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BEHEMOTH Bassist On ‘The Satanist’: ‘We’ve Never Been Happier With A Record’

Manos Spanos
Michael Toland of the Austin Chronicle recently conducted an interview with bassist Orion (real name: Tomasz Wróblewski) of Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Austin Chronicle: Let's talk about "The Satanist". It's your first album in five years and you put a lot of hard work into it. Are you pleased with it and the reception it's gotten so far? Orion: Oh, yes, definitely. We've never been happier with a record. It took us a long time to get to this point. During Nergal's [guitar/vocals] hospitalization and everything — this whole hard period — we weren't really sure if the next record's gonna happen. But it did happen, and we're truly happy with it. In our honest opinion, it just represents us to date. It's the best record we've ever done as a band, and it actually feels great. We all feel that. Austin Chronicle: The deluxe CD version includes a DVD documentary on which there's talk about how emotion should power the music. One of you even said it should just yell. Although there's a high degree of craft, the band wanted to keep it very organic. As you put it, "Open the wounds and let the blood flow." How do you balance all those things? Orion: Well, I remember this theory after "Evangelion", when we started touring. We were trying to talk about a new record, which was gonna happen at some point. We didn't really know which way we should go, or where we should move from this point. We had no idea, because we didn't really feel that we can compete with the 200% of our abilities that we've applied up to this point. Then we sat down to write "The Satanist". We went through this whole dark period of Nergal being sick, and I feel like we all learned to appreciate what we have and who we are much more. So, at some point, we started talking about the new album, and it was just flawless, fluent, very, very smooth. Because we sat down to write the music, and it was just going. We quit asking questions, for some reason. I really don't know why it happened, but we just wanted to have us and our blood on this record — and we didn't want to edit it to the very edge. We wanted to be very human. We're imperfect as people, as musicians. So we just let this record be imperfect. And somehow we managed to do it the right way. Even the recording process itself was very much different from what we used to do before. Most of the tracks recorded, the parts are the first take. There's not many overdubs on it. It's just us, as imperfect as we are. Austin Chronicle: Something else mentioned in the documentary was a general dissatisfaction with the state of extreme music. That you felt like the word doesn't mean anything anymore. Orion: There's more and more bands everywhere in the world. They're also starting to sound exactly the same. Even the older bands, it seems like they're re-recording the same record again and again, and all these new metal things — I just don't get it. I listen to all these bands, and... We have this saying in Polish, "It's going through your left ear and going out of your right ear, and you don't remember a single thing." It seems that the thought in it, the idea, is just missing. There's a lot of great players. There's a lot of great musicians, shredders. But they just race over the fretboard and there's no heart to it. That's what we basically think about metal music. There's a lot of good bands these days that I do enjoy listening to, and we're trying to keep up with what's happening in metal music. Read the entire interview at Austin Chronicle.
04 min read

