Behemoth have unleashed a third single from I Loved You at Your Darkest, "Bartzabel," along with an ominously blasphemous — and seriously NSFW — accompanying visual. The track falls in line with frontman Nergal's revelation that the record will be fairly conceptual, relaying a cogent narrative throughout without explicitly basing itself on singular story but rather falling in line with the band's historical use of Satanism and the occult.
The titular character Bartzabel is considered the spirit of the planet Mars, and many occult practitioners warn against attempting to harness the planetary powers as they are extremely powerful and dangerous and can "infest your home." Notorious founder of Thelemic Mysticism Aleister Crowley wrote of evoking the spirit in 1910's "The Bartzabel Working," and Nergal's calling to the spirit seems at once an homage to, and ceremonial practice of, this ritual.
The video follows suit, showing a young magician-type in a remote, abandoned abbey. Nergal and the other band members appear in full liturgical garb holding a bible with the inverted cross, and in true Satanic form, anonymous nude women in veils appear bearing skulls and a dead crow, at first in dance then moving into a crossed-arm lying position beneath an inverted Christ as their bodies are doused in his sacrificial blood. Though this is well-tread visual territory for the band, it is quite beautifully done and stands among their most theatrical videos to date.
I Loved You at Your Darkest — the Polish blackened death-metal band's 11th full-length studio offering — is due October 5th via Metal Blade (you can pre-order it here).
