Behemoth Refuse To Be Too Fast Or Too Heavy

08/31/09 12:02pm

by Andre Mihsin (CHARTattack)

In 2007, Polish death metal band Behemoth released their eighth full-length record, The Apostasy.

It was a success among critics and fans, but Behemoth mastermind Nergal was his harshest critic and wasn't entirely happy with the recording or the promotion of the album, which prompted the band's move from Century Media to Metal Blade Records. The band's first release through their new label is the menacing death metal masterpiece, Evangelion.

CHARTattack: You said you weren't entirely happy with the recording session for The Apostasy. What went wrong in your opinion?
Nergal: You know what, I was just having notorious guitar tuning problems that I couldn't fucking deal with for some reason. Whatever I would record, I would never be happy with it. I was actually struggling with my guitars for five weeks or something.

It was way too long and it was just a crazy process. I ended up leaving it the way it was on the record and we finished up the record, but I was never happy with it. It's definitely a strong record and a record that helped us get to the place that we are now, but it was not the Behemoth album like Evangelion is.

I would say that The Apostasy was a breach between Demigod so we could finally make a record like Evangelion. So without The Apostasy there would be no Evangelion.

Was your discontent with the record the reason for the move from Century Media to Metal Blade records?
Yeah, it all came together like a nice puzzle. It looks like everything is in the right place now and we're dealing with the right people.

The Apostasy — I don't know if you remember but there wasn't a single advertisement in the press for this record. Century Media completely dumped the record. And the record sold like 40,000 copies in the U.S. so far, so regardless of (the lack of) promotion they gave the record and no push, the record sold a pretty fucking amazing number.

Yesterday, we had a release party at the Hard Rock Café. Metal Blade put on this party with an open bar and (Metal Blade owner and founder Brian) Slagel was there and other Metal Blade people were there, and our management was there.

Man, it just feels right. I always listen to my intuition and my intuition told me to get rid of that Century Media deal two-and-a-half years ago and find people that are going to be passionate about Behemoth.

Then we met Slagel before we hit the stage at the New England Metal Fest when we played before Dimmu Borgir. He was just walking by the lobby. I never knew this guy and I was sitting with my manager and we were introduced to each other. The same evening we fucking stole the show. It was a great performance for us and Slagel saw it and he was blown away and congratulating us. And within the next week while struggling with the deal with Century Media, which was shitty, we were like, "Let's give it up and let's try to talk to Slagel and let's pick up an offer immediately."

Next week, we had a draft of the deal and it was signed and I was just so fucking happy. It's like a new beginning for us now. Don't get me wrong, I still have dear friends in (Century Media). There's nothing wrong with the people. The people are passionate and they were good friends and they wanted nothing but the best for Behemoth. But the policies of the bosses of the company were fucked up. That's it, that's all I got to say.

How was the recording session for Evangelion better?
First of all, I promised myself I'm not going to have the same shitty problems again. After all I didn't have any problems with the recording session. I was just having fun. It was awesome and it was very liberating. We literally just go with the riffs and the song we felt comfortable with and that's what made us feel so optimistic about the record.

It was like we won't be competing with anyone, we won't be looking anywhere except at Behemoth and who we are and the essence of this band. We're not going to try to top this or top that or be the fastest or the heaviest. We just wanted to be ourselves and that's why this record is so diverse and so mature and so confident.

What I love about Evangelion is that it's still fast and still technical, but the songs have a slower and more brooding groove to them.
Yeah, exactly. We went for a vibe on this record. It was all about a sinister and evil vibe that was supposed to be in these songs. That's how we approached the record. I think "Ov Fire And The Void" is the perfect song to introduce people to the record because the tempo is groovy and not too complicated. It's just the right song to promote the record.

Yeah, I love the feel of that song. I think too many extreme bands are too focused on being fast all the time and heavy all the time…
Yeah! You know what, how much faster can we get? We've already been so fucking fast. How much heavier can we get? We've been heavier. Let's be fucking intelligent and let's make music that's not only going to entertain but mean something and not just focus on a technical level.

That's why on the new record you have songs like "Daimonos," the opening song, which fucking is so complex with different layers and different tempos and an intro and outro and it's so technical. But then on the other hand, you have songs like "Alas, Lord Is Upon Me" or "Lucifer," which are very primal and very barbaric in structure.