BEHERIT Drawing Down The Moon

Artist: BEHERIT
Title: Drawing Down The Moon
Year of Release: 1993
Label: Spinefarm
Format: LP

What ‘Drawing Down The Moon’ possesses that no other BM bands have conjured in the same way is that eerie, caustic and ungodly atmosphere. I love how simple most of this album is; that it drinks so deeply from the blackened well of despair and that Holocausto’s vocals are so inhuman and surreal.

I managed to pick up a copy of the gatefold reissue of this album from a few years back, and that in itself was quite the ordeal. I had come across an original pressing back in ’95, but the cover was heavily bent and well I was foolish wasn’t I? Though I play records, I still appreciate the aesthetic and if there was one, there were bound to be more right?

What a masterful logo, and a powerful statement made by the cover. I have no idea what ‘Drawing Down The Moon’ means, but I could stare at this cover for hours and allow myself to be absorbed in the resonant blackness that flows out of these tracks like black lava.

The contrast between the fast, blasting sections, the catchy riffs and the slow atmospheric parts give the album a true diversity and allow it to work on a series of levels often forgotten. In saying that, mostly I think of the deep atmospheres of this release, ignoring completely the blasting offensive of ‘Solomon’s Gate’.

Arguments as to what is true and the like are tedious where I am concerned but I stand by the idea that this is one of the most important and relevant black metal albums ever made and would suggest that if you have never experienced this opus, you have little idea as to how deep the chasm truly is…