Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Behemoth - Vocalist/guitarist Nergal

If there's a more vile, evil looking and sounding band than Behemoth going today, I implore you to let me know about them. With the release of their 2009 album, Evangelion, the Polish blackened death metallers have set the new standard for extreme metal. According to vocalist/guitarist, Nergal, “'Evangelion' is a Greek term meaning 'Good News' and usually refers to the biblical stories of God saving humanity, Jesus and his substitutionary death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.” Ever blasphemous, ever extreme, the album is career-defining from start to finish.

Just after the album's release, Behemoth took part in the second annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, playing the Hot Topic Extreme stage during the blazing hot U.S. summer. Even in broad daylight, the band's on stage corpse-paint is scary as hell. Hours after their ripping, fist-pumping set at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA., Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki and crew sat down with vocalist/guitarist Nergal. In an interesting interview, Nergal talks about Evangelion, Satanism and all things Behemoth.

Live-Metal.net: First of all, you guys absolutely killed it out there today. You were my favorite band over there today, by far.

Nergal: Oh, thank you. Thanks for saying that.

Evangelion. When you get the record, in the booklet you’ve got the pronunciation there. We try to make it easy to people. We did the same for Apostasy. It’s an English name, so I was actually surprised that there’s people in the U.S. that are having problems with the pronunciation of some of the words, so we were like, “You know what? We’re gonna make your life easier.”

Talk about the meaning of the album title. I was doing a little research when I was writing a review of the album. What is the meaning? It’s a Greek term?

Yeah, it comes from Greek. Usually, it’s been used in a Biblical context. It’s a term that stands for Gospel or spreading the word of God, spreading the good news. Of course, in a Christian tradition, that’s what it means. We are known for the fact that we like to twist different meanings and add maybe a new meaning to already existing terms. So that’s where we picked up this title, because it’s so powerful and so strong. Evangelion is something that even people that are not really educated in any religious way, they know that Evangelion stands for something sacred for Christians, and I felt that Behemoth using this kind of term, this kind of word for an album title is gonna be already pretty fucking disturbing and blasphemous, so I just couldn’t resist and I think it’s an awesome title. It’s very powerful. It’s strong. It’s awesome. It’s epic. It definitely matches with the messages we try to come across with this album.

Lyrically and even musically, you guys are so extreme it almost seems like you’re out to single-handedly destroy Christianity. I wrote that, I think, in my last couple reviews of your albums. I’ve never really seen it in the press or anything—are you a Satanic band? Do you practice Satanism?

What does it mean to practice Satanism?

See, if you give me a definition, I’ll tell you if we do it or not.

My philosophy is that the true human nature has a Satanic aspect, especially us growing in a Western civilization that was inspired—it wasn’t inspired, it was fuckin’ dominated with Christianity. We kind of see things in a certain way, a Christian way because that was inbred. That’s what we were raised with. So that’s how I see it. Either we want it or not, we’re gonna always have the guilt and the sin and evil/good in the back of our heads. But if you really study the name Satanism and Satan, what it comes from and what it means, basically it means the opponent, someone who oppose, someone who rebels against certain values. I think that human nature is already Satanic. So in this sense we are a Satanic band, of course. But it’s one of the very many levels that we exist on. If you read Behemoth’s lyrics and if you just go deeper into who we are, it’s just deeper than that.

Let’s talk about the video for “Ov Fire and the Void.” You guys got banned on YouTube, had to put out an alternate version. I watched the video. A lot of things going on there. What exactly is the concept of the video? It looks like there’s a pregnant woman and then there’s a whole bunch of them and then they’re all bleeding.

I’d rather leave it for interpretation for people to watch it. I haven’t really even studied that in my head yet. I probably need to see it and think how I interpret it myself, to be honest. That’s how I work. Even if I read my own lyrics or if I listen to my own music, every day I get a completely different impression. There’s a lot of metaphors, a lot of symbolism there, of course. Just read the lyrics. This video definitely is a perfect mirror of—a nice presentation of what the album is. I’m all about experiencing things, so I always advise people, just go on YouTube, just experience it for yourself. Just watch it and just pick up whatever you want from this.

