Concert Report: Behemoth, Twin Temple, and Midnight at Revel

Intro: 

Hailing from Gdansk, Poland, the blackened death metal band Behemoth have now officially kicked off their North American tour. Their first stop was Albuquerque, New Mexico, at Revel entertainment center. This seminal event has set the tone for the remainder of their journey. It went off to an excellent start. With support from Twin Temple and Midnight, this line up made for one promising night to remember. 

Concert Report:

Behemoth are touring with Midnight, a Cleveland, Ohio based blackened speed metal band. Their music is intentionally blasphemous, controversial, offensive, and extreme. As such, they are the perfect choice for an opening act for a band as notorious and infamous as Behemoth. They perform with black hooded masks obscuring their faces. It must be difficult enough to play music in general, let alone in a new town surrounded by strangers, and all the cultural nuances on top of that, plus the glaring stage lights…. and then to be veiled in black fabric on top of all that. They jumped around the stage like acrobats, thrashed like athletes, and even swung the guitars behind their backs, playing their instruments backwards behind their own heads. They have nailed to perfection the art the of the pick slide, and they have also refined the skillful guitar technique of finger pinching, as well. Not to mention gratuitous amounts of whammy bar and pedal action. They are heavily and highly talented musicians. 

They are also touring together with Twin Temple, a self-proclaimed “Satanic doo-wop” outfit from California. Their music is like Ghost meets Necromantix meets Elvis Presley meets Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. They have a punk twist to classic rock n’ roll style music, in the vein of the psychobilly subgenre. Their sultry lead songstress is a delectable siren, a sonorous banshee to harken the forecoming of the demonic foretold chosen one. 

Consisting of lead vocalist Nergal, bassist Orion, and drummer Inferno, each band member of Behemoth is a talented musician in his own right. Formed in the year 1991 (the year I was born, the year of the Metal Goat in Chinese Astrology!), Behemoth have been filling stadiums throughout the course of several decades. Their illustrious discography boasts an impressive array of 12 studio albums. They have established themselves as pioneers of European extreme metal within the duration of their professional music careers.

Their latest album, Opvs Contra Natvram, was released on September 16, 2022 via the renowned international heavy metal record label, Nuclear Blast. Clocking in just shy of 45 minutes, this new record includes 10 tracks, 4 of which are singles: Ov My Herculean Exile, Off To War, The Deathless Sun, and Thy Becoming Eternal, respectively. This newest offering further explores the themes of atheism and sacrilege for which Behemoth is so pristinely prestigious. 

As always, their concert performance was fucking ace! Nergal is an imposing figure as a blasphemous satanic anti-pope. The visuals were as spectacular as ever. And the music! So hellishly heavy. Such beautiful brutality. It’s skillfully sadistic and tremendously technical. I accidentally bruised my arm when I got caught in a mosh, but I didn’t even notice because I was having too much damn fun. No wonder concerned passerbys kept asking me if I was alright!

Outro:

Revel Entertainment Center is a premier venue in Albuquerque, NM. They have hosted other iconic punk rock and heavy metal bands such as The Ghost Inside, Social Distortion, and Megadeth. Upcoming shows include DragonForce on October 21, Static X on October 27, Tesseract on November 5, and Bullet for my Valentine on November 7. Revel is also associated with Uptown Funk, Albuquerque’s first dueling piano bar. 

The doors opened at 7:00 pm MST, and the actual concert itself took place from 8:00 pm MST to 12:00 pm MST. The venue offers a program known as Uber Revel, in which customers who order a ride share can earn points for preventing DWI. 

Overall, a rowdy night to remember! 5 stars outta 5!