Behemoth – Nergal

Simply put, ‘atmospheric’ and ‘brutal’ are two words that best describe Behemoth’s sound. Having played an integral part in the European blackened death metal scene, Poland’s finest are back with their latest effort, Evangelion.

Metal Obsession recently had the pleasure to chat with Behemoth front-man Nergal about the band’s latest masterpiece Evangelion and their upcoming tour of Australia in 2010.

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This interview was conducted by Megan Masters, with some questions contributed by Holly McBride.

Metal Obsession: Hello, it’s Megan from Metal Obsession, how are you?
N: Very good, thank you so much. One interview down so far, busy but happy.

MO: You’ve been on a break from touring?
N: We finished a European tour nearly a week ago, we’ve been touring with Devildriver, playing 30-40 shows. It was busy, it was pretty exhausting but it was a great tour and now we are enjoying our time off. It’s good.

MO: I can imagine you are, I understand you have been touring extensively this year.
N: Yeah and we’ll be hitting the road again in January 2010 with Shining and Septic Flesh for a US for a headlining tour.

MO: The new album Evangelion, how has the response been from the media and the fans?
N: To be honest, it’s been better than we expected. This is definitely the ultimate Behemoth album, with the best songs. I am even happier to see that things are going so great. The media love the new record, and in the readers’ polls and stuff that’s coming up that has been posted this year, it’s going to dominate. The biggest European magazines like Metal Hammer and English Kerrang!, we were in the top 5, or Number 1 Album in these magazines.

MO: In that respect, would you consider Evangelion to be more successful than your previous works?
N: Definitely. We did 50% with every other record, and with this we did 100%.

MO: On to the album, the track Shemhamforash, was that inspired by The Satanic Bible?
N: No. Different people will see it in a different context, but it doesn’t relate to Satanism in this respect.

MO: The general theme of the album appears to be religion, both ancient and modern. What religions inspired the album?
N: We’re not really exploring any religious stuff. We do write about different cultures and mythologies, but we’re an anti-religious band and that’s what we focus on, on a certain dimension. But there’s way more other dimensions and with this album, it’s very diverse and it offers a variety of aspects. I always advise people to go through the lyrics, make up their own minds, and come up with their own ideas about it.

MO: What is the meaning of the title Evangelion?
N: It comes from Greek, it means “good message”, or spreading the “Word of God” in a biblical or religious context. We used this as the album title because firstly it is very provocative, especially as a Behemoth album title, and secondly we’ve got our own vision as to what is “divine news”. Ours is that we are divine beings. Again it’s a challenge thrown against any religion and any god. Here we are, human beings, and we’re stronger than you think!

MO: The cover artwork for Evangelion, was it inspired by the Tarot?
N: No. It was inspired by Medieval and 17th- and 18th-century wood carvings. We wanted it to look authentic, almost like an original, and it looks awesome. It doesn’t look like just another heavy metal cliché. I think it’s killer, I love it, and the people love it. The point of us using it was to come up with something that was going to be fresh, different.

MO: I am a Tarot reader [not on a professional level], and was able to see a lot of Tarot symbolism in the cover artwork. I was able to identify about eleven Tarot cards [the Tarot deck contains 78 cards; 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana – read the supplemental at the end of the interview-M.] within the cover artwork.
N: Well, you might be right, and your interpretation is welcome. The main inspiration was the Whore of Babylon, which comes from the New Testament, and that was the main thing. We kind of fucked around with the symbolism around this person, and added some extra things. It’s supposed to represent a very Apocalyptic story, evil and sinister that has its source in the New Testament.

MO: The layout and the photos in the album look awesome. Some of the photos you are pictured with a raven; working with animals [in photo shoots or in film] can often be unpredictable, did you experience any similar issues?
N: Yeah. Animals are the worst to work with. I love animals, but they’re animals, you can’t really control them. But I’m really happy the way the pictures turned out.

