Finnish Black Metal band BEHERIT, hailing from the town of Rovaniemi at the very edge of the Arctic circle, would rank as one of the very first of the genre, gaining notoriety in the homeland with a front page article in a leading national newspaper which had a photo depicting main protagonist Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance holding a severed pig's head aloft on stage. Although the band would issue a string of raw Black Metal releases BEHERIT ultimately bit the dust.
Reportedly the group went under formative titles of PSEUDO CHRIST and HORNY MALFORMITY in its early stages. As BEHERIT, they first released the 1990 demos 'Seventh Blasphemy', 'Morbid Rehearsals' and 'Demonomancy'. In 1991 they were operating as a duo of Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance on vocals and guitar and The Last Slaughter on drums as LORD DIABOLUS and releasing the tape 'Down There…'. The same year, as BEHERIT, the shared a split 7" single with DEATH YELL and a further split effort, this time a cassette dubbed 'Beast Of Damnation' on the Stero Wizard label arrived in 1992 in alliance with Switzerland's SAMAEL.
During this time Holocausto would also be involved with Death Metal band GOAT VULVA. This act would unveil a whole barrage of demos commencing with 1989's 'Crucifixions', 1990's 'Blasphemous Sexfago', 1991's 'Baphometal' and 'Capella' and finally 'Erotic Worship' in 1992. GOAT VULVA would not be the only extracurricular activity as both Holocausto and Sodomatic Slaughterer teamed up with vocalist / guitar Fornicator and guitarist / bassist Blacksoul to found BLACK CRUCIFIXION. With the band they bowed in with the 1990 'The Fallen One Of Flames' demo followed by the mini album 'Promethean Gift' in 1993. The BEHERIT legacy ensured 'The Fallen One Of Flames' re-issue commercially as a 10" single in 1999 courtesy of the Soul Seller label.
BEHERIT ventured into what could be loosely termed Black Ambient sounds for their 1994 'H418 OV 21.C' album. The writing was already on the wall at this stage though, indeed the very last live performance of BEHERIT had already taken place in August of 1992- a gig which saw Kimmo Luttinen (a.k.a. 'Sir Luttinen' of IMPALED NAZARENE on the drum stool.
The 1999 'Beast Of Beherit' compilation included the LORD DIABOLUS sessions, live tapes from the band's last performance and a cover version of BLASPHEMY's 'War Command'. A double vinyl album variant would be limited to 1000 copies. The 'Messe Des Morts' sessions of 1993 would also be re-released that same year on CD format as a shared album with ARCHGOAT.
Holocausto now operates the Black Electro-Ambient endeavour SUURI SHAMAANI.