of this stature.

I guess fans of newer Behemoth will gobble this up. In my opinion there is nothing here that you can't get elsewhere with far more substance and bite, such as the new Hate.