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BEHEMOTH : interview with Nergal
phoner by Gary Saul____ July 2007
organized by Irascible Distribution, gryphonmetal.ch (Gary Saul and dalia di giacomo)
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THE GODDESS OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION AND CREATION
Hey Nergal this is Gary From Gryphonmetal. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. Just very busy with the band leaving this evening for the upcoming North American shows. Readying our crew and things like that. Well, I'd just like to start off by saying that I'm a big fan of Behemoth, so this is a real treat to be able to interview. Thanks you for that and for the support of the band.
So, with the release of the new album for North America quickly approaching [ July 17th 2007 ] , and it already having been released in Europe, everyone I'm sure is wondering what can we expect from the new album "The Apostasy" . I mean in terms of the overall sound and any differences between "Demigod" and the new album "The Apostasy". Well, firstly this album is more organic than the other albums. It's very atmospheric , but it's also the most brutal and extreme album we've ever done. This album has all the factors that we are familiar with , but the catch to this album is it's more organic.
I see... With the start of the Ozzfest looming near and this being Behemoth's first time ever on the Ozzfest ,what are some of your feelings and expectations regarding this tour? Very enthusiastic. We are totally excited about this deal, and also the fact that, um, whoever is in charge of booking these shows... I mean these people have to have huge balls to bring bands like Nile and Behemoth , you know ,and exposing this dangerous and extreme metal music to the masses. And I absolutely think it's... It's simply awesome. It's very special, you know, there are millions of bands out there that are waiting in line you know to be added to the deal. It's like a dream coming true. It's going to be the highest peak of our career so far. That's for sure. I think it's a great occasion to show all these people who have probably never heard genres like Death and Blackmetal and show them that this music exists and that this music is really fucking well. Yes I agree that this is a huge opportunity for Behemoth to expose their music to a broader audience and to make people aware of this type of music and it's validity as genre of music to be recognized. Also what are your thoughts on having the probability of more commercial success as a result of playing Ozzfest? You know what man? it's been said we aren't the average act. We aren't trying to steal you money like other bands. you know we realized that behemoth would be playing in the middle of the day, a full set , among all these christian and emo bands. And you know what? We didn't give a fuck. We just went there, we we're on the stage , we did nothing else but being ourselves. We played our music. We picked out the most fucking extreme songs. and you know what. We made people love this stuff. And thats gonna happen often. We dont regret the fact that... ( static ) We are gonna step up... (static) ...(phone call is dropped) ( unfortunately the phone call at this moment, due to a bad international connection i believe, was lost. I spent the next 2 minutes frantically trying to reach Nergal again . Alas and most fortunately I succeeded )
Hey Nergal this is Gary again from GM. I apologize , my phone call was dropped for some reason... ...It's cool It's cool ,man okay great. I'm sorry if you have to repeat yourself but the last part I heard before the call was dropped was you saying you picked out the most extreme songs and... Yea Yea... Well you know, We dont really mind I mean there are things like commercial success and stuff , it's all abstract. Of course, we are just here to make this thing , this band as big as possible, and most of all stay strong and honest to ourselves . Do our job , you know I mean stick to it. Just to be honest and to play the best music. That was the first thing that touched my mind . We cannot forget that it is the need to play this music that brought us here to this place. So, we dont want to turn into some rockstar Blackmetal band whatsoever. We are the same band and we just want to go out there and expose this music in front of masses and to just prove the quality and to deliver that quality and honesty. That's the whole thing man, and i'm pretty sure people will easily notice who is fucking around and who is delivering sincerity. I was able to listen to a promo copy of the new album . I must say , but not to hash up the old black metal deathmetal debate, but it seems very reminiscent of Blackmetal. In terms of the overall atmosphere and vibe on this release. Yea I would say that particularly this one is a bit more atmospheric and i dont know if it is Blackmetal or Death metal . To be honest I really stopped giving a single thought for that, you know, because it's not my job. My job is to play the best music i can. Your job is to label this music. So maybe you are right. I dont agree and I dont disagree. I think you might be right. I definitely agree that this is a more atmospheric record and being at the same time the most insane record we have ever recorded. Exactly. Maybe labeling it "Blackmetal" is the wrong thing. It's just that Blackmetal is usually very atmospheric and it seems that this album may have that in common with Blackmetal. Well Gary you know what? Most blackmetal bands when they use all of this extra instrumentation like orchestrations and stuff . It usually waters down the brutality of the music. What we choose to do is add all of this extra instrumentation without losing the edge, without diluting the core of this music , and the core of this music is superfast blast beats and brutal guitar. This is the base of the music. It is what we base our arrangements on. In support of your last Album "Demigod" I heard that you played something like 250 shows ... 