MO: You’ve also done a video clip for Ov Fire and the Void. Could you tell us a bit about the video?
N: I generally don’t like talking about lyrics, and music, because it’s there for people to explore and it’s open for any kin d of interpretation. But it’s a great video, and we worked again with Grupa 13, the same people who did The Left Hand Of God, it was two days’ shooting. It’s also very controversial, it was banned after two days, and it was taken off YouTube after two hours of uploading it [the uncensored version].

MO: I think it was probably the nudity in the video clip that caused the video clip to be banned from YouTube.
N: Yeah, nudity, some violence, and some blood. If you combine it all, it’s something that when people see it, they’ll feel like throwing up.

MO: The video clip depicts a fortuneteller setting down four Tarot cards, I was able to identify them as The Tower, Death, The Devil and Judgement. Depending on one’s interpretation, it was almost as though the fortuneteller was foretelling The Apocalypse.
N: Pretty much, that was the intention.

MO: With the lyrical content in Behemoth’s works, it appears that you have done some sort of in-depth study of religion. Do you have any formal qualifications in theology from a historical standpoint?
N: Not really. I have a Masters Degree in history, but I wouldn’t really say that it helps me [with writing lyrics for Behemoth]. I’m not an expert, and I don’t feel like one. It’s a combination of different observations, reflections and our experiences put all together in one place, this is Behemoth and these are our lyrics.

MO: While we’re on the subject; in July 2007, there was a committee in Poland that compiled a list of bands that promoted Satanism and murder, and could be banned from performing live in Poland. Behemoth were allegedly one of the bands on this list. What are your views on this committee and have they made any progress in advancing their cause?
N: I won a case against him, I made him pay a sum of money to a homeless shelter and made him apologise to me for calling me a criminal in public. I know that he is trying to fight with some other bands. He stopped a jazz band whose members were Scientologists, and because of that he stopped their performance, which is crazy. [Poland] is still a backward-thinking country, very conservative and it really pisses me off.

MO: As mentioned before you’re touring again in 2010?
N: Yes. We’re also touring Australia in April with Goatwhore and Job For A Cowboy. It’s going to be a tour of Australia and Japan.

MO: You just answered my next question before I even asked it! That wraps up the interview, any last comments for the Australian fans?
N: Just hope that you pick up Evangelion, it’s out on Riot over there. It’s the first time we’ve had a licensed distributor in Australia so we hope that it will help people get hold of the record. You’ll be at the show in April, yes?

MO: Sure will.
N: See you then, take care.

MO: Cheers, see you then.

Q’s: Megan Masters & Holly McBride
A’s: Adam “Nergal” Darski
Date: 02/12/2009
Origin: Poland
www.myspace.com/behemoth

Metal Obsession Review: Behemoth – Evangelion

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TAROT SYMBOLISM IN EVANGELION
Written by Megan Masters

As mentioned in the above interview, as a Tarot reader (albeit at an intermediate level), I was able to identify Tarot symbolism in the cover artwork for Evangelion.

Of the 78 cards in the Tarot deck, below is a list of cards that I could particularly see in the album cover artwork, from the most obvious to the most subtle:

The Sun
The Moon
The Hierophant
Six of Pentacles
Queen of Cups
Queen of Swords
The High Priestess
Ace of Cups
Ace of Swords
The Empress
Justice
The Magician

The most widely used Tarot deck used by Tarot readers is the Rider-Waite? deck and probably the best example to use as a basis for comparison.

It is interesting to note the position of the sword and the cup –

The woman holds the sword in her right hand, on the same side as the Sun. The suit of Swords in the Tarot is ruled by the element of air, and the interpretation of cards in the suit of Swords are often centred around intellect and logic, rational thought and communication [aspects of human thought which are governed by the left hemisphere of the brain – the left hemisphere of the brain operates the right-hand side of the body]. Air is a masculine element (the other masculine element being fire) – The Sun, with its linear A to B cycle (sun rises, sun sets), is the embodiment of masculine energy. Nearly all pantheons’ Sun deity was a god (with the exception of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess).

