The Apostasy Of Behemoth
In the last three years, Behemoth was, and still is, one of the bussiest bands around. When its members don't tour they record, and when they don’t record they… tour. It's hard to comprehend how does this outfit manage to maintain such an aggressive and brutal stage show while delivering songs from it's entire repertoire of albums, from the early black metal demos and albums to the it's latest releases.
Speaking of new releases, "The Apostasy" is the latest one from this Polish bunch, and though it does not top the band's previous effort – Demigod, it's still a very interesting piece – combing many elements unheard of in the band's music as of now. Right before it came out, we caught up with the band's vocalist and main-man, Nergal, to converse about the new album, their planned Ozzfest appearances, and their latest shows in Israel among other things… And we even got threatened!
Hello Nergal, I know it's hard to get a hold of you since you're doing concerts all the time. Are you in a middle of a tour or something right now? What is the band doing these days?
Actually we have some time off right now, and then we will start maybe the longest tour in our career, we're starting with some European festivals, then Ozzfest, then a Polish tour, European Tour, American Tour and then to New Zeeland, and it's already December. It's going to be very exciting.
When you entered the studio back in December, you were quite confident about the upcoming songs and recording session. What made you stay over there for such a long time until you were satisfied with the results?
It just takes time to get things done. I like to relax, I hate working in stress, that's why sometimes it takes me around 100 times to get the right guitar tone or guitar note, sometimes it just doesn't sound cool so you do it more times… So… *Laughs*… Everything takes time. I just realized that most of the time with Black Metal bands people are used to the fact they do records in 3 or 4 weeks, we are totally not like that, Behemoth likes to take its time in order to make things happen the right way.
I don't think we really record an album, I think we give birth to records, that's the very difference. It's never easy, it's never smooth, and it's never just like that. Every time it gets worse and worse, because our level of satisfaction gets harder and harder to get and we seem to do better and better records every time, so it's always kind of hard to come out with new ideas and shit. With this new album, "The Apostasy", it really knocked us dead, there's like a million new things going on, you got new instruments and many things that we never used before. It all takes time in the studio.
In comparison to previous albums, how does "The Apostasy" differ regarding contributions by the other band members in regards to song writing and arrangements?
To be honest it's pretty much the same. I brought all the ideas to the table, and then we decided together in which direction to go. I'm the main song-writer, but the guys are really experienced, they have good taste and it's good to work with them… I really depend on their opinion.
Does "The Apostasy" continue on the same concept as in "Demigod"? What can we expect to find, theme and lyrics wise?
The lyrics are always very diverse, but I think that this time it's even more than in "Demigod". It's just crazy man, I deal with different stuff here, from personal stuff to more basic things. We got songs like "Pazuzu" which gives a whole feeling of this, with mythologies, history, and the Occult, and then we got songs like "Christgrinding Avenue" or "Kreigphilosophy", which pretty much are hate songs and songs that reflect our act towards religions. Then you got songs like "Inner Sanctum" which are more like reflections, more in-depths, more retrospective. It seems like this time we deal with more diverse stuff.
From first impression of the new record, I can hear that you took a more primitive approach to your death metal, but on the other hand, you put in a lot of modern influences and components. How did this change come to be? Was it something intentional?
Not really, I think that everything we did came naturally. We never sit down and decide "let's go this way or that way". I like what you said about the record, in a way, it's more barbaric, and especially when you hear the sound and everything, it feels like it's out of control. Then on the other hand, there's some distinct things going on there, like this bombastic militant, in times a more epic approach for the record. Like I said, there's more extreme atmosphere in this record: on one hand you have songs that are totally out of control, insane and drastic, and then you got songs that are groovier and more atmospheric. I think it's a cool balance; I personally get bored if the album is just brutal from the first second to last, or just fast, because at the end of the day it makes it slow with no dynamics. I think there are very good dynamics in "The Apostasy".
The album cover artwork is very unique, and I can see it mainly represents the Hindu goddess Kali. What made you choose for the new album?