BEHEMOTH’s NERGAL Is ‘Thinking About’ Recording Solo Album

Manos Spanos
Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Adam "Nergal" Darski of Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Metalshrine: With the new album, "The Satanist", you entered the Billboard chart at No 34. Nergal: Yeah, and the previous highest position was 56 or something, I believe, so we got higher up this time around. I actually did some research and I think it's unheard of. I think the title can actually shut some doors for us, because it's so radical and it's really a "fuck off" title. It's like, "Fuck it! This is it!" For me, there are so many layers of it. I guess that when common people hear it for the first time, the first thing they feel is fear. But the western media also somehow feel very attracted to it, which is weird. Metalshrine: It's also weird climbing the charts in a country like the U.S., which is a very religious country. Nergal: They are as fanatical as they are liberal. Europe is way more conservative. The U.S. is extreme in many ways. Metalshrine: You recently said that U.S. death metal bands are boring and generic? Nergal: It's not just the U.S. I really hope my friends in NILE don't think that, because it's not what I meant. The majority of death metal bands are boring to me. It's how it is. This endless strive for perfection and processed recordings. They're so perfect and professional to the point of throwing up. I'm not buying it. I'd rather go for something that is very organic and more human oriented and that has the human factor in it. Metalshrine: What bands do you find exciting then? Nergal: The funny thing is that hardly any of the bands in the darkest niche of the genre offer the most sincere or genuine or best music. I would rather listen to SVARTIDAUDI, KRIEGSMACHINE or ORANSSI PAZUZU than listening to the new MORBID ANGEL or DEICIDE. Their music doesn't do it for me at all, and that's music I grew up with. Metalshrine: Could there ever be a Nergal solo album? Nergal: Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I've been thinking about it for years now. What I need now is to balance myself with something that's gonna be exactly on the opposite side of BEHEMOTH. You would never ever see me doing a black metal, death metal or metal project. I put all my energy into BEHEMOTH, so to balance my life I'd really need to do a really stripped down and primal sound. What I'm thinking about is probably just one or two male vocals, some acoustic guitars and maybe a bass drum only. Metalshrine: Do you already have music like that lying around? Nergal: Yeah, I've been fucking around with stuff. I've done some demos, which I hardly ever play for anybody. It's gonna be dark and sinister, but a bit different. Like 16 HORSEPOWER and WOVENHAND and that kinda stuff. Read the entire inte
03 min read

BEHEMOTH: Fan-Filmed Video Footage Of Tilburg Concert

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of BEHEMOTH's February 18 performance at 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands can be seen below. BEHEMOTH's new album, "The Satanist", sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 34 on The Billboard 200 chart. BEHEMOTH's ninth full-length studio CD, 2009's "Evangelion", opened with around 8,500 units to land at No. 56. "The Satanist" was released on February 3 in the U.K., February 4 in North America and Poland, February 5 in Japan, and February 7 in the rest of the world. "The Satanist" deluxe box, which is available in North America as an European import, includes: CD/DVD digibook in silver mirror slipcase with a high-quality 44-page booklet (with gold foil, UV gloss lamination), supersize poster flag (approx. 3.5' x 5'), wooden black inverted rosary cross, metal pin, black envelope with black communion wafers. The DVD, "Live Barbarossa", includes a professionally filmed show in Ekaterinburg, Russia, as well as 30-minute documentary about the creative process behind "The Satanist". "The Satanist" was produced by BEHEMOTH, Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawscy and Daniel Bergstrand at Hertz Studio. The CD was mixed by Matt Hyde (SLAYER) and mastered by Ted Jensen (METALLICA, AC/DC) at Sterling Sound in New York City. The cover art for "The Satanist" was painted by renowned Russian painter and occultist Denis Forkas. The paint used included some of Nergal's own blood. Additional art and design was completed by Metastazis (PARADISE LOST) and Zbigniew Bielak (WATAIN, GHOST). BEHEMOTH's video for the new single "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" was produced by Grupa 13 and is one of the band's most unsettling and unique works to date.
02 min read

