Page 14: The band Behemoth

The band Behemoth is mentioned in The Billionth Monkey as a triple entendre:

1. Behemoth is an extreme metal band from Gdańsk, Poland…or, as my parents would have called it, the Old Country. My dear friend Krzysztof Azarewicz assists with their occult/Thelemic lyrics. So it's a shout-out to Krzysztof and the band.


2. Behemoth’s recent promotional video The Satanist: Prologue III  shows lead singer Nergal contemplating “The Devil” from the Thoth Tarot (see also my Thoth Sightings webpage). So it’s a subtle foreshadowing of the soon-to-come Tarot reading in this first chapter.
   

   

   Drummer Inferno contemplates "The Devil" from the Thoth Tarot in these screen captures
   from Behemoth's promotional film The Satanist: Prologue III.

3. Between the band name Behemoth (from Job 40:15-24), their 2014 album The Satanist, the drummer's name Inferno (which itself recalls Dante), and his contemplation of “The Devil,” we have all kinds of #DevilReferences, which appear throughout the book (along with #MonkeyReferences, as we'll see in other blog posts).
   

   

   "One was a young man in sunglasses and a top hat, which formed a stark contrast
   with the rest of his wardrobe: a vintage t-shirt for the death metal band Behemoth
   (the name printed in Fraktur above an ominous double-headed eagle)..."
   (The Billionth Monkey, p. 14).
   The image above is from Behemoth's web store.

The band's vocalist, Nergal, recently released his autobiography, Confessions of a Heretic. Check it out!