I was in Nepal lately and I visited the Temple of Kali, and this inspired me to use it on the cover of the new album. I think Behemoth has always been leaning towards Paganism with the songs, but with this Hindu mythology or pantheon, I thought it was something cool and new. The figure on the cover was inspired by Kali, but we always try to take it to a new level, just develop it into something new, to give it a new quality, that's why we changed the face, we put the mask that I use on the photos and it looked cool.
Was it made as a statue of some sort, or it is a digital work?
Yes, it's actually a picture of a real statue. In the past times we used to do digitalized covers like "Demigod" or "Zus Kia Kultus" which was great of course, but this time we decided to use something – same with music and everything – that would be more organic.
It seems that since Satanica you've put a lot of different myths and knowledge into your lyrics. What books influenced the writing of songs such as "Decade Of Therion" or Thelema.6's "Vinum Sabbati"?
The influences may come from anywhere, it may come from books that I just read, it may come from difficult experience I just had, it depends. Some of the stuff on the new record I wrote with this "automatic writing", which is stuff that naturally comes out of you, and if your sub-conscious dictates you what to write, you just write so you don't really think about it. But some of the songs were inspired by books I've read, or by trips that I did and the places that I've been to. It's very varied.
Songs such as "Slave Shall Serve" from "Demigod" use a lot of ancient middle-eastern religious terms, such as the Jins and Khem. What is your interest in our local history?
To be honest, we are unlike Nile or Melechesh and bands like that; Behemoth is not really keen on history. If you look at our mythological names, and incantations and spells, I use them for certain reason, I use them to express my attitude, my opinion about something. I use this name [Nergal] just to strength that spirit… I find it very strong and very inspirational. If I use some of these names, they have power that channel through them, so I pretty much use them just as expression. You should treat them more as metaphors, that's why there's so many different things in our lyrics. With Nile it's just about Egypt and with Melechesh its all about Sumerian… (I think, I don't know this band very well)… And then Behemoth puts fucking everything, because everything I find and interests me in person, I just use it.
You have some references in your lyrics to the Jewish Cabbala. How do you view those writings, and do you consider it's teachings to be fact or just literary?
Basically, I always try to get distanced. We didn't use Cabbala before, but when we did it was just because of Christopher (Krysztof Azarewicz) who was a co-writer for Behemoth, he was very into this, and he is still into this – so especially on "Demigod" there was a lot of Kabala, where we had Hebrew writings and such.
Speaking of "Demigod", I was wondering about the opening riff in "Conquer All". Was it made in tribute to Anthrax and their song "Be All, End All" or do they just remind me of one another?
*Laughs* No man… I just made it, but it happened to sound similar to the one Anthrax used. You know, I believe that every riff was actually written before… I don't know every band, I don't know every song – because if I did, then I would make no music because everything has been written so far. Behemoth is not about inventing or being original for the sake of being original, I like music that I want to listen to myself and that's it. That is all I care about.
The album ["Demigod"] was huge success for Behemoth. Looking back on everything you did since its release, are you satisfied with what happened to the band?
Totally, it was beyond my expectations! It was much bigger than what I thought it would be.
Do you think that with the new album you can take the band even further?
We're already taking it further than "Demigod", and it's not even started… *Laughs*… The biggest thing we can think of is Ozzfest, and with the new record we also got a Japanese deal that we could not get before, because they never liked our records. So "The Apostasy" is already opening many doors for us.
You said before that you didn't mean intentionally to move Behemoth from being a black metal band, to be a death metal one. What do you say or think about people who were fans of your earlier work and are not into your current incarnation or vise versa?
When you see us live, you see a band that performs songs from the very early career, but then we play new songs that are from our new record. I think that with this band, to capture the whole of it, you don't have to divide our history into periods – you are black metal, you are death metal – it's just all categories, it's just all labels, we don't need that.
I think it's all about quality and sincerity, and we are like that – I respect every single aspect of this band and every period is important for me. You can say that we are this, or we are that, but I don't really think it's necessary, I think that we, as a band and artistically, are beyond genres. I actually like that people have problems labeling Behemoth… *Laughs*… I think that it's positive.