Yeah. That’s what I’ll say. I never like to listen when someone’s trying to tell me. You know what? I’m gonna check it myself and see if I like it or not.

Your stagewear—it’s not necessarily traditional corpse paint. It’s more like warpaint.

It’s not traditional sports shoes and jeans like most of the bands.

No. How did all that come about? It’s definitely a distinctive look. It’s a very intimidating, scary look. I like it.

It’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s who we are. It’s not alter ego. I don’t know how to say it. It’s how we want to be presented onstage and it’s not like we’re wearing masks just to pretend we’re someone else—no. It’s us.

Pretty much. When I’m on stage, when I wear my mask, when I wear my uniform and everything, I even walk differently. I speak differently. It’s just something’s happening with myself and I can’t really explain it. It’s happening and it’s very serious and it’s real. It definitely completes the whole picture of the conceptual idea behind the band. We always do care about the small details. So when you get the CD cover of the new record, when you go into the booklet, you’re gonna study it, you’re gonna see the link between this and the video and the live show and the promo pictures—everything—there’s a link to each other. That’s what I think most of the bands these days are missing, is they’re like, “Hey, whatever”—just accidental.

Maybe it suits them. It’s cool and I have no problems with that. I myself am looking for something else in the music and I want to deliver something else with my music. Something different.

Which I think you definitely do. Vocally, you’re the main vocalist, but all three are firing at it onstage.

Yeah, they back me up.

It sounds great. Is it like that on the album? Do you do all the vocals on the album?

I do all the tracking on the record, but I just need a backup in live circumstances. Sometimes it’s just too much. It’s inhuman. I try to do impossible in the studio and then you’re like, “Oh shit, how am I ever going to create it live?” So that’s why I need my boys in the band to fuckin’ triple the power of the gospel.

Yeah, yeah. We were supposed to not do it, but we were like, “OK, there’s still more time, let’s fuckin’ do it.”

That’s what I mean. So maybe it was not a really good idea. People dig that song. It’s not really a metal song. It’s just fuckin’ punk rock song in a way. I change the lyrics a little bit. We love Turbonegro, we’re big fans and people seem to dig it. It’s cool to see heavy metal people being open-minded and doing this singing along kind of stuff, but it’s not very metal.

It is metal for Maiden or maybe Priest. But in Behemoth’s music, there’s really no place for this “whoa-oh-oh” kind of stuff. It’s kind of cheesy in a way, but this time it works. For this song it works. I don’t really see any destruction.

Influences. You guys, like I said, have a very distinct, extreme sound. This obviously had to come from somewhere. Who would you point to as your main metal or heavy metal influence?

We don’t really look up to anyone these days. Of course, I never deny my earliest inspirations back in the day when I was forming the band and stuff. Of course, I’d be listening to Morbid Angel, Slayer, Beheaded, Blasphemy, Samael. These were my all-time favorite bands. They’re still all my favorite bands. I’d really like to think we created our own subgenre and it’s called Behemoth and we don’t really need to look up to anyone. That’s who we are. That’s what we’re thinking when making Evangelion. We were like, “You know what? We don’t need to think of other bands and what they make and where they’re aiming and where the trends are aiming because we’re somewhere above it.” I really would like to think that we stand out because we’re delivering something that’s very unique. So why should I care about other bands or other genres?

I think “Ov Fire and the Void,” for example, has a Morbid Angel-type—I think I wrote that in my review of the new album. There’s some similarities.

That’s cool, man. Yeah, Morbid Angel has always been maybe the best death metal band ever.

I’m a huge fan and we toured together and we’re good friends. Actually, David Vincent is coming down to the show in two days, which is awesome.

I heard they’re entering the studio around summertime. It’s almost end of the summer.

You know what? I ask the same question. I don’t know. Where the hell is new Morbid Angel record? I can’t wait. I need inspiration!

Thanks for having me here. Check out Evangelion. You won’t regret it. I think it’s a really honest record. Super brutal. And it’s worth spending your money. That’s it. Support the band. Support the music. Stay evil.