Metal Underground.com

With a front man still on the mend after brutally kicking the shit out of leukemia, what’s a band to do when it’s new record time and there’s nothing to deliver yet? The “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat” compilation is the answer, combining two EPs from Behemoth’s back catalog and throwing in a series of live recordings to sweeten the pot. As a holdover release while waiting for Behemoth to record a new full-length, “Abyssus Abyssum Invocat” certainly isn’t a bad way to go, but the lack of truly new material and inconsistency of the tracks may not make the compilation a worthwhile purchase for everyone.

The compilation comes with two discs, covering the “Slaves Shall Serve” and “Conjuration” EPs, which have a heavy focus on cover songs and live tracks. There is a massive style shift that occurs repeatedly throughout the songs due to this mixing of styles. Opening track “Conjuration ov Sleep Daemons” has the classic trademark Behemoth sound, but then suddenly the album breaks into industrial territory as the Polish demons cover “Wish” by Nine Inch Nails. The next track is then a Venom cover, which is a whole other breed of metal entirely. This is Behemoth like you’ve never it before, as the band took the route of trying to match the vocals and overall sound of the original tracks, rather than fitting the songs into the Behemoth framework.

Live tracks of songs such as “Christians to the Lions” and “Decade ov Therion” scattered throughout the release give fans a chance to hear Behemoth in a different setting, although anyone who didn’t care about live songs before won’t have their minds changed here. The cheering fans don’t really add much to the songs, which have a big booming echo on the drums and growls.

“Abyssus Abyssum Invocat” is an incredibly diverse release, which may either be a selling point or a reason to skip the compilation, depending on what any given Behemoth fanatic is looking for. On the one hand, there’s always something new to hear, but on the other it feels a bit like putting a playlist on shuffle instead of listening to songs from a single band. This collection won’t work perfectly for all blackened death metal fans, but it does offer a chance to check out some Behemoth material you may have missed while awaiting the follow-up to the “Evangelion” album.