Now let's get down to business. It's been some time since your show here in Israel… what do you remember of that time, the show, your trip to northern Israel and such, in comparison to all the places you have been to so far around the world.
Actually you should know that Israel is one of my favorite places. Personally I think you have one of the most kind and warmest crowds, and it's been the best show we ever played there. We played 2 shows, and I've been there 3 times, because I did the Salem show. All 3 shows and this [last] one especially were awesome. I loved it; you can see that we had so much fun on stage. And the way people treat us there – we had a very warm welcome, it's just awesome. I love coming back there also because of the weather, the climate; I love it since it's always nice.
Besides that I also like the sights, and the whole historical approach, its just makes Israel the perfect place to visit, not just for show, but also as tourist. I would love to come back there again and if we get a chance in a couple of years we're defiantly going to take it, we're defiantly going to come back and play for you and we'll visit other places. I've already been to many places in Israel and I've even written a song about it, "Christgrinding Avenu" which is about Jesus Christ and Jerusalem. This time we visited "Har Megiddo", "Nazareth" and "Caesarea", and I was blown away. I love this country man!
I remember you took a picture in Jerusalem with this big upside-down wooden cross… Did you use it in any way?
*Laughs*… No, no no… But I think it was a cool picture.
Is it just a coincidence or did you plan to come here just before releasing something new? It also happened last time before the "Demigod" album.
Yeah, it's just a coincidence… I'm sorry but for some reason we got these offers right in time before a new record comes out, I don't know why, but I'm happy with it now because we still played songs from the new record and now I don't know when will be the earliest we can play in Israel next time – probably next summer – and it feels like a long time, so I'm happy that we did it.
The whole point with your [Israel's] situation is kind of unstable and we've been already warned like a million times: "Hey guys, if we make this show, we really need to make sure it's the right time, and there's no war or something". In the past parents didn't like their kids to go to shows, because its high risk, and in Israel you can never know – so if we get a chance to do a show, I think that we should do it, because we don't know what next day brings.
While Behemoth's albums are extremely fast, some people may believe that's achieved through studio tampering, but unlike most bands out there, you guys manage to double your speed while doing a live performance. How is that humanly possible to achieve? What measures do you take to become that extreme on-stage?
That's true *Laughs*… I don't know what measures we take; it's just adrenaline, its testosterones – that's what makes this music so fucking crazy live. I see the crowd, I see the chicks in the crowd, and everyone's faces and the heat and I just go fucking insane, same for each member of the band. It's unstoppable, it's out of control.
How do you feel about performing in Ozzfest this year?
Man, this is the dream… It's like a dream comes true, what can I say, I'm totally stoked, I'm excited to be part of this awesome tour, and sharing the stage with killer bands like Lamb Of God or Hatebreed… It's awesome. We're playing at the same festival with Ozzy Osbourne, and delivering the craziest and most insane heavy music known to mankind to all this crowd who might not know what to expect from Behemoth. It gives us more power, it's going to be crazy and I can't wait to start that tour!
With all the touring and album recordings, do you have any time for your personal life?
Nah… We don't have time for personal lives. But you know, there's something for something. I would be a fool if I would say that I regret something… I regret nothing, I live my life the best I could, and I do my best every time.
Did you learn or listen or even met some of our local bands on the road?
I was in touch with some bands. Of course I know Salem, they are cool guys. I have some really bad memory so probably I know some bands but can't remember their names… Oh, there's Orphaned Land! And actually the last time I heard this band was very exciting – They make good music, very interesting music.
It seems you like the eastern influences…
Oh yes, big time! That's what we kind of tried to do with "The Apostasy". We didn't want to overdo it, but you can hear there's some eastern stuff in it that.
Well that’s it for the Interview, any final threats to the people of Israel?
Israel has been super-supporting for us, and I hope it's not going to change, I have deep faith that you guys who buy the new record not gonna be disappointed, and I hope you would like the band even more than before. All I want to say is thank you for your time, dedication, support and all the love we got from you… So I promise you, that you all gonna get it back when the right time hits.
… Now that's a threat! Well, thanks for the Interview!
No problem. Have a good day. Cheers!