BEHEMOTH’s ‘The Satanist’ Cracks U.S. Top 40

Manos Spanos
"The Satanist", the long-awaited new album from Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH, sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 34 on The Billboard 200 chart. BEHEMOTH's ninth full-length studio CD, 2009's "Evangelion", opened with around 8,500 units to land at No. 56. "The Satanist" was released on February 3 in the U.K., February 4 in North America and Poland, February 5 in Japan, and February 7 in the rest of the world. BEHEMOTH's video for the new single "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" can be seen below. This visual masterpiece was produced by Grupa 13 and is one of BEHEMOTH's most unsettling and unique works to date. BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski states about the video: "Yes, we took all the time in the world to complete this project. And we did everything that was humanely possible to accurately express our vision. We crossed the Rubicon. "'Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel' is an ecstatic manifest of our unrestrained artistic will, where we dare to reach out beyond the limitations of the heavy metal genre. And it's only the beginning." "The Satanist" deluxe box, which is available in North America as an European import, includes: CD/DVD digibook in silver mirror slipcase with a high-quality 44-page booklet (with gold foil, UV gloss lamination), supersize poster flag (approx. 3.5' x 5'), wooden black inverted rosary cross, metal pin, black envelope with black communion wafers. The DVD, "Live Barbarossa", includes a professionally filmed show in Ekaterinburg, Russia, as well as 30-minute documentary about the creative process behind "The Satanist". "The Satanist" was produced by BEHEMOTH, Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawscy and Daniel Bergstrand at Hertz Studio. The CD was mixed by Matt Hyde (SLAYER) and mastered by Ted Jensen (METALLICA, AC/DC) at Sterling Sound in New York City. The cover art for "The Satanist" was painted by renowned Russian painter and occultist Denis Forkas. The paint used included some of Nergal's own blood. Additional art and design was completed by Metastazis (PARADISE LOST) and Zbigniew Bielak (WATAIN, GHOST). "I wanted to incorporate some of my DNA into the art," Nergal told Australia's Heavy magazine about having his blood included in "The Satanist" artwork. "This album seems to be so defining of who we are now as people and as individuals, and considering all the instances in recent years, [we wanted] to make it more 'ours' than it is usually." In a recent interview with Revolver magazine, Darski described BEHEMOTH's new songs as "very atmospheric" and "very emotional." "Think BURZUM meets NEW ORDER meets KILLING JOKE," he added. But at the same time, fans shouldn't expect the album to sound too far removed from BEHEMOTH's past efforts. "Take SLAYER, for example," Darski said. "Whatever genre they deal with, they still end up sounding like SLAYER. Even when they were flirting with nu-metal, it was a SLAYER record. Same with BEHEMOTH." According to Darski, at least some of the inspiration for the new BEHEMOTH album came from his five-month bout of leukemia he overcame in January 2011, after receiving a bone-marrow transplant. "When I was in the hospital, I was collecting experiences and emotions," he said. "I'm pretty sure that it's coming out now. There are moments I catch myself thinking about how my state was back then. It was me versus life, me versus death. It definitely changed my thoughts a lot. It's 100 percent being reflected in the record and songs I'm writing nowadays. I'm way more radical than I used to be." "The Satanist" track listing: 01. Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel 02. Furor Divinus 03. Messe Noire 04. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer 05. Amen 06. The Satanist 07. Ben Sahar 08. In the Absence ov Light 09. O Father O Satan O Sun!
04 min read

Behemoth
The Satanist

Panagiotis Karagiannidis
One of the leaders of the Polish Death metal extreme movement alongside with Decapitated and Vader, a band that started as a humble tribute to the great originators of the first wave of Black metal called Bathory (especially their logo), to evolve from "Satanica" (1999) and on to one of the greatest Death metal bands of our times (and one of the most popular ones as well): Behemoth.
03 min read

BEHEMOTH’s NERGAL: ‘The Majority Of Death Metal Bands From The USA Are So Generic, They All Sound Perfect’

