When you get down to it with Behexen, they are really just the root, fundamental, basic representation of Finnish black metal. The norms they so callously represent are, of course, totally just and worthy within the context of black metal. However, the band is nothing even not bare-bones, meat and potatoes, et al. There’s no flair or fire burning, if you will, in their music. In turn, Behexen run too much of a straight course on their fifth album, The Poisonous Path.
Ten jams in which to work, nearly topping the 60-minute mark. That alone should give you an idea of what has been mapped out across The Poisonous Path. The biggest snag here is the lack of dynamics within Behexen’s riff sphere. You’d figure every once and a while the Finns would throw a (guitar lick) bone or two, the type of moves that superior black metal bands have come to master in this realm, but Behexen keep their heads down. Even when there’s the occasional ripple in the atmosphere (“Chalice of the Abyssal Water” would be the best representation of this), Behexen, instead, continue to churn out a series of numbers that bear too much similarity to one another.
Such elements also came to the surface on the band’s 2012 Nightside Emanations. Obviously that should have been a harbinger of what was to come with The Poisonous Path. And while it would be pointless to expound upon the many issues that come with the black metal scene, you could say this about Behexen: They are really neither here nor there.