The woman holds the cup in her left hand, on the same side as the Moon. The suit of Cups in the Tarot is ruled by the element of water, and the interpretation of cards in the suit of Cups are often centred around intuition, emotion, creativity and interpersonal relationships [aspects of human thought which are governed by the right hemisphere of the brain – the right hemisphere of the brain operates the left-hand side of the body]. Water is a feminine element (the other feminine element being earth) – The Moon, with its cycle of full moon, waning moon, new moon, waxing moon then back to full, is the embodiment of feminine energy (case in point – women’s menstrual cycles are in synch with the lunar cycles – there are 13 lunar months in a year, a woman will have 13 menstrual cycles in a year). Nearly all pantheons’ deity of the Moon was a goddess (with the exception of Tsuki-yomi, the Japanese moon god).

It is fitting to see some resemblance to The High Priestess card; the sword and the cup, are two tools predominantly used in pagan rituals as they symbolically represent the masculine and feminine principle respectively (more often an athame is used instead of an actual sword). Similarly the position of her arms are reminiscent of Justice, and to a lesser extent, The Magician.

The two men kneeling at the woman are reminiscent of the two paupers kneeling at the charitable nobleman in the Six of Pentacles, and the two cardinals kneeling at the high priest in The Hierophant card. The expression on the woman’s face could be interpreted as saying: “Behold my power, bow down and worship me.” Sure, there are many women in the world who probably wish they possessed such charisma.

Further, in the video clip for Ov Fire And The Void, a fortuneteller draws four Tarot cards and sets them down on the table in front of her. The first card is The Tower; the second card is Death; the number on third card was obscured but had the glyph for the astrological sign Capricorn, which is represented by the goat – Capricorn corresponds with The Devil card in the Tarot; the last card drawn was Judgement.

The Tower is usually depicted as a lighthouse or other like structure being struck by lightning; rubble falls from the point of impact and a man and a woman are falling head first towards the ground. The Tower is the 16th card in the Major Arcana. Death is usually depicted as an armoured skeleton on horseback, or a skeleton with a scythe. Death is the 13th card in the Major Arcana. (surprise, surprise!) The Devil often depicts the devil in the classic sense – horned, hoofed, with goat’s horns. A man and a woman are shackled by the neck to a podium upon which the Devil stands, symbolic of being obsessed with something to the extent that they have become bound to it (however they are not shackled tightly so they could always free themselves from their binds). The Devil is the 15th card in the Major Arcana. Judgement depicts the Archangel Michael in the heavens sounding his trumpet, and on Earth, in the foreground a man, woman and child are rising from their graves, and similarly the dead are rising from their caskets in the background. Judgement is the 20th card in the Major Arcana.

In a divinatory sense, the “reading” as in the video clip foretells of sudden and rapid change as seen in The Tower card. Death card embodies the saying, “out with the old, in with the new”. Death is also a card of change, and seldom represents actual death in a reading – it usually indicates the end of a life chapter and the beginning of another. The Devil card is the embodiment of temptation and of being seduced by the material world, the seeking of fulfilment in acquiring new “toys”. It also indicates suspicion of something new or different, or committing oneself to a job or relationship for the wrong reasons. The Judgement card can have many meanings;  the dead are literally rising – it could mean Judgement in the biblical sense, or a new lease of life – the dead are getting another crack at life, a second chance – rebirth. Another interpretation is that Judgement could indicate that one has outgrown something in their life and that aspect needs to be cast off, which brings us back to The Tower and Death cards – refusal to cast off that aspect brings us back to The Devil card. As the “reading” in the video clip should be interpreted on a more worldwide context, it could be foretelling the dreaded Apocalypse, the end of the world, or the beginning?