Behemoth – Adam “Nergal” Darski

Behemoth will soon be returning to Australian shores next week in support of their latest album ‘Evalgelion’ and will also be supporting Goatwhore, Job For a Cowboy and The Amenta on a joint Australian tour, respectively. Metal Obsession recently had the chance to speak with Nergal, to discuss his latest trial in Poland and of course the upcoming tour of Australia next week.

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Metal Obsession: How have things been?

Nergal: Everything’s good, we’re getting ready for the Australian/Japanese tour, with Goatwhore and Job For A Cowboy, which is the main reason you’re calling… We’re definitely looking forward to returning to Australia, we’ve had nothing but good experiences in Australia, I spent a vacation there in Australia and made a lot of friends there. There are many reasons why we want to come back.

MO: How did your tour with Septic Flesh go in the US?

N: It went much better than expected. The US market is getting weaker and weaker, it’s overloaded with tours, albums, everything. Things are going crazy there, kids start losing track, it gets too much. It’s very hard for them to make the right choice. For us going there, not having that strong package, it was us, Septic Flesh who are not very well known over there yet, so a bit risky.

But we had from 400-1000 people at every show, the average was probably about 500 people. It made the tour very beneficial for everyone. It was risky but it was our first proper headlining tour so no question about it, it was a great choice. It was good to see how much we were worth over there.

MO: Over the last week or so, Australian fans have expressed concern that the tour may be affected due to news reports on the Internet that you were formally charged in Poland for insulting the Catholic Church. Is there anything you want to say on the record to reassure the Australian fans that the tour is going ahead as planned?

N: I will be facing a trial, but it will be happening in probably around May, so there is no way that it will affect the tour. We’ve got our visas so there is no question. We are coming back to Australia, we WILL be doing the tour, and probably considering the circumstances and the fact that I’m facing a trial, it’s going to make the tour even more pissed off, which means better.

[Although Nergal has been charged with an offence under Polish law, the nature of such charges are essentially a Blasphemy law, and the law of Blasphemy does not exist in Australian law.

Further, Section 116 of the Australian Constitution precludes the Federal Government from passing legislation in respect of religion. The full text of the s116 can be read here. No laws, either under statute or common law, can be passed preventing the granting of a visa on the basis of one’s religion (or lack thereof) and any proposed change to the Constitution has to be put to a referendum.]

MO: Will much of the set be from Evangelion or will there be older tracks in the set list as well?

N: Definitely. There will be a cross-section from all our records, I don’t think we’ll be playing anything from Pandemonic Incantations or Grom. There’s going to be a batch of songs from the early days to the more recent albums. There’s going to be a nice blend of material from all the records.

We’re going to introduce the younger fans to our older stuff, we’re going to play almost half the songs from Evangelion, we’re going to play some songs from The Apostasy, we’re going to play songs that we haven’t played in twelve years, we’re going to play a song from Satanica that we stopped playing a long time ago. There’s going to be some surprises. I’m looking forward to this tour, and people should definitely be fucking excited about it.

MO: Will you wearing those costumes onstage from the Evangelion photos?

N: You’ll see. You’ll be surprised.

MO: Can Australian audiences who saw you on your last tour in 2007 expect a different presentation, a different show this time around?

N: Yes. With this tour, it’s going to be much different from anything we’ve done in the past. Production-wise, and everything around that, will be different. Just wait and see. I don’t want to talk too much about things that will be happening on the stage. Just wait and be surprised..

MO: In Australia, there has been a mixed reaction with the choice of bands that you’re co-headlining with...

N: I know. I know what you’re going to ask me. You know what, Job For a Cowboy are a very talented band. They’re awesome guys. We’ve known them for years now and we’ve done a couple of tours with them. Goatwhore is probably a much closer band to Behemoth, they’ll be more fitting to the concept much better.

It’s all about delivering something that’s going to be interesting for people, and I’m down for that. That’s what we’ve been trying to maintain for the last couple of years. We’ve been trying to avoid these straight black metal or death metal tours. We are trying to bring some diversity on the bill.

If you can piss some people off that’s awesome, but I can assure you that there will be more people that will be happy with this combination of bands. We played a few shows with Goatwhore with Suffocation and DevilDriver in the US. I can assure you that as a live band they are awesome live, they kick ass. Everyone in Behemoth is a fan of Goatwhore. When we’ve played Australia we’ve had The Amenta, who are an awesome band, and we’ve had Psycroptic I believe and it was all good. This time we’ve decided to make it more international, more diverse.

MO: What would you say to the Behemoth fans who felt that they were being pushed out of their comfort zone?

N: It’s all about metal. It’s all about entertainment, it’s all about diversity and I have nothing more to say.

MO: What will you guys be doing after the Australia/Japan tour?

N: We’ll be playing a few festivals, some of the most prestigious festivals in Europe, we’ll be playing some shows with Metallica, which is big for us and we’re pretty excited about it, we’ll be doing a three-week run with Decapitated throughout Europe, including our shows and European festivals.

In the meantime we’re also working on the next DVD, it’s going to be a monster. A three-disc release, a huge booklet. A restrospective, over the last two or three albums, and recordings of some live shows. There will be five hours of material. There will be some re-releases coming. We’re planning to re-release some EPs, Demigod and in the meantime we are writing the first-ever official biography of Behemoth. Just stay tuned, there will be plenty of things coming from the Behemoth camp.

MO: There was also mention of re-releasing a limited edition of Evangelion with the inclusion of your own design of the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. Is that still on the cards [excuse the pun]?

N: We are planning to do that. We still don’t know when, because our schedule is getting tighter. It looks like we have less and less time. But we’ll definitely going to do something in the Fall [northern Fall – October/November].

MO: That wraps up the interview, any last comments?

N: We’re very excited, Behemoth are going to arrive in a few days, and just get your asses ready – we’re going to kick it. Thank you so much for the interview.

Q’s: Megan Masters
A’s: Adam “Nergal” Darski
Date: 29/03/2010
Origin: Poland
www.behemoth.pl
www.myspace.com/behemoth

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Make sure to check out Behemoth next week on their upcoming Australian tour with Job For a Cowboy, Goatwhore and The Amenta.

The Amenta will be playing at the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane shows.

Monday 12th April – Capitol Perth 18+
www.moshtix.com.au

Tuesday 13th April – Fowlers Live Adelaide All Ages
www.venuetix.com.au

Wednesday 14th April – Billboard Melbourne 18+
www.billboardthevenue.com.au

Friday 16th April – Metro Sydney All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au

Saturday 17th April – HiFi Brisbane 18+
www.thehifi.com.au

For more information, go to:  www.behemoth.pl – www.myspace.com/behemoth