Tonight Johannesburg will host one of the blackest, darkest, most brutal heavy metal bands on the planet.
Behemoth will push South African metalheads to breaking point with "blackened death metal", which incorporates fast drumming, intricate guitar solos and blood-curdling screams.
Behemoth front-man Adam "Nergal" Darski is inspired by history and religion. Consequently, most of the band's lyrics reference different deities and religious scripts. The band formed in 1991 in Gdansk, Poland, and released their 10th studio album, The Satanist, earlier this year.
The album's sound is sinister and evil. The band itself is, well, controversial. They wear demonic masks or corpse paint and splatter fake blood to enhance their shows. Nergal landed himself in legal hot water in 2007 when he ripped up a Bible on stage.
It's a treat for South Africa that a band like this is here to play a tour. In May this year Behemoth was expelled from Russia on one of their tours amid complaints about the offensive nature of their music.
While I love this band, it doesn't make me, or any other South African heavy metal fan, a Satanist. To me it's interesting alternative music, and I'm impressed that free speech is understood and accepted in South Africa to such a degree that Behemoth is able to perform here.
Nergal is a celebrity in Poland, and appears in full Behemoth regalia on the cans of Demon Energy Drink and was a judge on the Polish version of The X-factor.
- Tonight at Carfax Joburg and tomorrow night at the Assembly in Cape Town. R500, Computicket
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