300 300? Wow that is an amazing amount to play! yea , i know well that is new to me. Do you plan to tour that extensively this time around? Definitely. We are going to do at least 200 shows for this record but this time we are simply going to bigger tours. Before we would do like 150 shows on one tour and then do like smaller tours of 50 shows. That work had to be done back then though, and because of that work we are in a different place right now, then we are going to end up on bigger tours and we are definitely not just going to slow down and say " okay we have reached this level and we are just going to stay here". No, we are actually going to try to push ourselves. We are going to try to do at least 250 shows for this record. We are hard workers and well i dont think i can think of anything that can actually stop us now. Is there any kind of general theme to this album at all? Not really but i think that all of the songs are loosely linked with one another, but there is no real concept. I'll say that there is some conceptuality to it. But it is the same that is behind every song. This album though stand for individuality. It stands for sticking to your gut and yourself and staying independent. Thats what alot of our songs stand for. There are definitely millions of ideas about what they are about. But i always advise people to just go through the lyrics and make up their own minds about what they mean to them. Create your own image. ...so just their own interpretation. oh yea ! oh yea! The album cover artwork on this release seems very rich in symbolism and meaning. It appears to run in the same vein as other Behemoth covers. Actually, who does the artwork for your album covers? He is the same guy. His name is Graal. Like "Holy Grail" (laughs). I agree this one is very symbolic but, the way we did it is slightly different. We hardly used pen and brush. I mean we did a bit. But the front cover is very organic. Its a real statue. It was sculpted and then we took a picture of this. So i think this cover stands out more than any other Behemoth cover. Yes i totally agree. It is very ,umm, real since it is actually a photograph. I have to sat that it is probably some of the best artwork i've seen on an album cover. I noticed the figure on there is six armed with a deformed head and talons in place of feet. Is this supposed to be Pazuzu? Which i know is one of the titles of a track on this album? It's actually an expression of the Hindu Goddess Kali. The Goddess of death and destruction and creation. oh okay i see. That is very interesting! Also, are there any guest appearances on this album ? Like Karl Sanders of Nile on the last album? Yes! We have many guest actually. We have all these people who did the choir and brass sections. You know we had this element before but this is the first time that we have used real people doing the real thing. So this makes this record deeper than the others. We also have Warrel Dane from Nevermore. He sings on the song "Inner Sanctum". Also, this guy called Leszek Mozdzer who is like a really big jazz pianist here in Poland. He did some of the piano on the "Inner Sanctum" song. So , yea we have some great guests here. The production on the new album is astounding ... I noticed that you can hear everything on even plane. You can hear the drums and cymbals and the guitars and vocals all as well as each other and overall the production seems very tight and superb. Who produced and mixed the album? Well it is usually me who produces the album . Then we bring the tracks to Sweden and have them mixed by this other guy. The record was mastered by this guy name Beorne. This guy was in charge of bands like Rammstein and like Samael so both guys did an awesome job. I agree. This albums is very organic. It also is at the same time very straight forward. Very brutal with an extreme sound. I agree that you can hear everything. All of the instruments very clear and at the same time very heavy. I like this combination. There are like millions of bands out there that are very brutal but you can't hear it clearly. Then you have bands that you can hear crystal clear but they lack brutality. We want to combine these two elements man . I want Behemoth fans, when they listen to us, actually have pleasure when listening to it. I don't want them to struggle with the record. You know, as you said you have used live recorded vocal choirs and horn section on this record. To me it compliments the music very much. It gives it this epic feeling and vibe to it. which in turn make it that much more brutal.... I agree! Even with the piano. I dont think you have done that on previous records with real choirs ect. What prompted you to want to do that on this record? Well, actually we did use it but we didn't do it "live" back then. Usually it was just synthesizers. I mean Demigod had horns on the opening part of the album and we have horns on this album but it's real people doing it this time. It fits in with the whole organic concept of the album. We wanted this record to sound as natural and acoustic as we can. That is why i used all of these elements and kind of avoided using all the synths and computer generated sounds. Well... it looks like my time is up, sadly , so I just want to say that it has been a true and honest pleasure speaking with you . As i said before I am a big fan of Behemoth so I'm actually looking forward to seeing you guys on tour. Yes you will have to make it to one of our shows! Well what can i say man? Thank you for your support and your time spent listening to the band. ...this was also my first time doing an interview ,ever, so it this was extra special.... oh so it's like we took your virginity (laughter) ..... well I also want to thank you on the behalf of Gryphonmetal magazine! Well thank you so much for your time and , like i said, i am looking foreward to seeing you guys out on tour. So hopefully I will get a chance to speak with you again in the future Yea totally man Okay bye! Bye Bye man.
Gary Saul
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