Manos Spanos
Ross Baker of Ghost Cult magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Adam "Nergal " Darski of Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. On his health following the five-month bout of leukemia he overcame in January 2011, after receiving a bone-marrow transplant: "I've just been for some routine checks and test at the hospital and I am happy to announce I am very much alive and well! The fact that I am healthy and I have the deadliest weapon that BEHEMOTH has ever created in my hands makes my life complete. "I definitely feel life has more meaning that it did before. I don't spend my time overanalyzing things the way I used to. Life seems to be more joyful these days, and I know it sounds like a cliché from a James Bond movie, but tomorrow is a question mark and we need to embrace today." On BEHEMOTH's new studio album, "The Satanist": "Extreme art should be shocking and provoke a reaction. "I really hope we are viewed as more than just a black metal band. We are an extreme band that can communicate our ideas on so many levels. "Extreme metal music these days is often only extreme by definition. It is a never-ending process of striving for perfection. "Too many bands are chasing this and the scene is becoming like the 'X-Factor' for black metal. There is no danger and unpredictability anymore. "The majority of death metal bands from the USA are so generic, they all sound perfect. It is fast and technical, but there is no substance. "Bands forget about emotion when they strive for perfection. "You should be driven by your intuition and not just be concerned with shredding on your guitar. "Perfection is boring and uninspiring. "When people listen to 'The Satanist', it will stimulate them in many different ways. "I saw cabaret at the theatre recently and it was extremely moving. "Extreme art must make people uncomfortable, whether it is music, art or films. It has to be thought-provoking. "It takes a lot of energy for me to do this. "I remember after my transplant, when we started playing shows again. There was a time I thought I was going to pass out onstage because it was so taxing playing the show and I did not have as much energy as before, but now I am ready. I know I can give my all to this." Read more from Ghost Cult magazine.
02 min read

BEHEMOTH: Fourth ‘The Satanist’ Trailer

Manos Spanos
The fourth and final video on the making of "The Satanist", the long-awaited new album from Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH, can be seen below. "The Satanist" will be released on February 3 in the U.K., February 4 in North America and Poland, February 5 in Japan, and February 7 in the rest of the world. Pre-order bundles, include: CD, LP, t-shirt, as well as the deluxe box set, and are available at metalblade.com/behemoth in North America, nuclearblast.de/behemoth in Europe, and on behemoth-store.com (digibook and box). BEHEMOTH's video for the new single "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" can be seen below. This visual masterpiece was produced by Grupa 13 and is one of BEHEMOTH's most unsettling and unique works to date. BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski states about the video: "Yes, we took all the time in the world to complete this project. And we did everything that was humanely possible to accurately express our vision. We crossed the Rubicon. "'Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel' is an ecstatic manifest of our unrestrained artistic will, where we dare to reach out beyond the limitations of the heavy metal genre. And it's only the beginning." "The Satanist" deluxe box, which is available in North America as an European import, includes: CD/DVD digibook in silver mirror slipcase with a high-quality 44-page booklet (with gold foil, UV gloss lamination), supersize poster flag (approx. 3.5' x 5'), wooden black inverted rosary cross, metal pin, black envelope with black communion wafers. The DVD, "Live Barbarossa", includes a professionally filmed show in Ekaterinburg, Russia, as well as 30-minute documentary about the creative process behind "The Satanist". "The Satanist" was produced by BEHEMOTH, Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawscy and Daniel Bergstrand at Hertz Studio. The CD was mixed by Matt Hyde (SLAYER) and mastered by Ted Jensen (METALLICA, AC/DC) at Sterling Sound in New York City. The cover art for "The Satanist" was painted by renowned Russian painter and occultist Denis Forkas. The paint used included some of Nergal's own blood. Additional art and design was completed by Metastazis (PARADISE LOST) and Zbigniew Bielak (WATAIN, GHOST). "I wanted to incorporate some of my DNA into the art," Nergal told Australia's Heavy magazine about having his blood included in "The Satanist" artwork. "This album seems to be so defining of who we are now as people and as individuals, and considering all the instances in recent years, [we wanted] to make it more 'ours' than it is usually." In a recent interview with Revolver magazine, Darski described BEHEMOTH's new songs as "very atmospheric" and "very emotional." "Think BURZUM meets NEW ORDER meets KILLING JOKE," he added. But at the same time, fans shouldn't expect the album to sound too far removed from BEHEMOTH's past efforts. "Take SLAYER, for example," Darski said. "Whatever genre they deal with, they still end up sounding like SLAYER. Even when they were flirting with nu-metal, it was a SLAYER record. Same with BEHEMOTH." According to Darski, at least some of the inspiration for the new BEHEMOTH album came from his five-month bout of leukemia he overcame in January 2011, after receiving a bone-marrow transplant. "When I was in the hospital, I was collecting experiences and emotions," he said. "I'm pretty sure that it's coming out now. There are moments I catch myself thinking about how my state was back then. It was me versus life, me versus death. It definitely changed my thoughts a lot. It's 100 percent being reflected in the record and songs I'm writing nowadays. I'm way more radical than I used to be." "The Satanist" track listing: 01. Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel 02. Furor Divinus 03. Messe Noire 04. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer 05. Amen 06. The Satanist 07. Ben Sahar 08. In the Absence ov Light 09. O Father O Satan O Sun!
05 min read

