Two years ago, Behemoth’s show here at Metalcamp was all but washed away by the massive rain. Hopefully, with this years’ heat-wave, their luck would change…

As night fell, the Polish war-machine known only as Behemoth took the Main Stage, and I must admit that my first thought was not of the band, but simply; where did all these people come from?!
So far, the festival had held some ok, if not overwhelming crowds, and for The Exploited which was the band we had seen just before this, the crowd had been decidedly small even, but now it was like everyone at the entire festival had shown up for this very gig, and they had brought friends!
Not that I can blame them though; I’m sure there were several disappointed fans left in the mud last time they were here, now looking for revenge, and after seeing Behemoth earlier this year at Sweden Rock Festival, I was also fully prepared for what this band was capable of.

The band came on, and proved that they were once again the power-house of energy that had captured my attention in the past. They were extremely tight and solid, they were blessed with a well-mixed heavy as fuck sound, and they knew exactly how to handle the crowd. I must admit, there will be nothing but praise from my side about the live-performance of this band. Their clothes, the stage-setup, their raw energy, everything had been finely honed to the point of perfection. It was no wonder that the entire crowd stood like one mesmerized body, all raising their devil-horns in the air in worship of the demigod before us.

Sadly, I cannot give an accurate listing of the songs Behemoth played for us, but I do remember that Demigod and Conquer All were performed.
As the night grew later still, a brief and ultra-fast drumsolo, courtesy of Zbigniew Robert Promiński (a.k.a. Inferno), was given with the added effect of some firebreathing, after which Adam Darski (a.k.a. Nergal) said; ”Behemoth will be back!”, and they left the stage.
Here I once again got to thinking that this had been a bad move last time, but soon the band was back again, and Nergal was now wearing his new mask/helmet from the Evangelion. This made him look (if possible) even stronger and more intimidating than he had before, an excellent way of twisting the screw just a little further for the end…

I can’t explain why, but Behemoth just doesn’t seize to amaze me live, there is just something extremely powerful and drawing about them which make it impossible to stay impartial.
The fact that the guys also seem completely down to earth, as seen when Nergal spent a lot of time after the show shaking hands and greeting the fans who were nearly climbing over each other at the security-fence, only makes them that much better in my eyes.
This was without a doubt one of the top-shows of the festival.