BEHEMOTH : The Godless IV Tour with DEICIDE, ROTTING CHRIST and IMMOLATION
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos
This was a bucket list shoot so once again, and I made the trip down to Phoenix to catch the Godless IV Tour at the Van Buren.
IMMOLATION out of New York have been around since the mid 80’s, and play hard, fast with deep guttural vocals. As an opening band they were extraordinary and delivered a strong set of in-your-face music, with Robert Vigna on lead guitar, Ross Dolan bass / vocals, Steve Shalaty on drums and Alex Bouts on rhythm guitar.One of the downsides of being the opening band on a tour with four bands is you get pushed right up to the edge of the stage with so much gear onstage. But Immolation played like a headliner and gave the crowd what they came for.
The band opened with “These Vengeful Words” off their new 2026 album Descent. This is a pounding brutal song that really set the tone for the set, a set that was fast and furious. The band closed out with another new song “Bend Towards the Dark“. More on Immolstion HERE.
Talk about a band with lots of controversy, ROTTING CHRIST has faced censorship, arrests, visa problems and more, mainly due to the band's name and controversial lyrics. I have not seen Rotting Christ in 10 years due to this, so I was so excited to see them on this tour. The packed crowd surged towards the stage when Rotting Christ opened with “Dies Irae” off the 2019 album titled The Heretics. What a fantastic song to open with, soaring guitars and vocals let us know we were in for a hell of a set.
The band was really hitting on all cylinders during the song “Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy” , and a mosh pit opened up and the non stop wave of crowd surfers started coming over the barricade. I will say security at the Van Buren are really cool with the crowd surfers and gave them no problems at all. The band closed out their incredible set with “Grandis Spiritus Diavolos“. I LOVE this band and their sound, and it was so great to see them again.
DEICIDE is another American death metal band out of Tampa who have been around since the early 90’s, and are no strangers to controversy themselves, with venues refusing to book them, promoters and governments shutting their shows down and the usual internal band drama. In the past Behemoth has opened for Deicide, now Deicide opens for Behemoth on this tour. These two bands have been friends forever and its great to see both on one stage.
Deicide's sound is brutal and they kicked off their set with “ When Satan Rules His World”, followed by 2019’s “ Bastard of Christ”. One of the bands more controversial songs is “Sacrifical Suicide” and closed out their set with “Homage For Satan” A superb set as expected by these death metal giants.
Finally it was time for the legendary BEHEMOTH, black death metal from Gdansk, Poland who have been together for 35 years, which is mind blowing. Vocalist Nergal (Adam Darski) was the first to appear onstage to a roar, followed shortly by the rest of the band, who goes by stage names - “Inferno” on drums, “Orion” on bass and “Seth” on guitar and backing vocals. The band opened their set with the 2025 song “The Shadow Elite” which is a call to all their loyal fans who unite under their calling. They continued with “Ora Pro Nubis Lucifer” which had the crowd going full crowd surfing.
Behemoth is not just a black death metal band, but a creative theatrical band that incorporates corpse paint, custom stage armor, ritualistic headwear and custom mic stands. The stage show combines heavy smoke with intense theatrical lighting. Nergal is the most creative of the band, changing outfits and headwear throughout the show, he is intense and quite the figure onstage, commands your attention, you stay focused on his every move. The way the lights were changing with the intense smoke the set looked cinematic, dream-like with a soundtrack from hell blasting through covering the crowd. This is a band of talented musicians and showmen, who have earned their seat at the table as one of the best death black metal bands touring today.
Behemoth were everything and more of what I expected, and have my utmost respect for the amazing performance they put on night after night. One of the best songs of the set was the title track from most recent album, The Shit OV God , and Behemoth closed out their set with “O Father, O Satan O Sun”, a hauntingly eerie and the perfect song to end the night.
Behemoth Photos Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos
Deicide Photos Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos
Rotting Christ Photos Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos
ImmolationPhotos Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos
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