CRADLE OF FILTH To Utilize Two Session Guitarists For European Tour With BEHEMOTH

Manos Spanos
Guitarists Paul Allender and James McIllroy of British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH will both sit out the band's European co-headlining tour with BEHEMOTH due to "hugely important family matters" and "serious neck surgery," respectively. Filling in for them will be Ashok of Czech groups ROOT and INNER FEAR and Richard Shaw of English acts EMPEROR CHUNG and NG26. Comments CRADLE OF FILTH vocalist Dani "Filth" Davey: "It is with considerable amount of sadness and some awful twist of fate that we announce the absence of both Paul and James as CRADLE OF FILTH guitarists on this forthcoming European co-headliner with BEHEMOTH. This horrible and unprecedented turn of events is due to Paul having some hugely important family matters arise and James having his forthcoming serious neck surgery appointment moved forward by a couple of months. "Not wanting to pull the tour so late in the day (and with the awful spectre of the cancelled U.S. tour this time last year looming grimly over us), swift deliberation was made by Martin, Daniel, Lindsay, myself, band management and the Crewdle, to bring in two friends of the band who knew the material as temporary replacements. A long shot at first, this is actually going to keep the band on the road and firing at 100 per cent when we hit Europe at the end of next week. "Paul apologises profusely for his absence, but wanted to let everyone know that he wouldn't desert a tour if it wasn't for something of the gravest importance to his family. And James sent this through to explain the insidious horror he faces… 'Hi Dani, I am heading towards the operation date for the nerve damage in my arm that has been f**king me up for the last few tours, especially the Asia-Australian one last year. I'm kind of ignoring it a bit, as it's a bit weird… Basically, they are slicing my neck open from the front (well, a minor incision) moving all the things in my throat to one side (windpipe, gloopy bits, everything you can imagine), and then replacing the broken disc in my neck with a spanking new plastic one. The same broken disc that has spilt out in to the nerve canal in my neck, quite possibly due to years of excessive onstage head-banging!!! "'Tell everyone I am sorry but if I don't have this done now my head will probably fall off!' "So there you have it! A proper f**king nightmare that we shall endeavour to resolve with all the resolve we can muster. "Our thoughts are with our glum compatriots." 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh", the historic debut album from CRADLE OF FILTH on Cacophonous Records. To honor this momentous occasion, CRADLE OF FILTH is planning a whole smorgasbord of exciting stuff, including the first-ever CRADLE OF FILTH comic, the release of a career-spanning double disc best-of, and, of course, the subsequent touring. The story for CRADLE OF FILTH's upcoming adult comic book was scripted by the comic writer Kurt Amacker (with assistance from the band's singer, Dani Filth). Several artists are in the process of mocking up some example pages for the prospective publishers. Dani previously stated about the project: "I am very excited about this venture, as it promises to be a very adult story woven straight from the CRADLE OF FILTH universe, featuring a liberated Oscar Wilde, the Demoness Lilith, nefarious sexual magickal practices and an errant Suffolk Lord who is in the unenviable process of being charged under 19th-century blasphemy laws, discovering himself engaged in a nightmarish occult netherworld." CRADLE OF FILTH's tenth studio album, "The Manticore And Other Horrors", sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 96 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous full-length effort, "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", opened with 5,800 units in November 2010 to land at No. 99.
04 min read