Nothing sums up the newest BEHEMOTH album, The Satanist, more than the opening inhale to the song 'In The Absence Ov Light'; and I'm not talking a death growl or pig squeal type inhale - I mean a true, exasperated fucking inhale. The kind of inhale one would take after being pulled from beneath frigid waters, life extinguished, only to be suddenly resuscitated, lungs filling with air; filling with the essence of life. This is the inhale of a man being given a second chance around on this mortal coil. We couldn't rightfully dissect The Satanist without taking into consideration the recent travails of frontman, Adam 'Nergal' Darski. Having spent the past few years battling, and conquering, a life-threatening illness, Darski, the warrior, both on and off stage, has taken that energy, that esprit for life, and, quite literally, channelled it directly into The Satanist. Nergal, in an effort to memorialize and pay respect to the disease that nearly claimed him, had his blood embodied into the album artwork, composed by Russian symbolist painter, Denis Forkas. As a symbolic gesture, there is nothing more fitting - the elemental, organic, sanguine fluid of both nature and music coursing through impassioned veins, coalescing in a sacrament of biological euphony never before achieved in extreme music. Looking beyond the symbolism, The Satanist strikes a harmonious balance in its beautiful composition. Where tension once ruled, there now exists a confident air of subtlety and brutality. This new approach is practised throughout the entirety of the album, particularly evident in stand-out tracks 'Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer', 'Ben Sahar', and, of course, the aforementioned 'In The Absence Ov Light'. The Satanist certainly has a meaning far more abyssal and profound than what its title might outwardly imply. Whatever that is, only Nergal knows. It was he who stood on that precipice, staring down into purgatory, into everlasting fires. It was he who scorned the allure of Satan, for his time had not come.