Busy times for Behemoth.

Nergal: Great man , I feel this is our best collection of songs yet. It may be a bit slower then you’re expected from us, but at the same time it’s way more aggressive, in fact I think it’s our most aggressive record ever.’

‘Yeah. Basically we wanted to make a record with songs WE would be fans when listening to. Back then The Apostasy was more a natural step forward from where demigod was, whereas this CD really breaks the boundaries. We use refreshing and also challenging arrangements, technically more fast paced playing, but on the other hand we still have the more primitive chords. We just wanted a whole other approach, when I’m listening to extreme metal nowadays, everything is flat, boring. In comparison: bands like Slayer, Morbid Angel or Metallica didn’t had that boring flat sound in the 90’s. like every song was different. For this record I also wanted that ‘rock’ approach, In wanted every song to stand on its own you know? And I think we achieved that.’

‘I really don’t know, basically there always is a ‘core’ which spawns influences on every record. There is what you expected from us; biblical references, quotations and various statements. But on Evangelion those statements are bigger. The universal message is, there is no devil nor god, No more good or evil, you create your own good and evil , your own reality from scratch. You have the power to build up your own values, uncompromising and plain and simple. Evangelion comes from Greek, and it means spreading the word of god or spreading the good news. Well this is our good news! My vision is that there we are not on the other side of the barricade, in fact, there should be no barricade! People always think in black and white, and we can be easily designated as the black side, but we are not! Behemoth never gives answers though, we give seeds.’

‘Anything man, talking to someone, watching a movie, what I see or do, basically any experience. Some bands claim that they’re heavily influenced by for example word war 2, and then all they do is sing about the bloody war. Not Behemoth, I can find a song on every level of existence. It’s pretty abstract, there is no formula for me, anything works.’

‘Well for the first time ever, we had to do pre production for this record. Which was fucking awesome! We adapted this way of working and it turned out great. After pre producing the tracks (which already did sound awesome) we went in the studio well prepared, although I do leave some space for improvisation for me and the guys. We did 3 months of tracking then, and after that 3,5 weeks in mixing down. So this was our longest ever, since it was close to 4 months.’

‘I agree, but you can overdo it. Seriously, if I had the money, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now, but still be in the studio, Haha, The other day I was talking to a good friend of me, regarding the record. And he gave me brilliant golden words, he said to me: ‘some people just need deadlines’.’

‘Yeah, you could say that.’

‘Man, I am excited! The Rockstar Mayhem tour. Supporting Marylin Manson and Slayer. That truly is a privilege to us. It’s like the absolute peek of what you can do to us. Also there is a lot of other killer stuff going on during the tour! My First signature guitar (the ESP) is going on sale! The record coming out in August, also the video which will be released soon. And I can tell you that the last video was special and had it all, well this video overdoes it. It really does. So we all are pretty psyched actually. We’re going to do a lot of crazy shit, and we are more ready than ever.’

‘Yeah, It should be fun. Most of the bands already are good friends to us, and basically a tour like that is like camping. We do a 30 minute set, and after that we just can do whatever we want; have a few drinks, have a BBQ, work out, whatever. We’re also doing a promo during mayhem which should be fun. Basically touring like that is like vacation to me.’

‘Well yeah there is! In Europe mainly heavy metal people come to heavy metal shows. Which is a good thing, haha. But here in the US, man everybody looks different, and you have a bunch of freaks here too haha. And we have a Sinister plan for the Mayhem tour; see what we want to do is steal all the Manson fans haha. But I want to make clear that I do enjoy playing both, I don’t have a preference or whatsoever.’

‘Thank you very much, I feel stoked about it! At the other hand I had to walk the red carpet in full stage armor, which was cheesy and I hated it. But the good part is, it wasn’t people in suits and ties calling the vote, it were people and fans. Which makes it rewarding and well worth the cause! It also is our first award, so to us it felt good and was really motivating.’

‘Well you know what, Back when we started, black metal was slow and epic stuff. And I didn’t feel it was true to the feeling. And I’m the biggest fucking Hammerheart fan! So I thought, who cares, let’s make it faster. And incorporate more influences. And I am well aware of the fact that there are people, who loved are older material, but kinda thought the rest was lame. And I know that there’s people who respect are older material , but love the new stuff! So whatever, I really don’t care. Back then we were babies compared to now, we didn’t even know how to play our instruments properly.’

‘I do a lot of sports, jogging , swimming , whatever keeps me in shape. Actually I’m addicted to physical activity. I’m also a big movies freak, I go to the cinema twice a week. Next to that, it’s pretty much the casual stuff.’

‘First off all, Holland can expect a blasting show alongside with devil driver, I believe in October or November. So prepare yourself. Next to that there is a new video on the way in, I believe early August. It was the best one we ever did, like I said man, it easily overdoes our previous video. So Behemoth is on fire, and we’d love to bring that fire to you soon.’

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