Monday, May 18, 2026
Story and photos by Javier Vicencio
The almighty BEHEMOTH, purveyors of blasphemy, anti-religious spectacle, and theatrical extremity, brought The Godless IV Tour through Deep Ellum alongside fellow death metal titans DEICIDE and Greek black metal legends ROTTING CHRIST.
What unfolded inside The Bomb Factory was one of the most punishing and visually commanding extreme metal packages to hit Texas in years. Across three distinct interpretations of death and black metal, the evening balanced raw aggression, ritualistic atmosphere, and stadium-caliber theatricality. From ROTTING CHRIST’s hypnotic mysticism to DEICIDE’s relentless brutality and BEHEMOTH’s meticulously crafted spectacle, the tour felt less like a concert and more like an extreme metal pilgrimage.
ROTTING CHRIST
ROTTING CHRIST delivered a ritualistic and immersive performance, blending dark, groove-driven black metal with cinematic chanting and commanding atmosphere. Frontman Sakis Tolis led the band with a dramatic, almost ceremonial presence, his spoken-word passages and deep vocal delivery giving the set the feeling of an ancient invocation. Rather than relying exclusively on hyper-speed blast beats, ROTTING CHRIST emphasized mid-tempo stomps, dense rhythm sections, and choral textures that encouraged crowd participation and collective immersion. Their music carried an unmistakable sense of mysticism — thick, intoxicating, and reverential.
Songs like “Dies Irae,” “Demonon Vrosis,” “Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy,” “Societas Satanas,” and “Grandis Spiritus Diavolos” ignited the audience early, transforming the room into a unified mass of raised fists and shouted chants. By the end of their set, ROTTING CHRIST had done far more than warm up the crowd; they had bound the audience together through atmosphere and ritual. It was a masterful performance from the Hellenic black metal veterans.
DEICIDE
DEICIDE stormed the stage with a relentless barrage of Floridian death metal ferocity. Frontman and bassist Glen Benton remains a commanding force, delivering his trademark mix of guttural growls, piercing shrieks, and venomous screams with unwavering intensity.
The band’s punishing down-tuned riffs continuously ignited chaotic mosh pits and waves of crowd surfers, while deep crimson lighting and shadow-drenched staging reinforced DEICIDE’s notorious occult aesthetic. Though rooted firmly in death metal, the band’s performance leaned heavily into thrash-infused momentum, creating an atmosphere built for total physical release. Guitarists Taylor Nordberg and Jadran Gonzalez played with blistering precision, trading solos and rapid-fire leads like twin engines in constant overdrive. Behind them, band founder and drummer Steve Asheim drove the set forward with machine-like consistency, never allowing the pace to falter.
DEICIDE wasted no time diving into their catalog, seamlessly mixing newer material with classic tracks from their early-era releases. While the band kept stage banter to a minimum, the music spoke loudly enough on its own. Fan favorites like “Dead by Dawn” and “Homage for Satan” pushed the audience to the brink, leaving the room primed for the evening’s headliner.
BEHEMOTH
BEHEMOTH closed the evening with a meticulously choreographed and overwhelmingly theatrical blackened death metal spectacle. Frontman Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski commanded the stage with the precision of a high priest presiding over a dark ceremonial mass rather than a conventional metal performance. Nergal anchored the set through calculated restraint and commanding presence. Rather than relying on constant movement or excessive crowd interaction, he allowed the structure and pacing of the performance to carry its weight. Every entrance, gesture, and pause felt deliberate. Snake-headed microphone stands, blinding strobes, rising platforms, and multiple costume changes heightened the band’s ritualistic aesthetic. The production was executed with military discipline, reinforcing Behemoth’s reputation as one of extreme metal’s premier live acts. “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” stalked forward with oppressive grandeur as Nergal’s rasping growls summoned the audience into collective devotion. “Conquer All” and “The Shit Ov God” followed with ruthless precision, delivering some of the night’s most explosive moments. The audience reaction to “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” demonstrated just how deeply the song has embedded itself within the band’s live legacy.
From there, Behemoth maintained relentless momentum. Bathory’s “The Return of Darkness and Evil” surged with feral aggression, while “Ov Fire and the Void” and “The Deathless Sun” showcased the band’s ability to balance crushing heaviness with dramatic tension. Drummer Inferno delivered a performance that felt seismic in force, his relentless precision shaking the foundations of the venue. The band closed the main set with the apocalyptic grandeur of “Chant for Eschaton 2000” before returning for a towering performance of “O Father O Satan O Sun!,” one of the defining black metal anthems of the modern era. By the final notes, leaving the venue felt less like exiting a concert and more like emerging from a ritualistic gathering that had submerged the audience in darkness while somehow leaving them invigorated.
Musically, BEHEMOTH’s performance stood out for its surgical precision and controlled pacing. The band understood exactly when to let moments breathe and when to overwhelm with sheer force. That restraint gave the set much of its power. As the sole Texas stop of The Godless IV Tour, the Dallas performance felt fully representative of BEHEMOTH’s current artistic vision: disciplined, deliberate, and uncompromisingly realized. Even if parts of the audience struggled to fully match the intensity unfolding onstage, BEHEMOTH delivered a world-class extreme metal performance that left little doubt about their standing at the top of the genre.
FANS
