Taipei Metal

Interview: Behemoth - Part 3

TM: How did it all start in the U.S.?

N: We played on this festival, Sounds of the Underground, there was this band called The Devil Wears Prada, and they were praying on stage and reading the bible and stuff like that, and we were watching and saying “What the fuck?” And then someone handed me the bible and said “Hey, The Devil Wears Prada guys give this to you.” It was our tech, and I said just give me this before we play. And then I did that and I think we pissed off a lot of people that day. And I'll tell you a funny anecdote about that. We did that stuff and we saw people fucking fighting in the pit and we saw people leaving the pit because they felt offended by that. But the majority of the crowd loved that, and I loved the fact that they loved that. We left the stage, and once we left the stage we saw cops all over the place giving these weird looks. And we all noticed the fact that the cops were watching us, every move.  And then I grab this beer outside of our bus, I open it, and then we saw these three cops walking at us, and their faces are serious. I got a flash from my brain that the shit is coming, and I'm really scared. And they approach us and they are like, “You are this band from Poland?” And we were like, “Yes.” “Guys, I don't know what did you say on stage but you were fucking amazing.” I love that!
TM: Are you still allowed to play in Poland?

N: Oh yeah, we sell out places. The whole thing made us even bigger in Poland.

TM: When did you start playing the Turbonegro cover?

N: I don't remember, but I think when I heard Satyricon playing “I Got Erection” I thought it's a great song, it should have been done much better, the way it's supposed to be done. People love it. Sometimes people are like “What the fuck?” especially conservative metal people. But this song is so...it's not really about sex, Turbonegro in fact has a very destructive, nihilistic approach, much bigger than most black metal bands. It has a very special sense of humor too which I'm a huge fan of. And I'm happy that Behemoth is a band that can pretty much do anything they want and still turn it into a Behemoth sound. We do like fucking 60 minutes of fucking shredding and technical stuff, simple technical stuff all mixed up and then we come out with a punk song. And we can do it. I love it. Nile could never do it, Morbid Angel either.

TM: You also have a new E.P. that's coming out, Ezkaton, what will be included on that?

N: Just crazy stuff, a Ramones cover.

TM: What song?

N: “I'm Not Jesus.” I think it's a great song. I remember saw it on YouTube with Max Cavalera doing it in the late 80s or something with Ratas de Parao, a Brazilian band. It's a brutal song and it's got great lyrics, very anti-Christian. So we saw the connection. There's also a cover song from a Czech band, Master's Hammer. There's also a new song, and some extra stuff, some live songs. It's 30 minutes, it's gonna be cheap. It's for fans.

TM: And when are you planning to do another full-length album?

N: We just started working. We really hope to have it out by October next year. We take a lot of time man. It's not so easy. But the plan is to enter the studio in February and have it out in October next year.

TM: Do you have any songs done already?

N: Yes, we have one song fully completed and four songs in the works.

TM: What's the direction this time around?

N: It definitely sounds Behemoth, very Behemoth. It's intense, it's maybe...I don't know, it's hard to judge for me. It's still intense but maybe a bit more catchy. The songs that we have now, there's some mid-tempos and one extremely crazy, fast song, which I love. It might end up as the opening track for the record. I don't want to reveal more details. I've got some titles in my head and a working title for the record but it's not really the right time to reveal anything yet.

TM: When you guys started out you were playing more of a traditional black metal style and you've moved toward a blackened death type of sound over the years.

N: That's what people say, yes.
TM: You don't think so?

N: For me it just stopped making any sense to label the music. Sometimes it's easy to call it something, this and that, but I think you can't really classify what we do these days so I really refuse to answer these kinds of questions because I honestly don't know. I think we're Behemoth. When you speak of new Slayer, do you talk about them in the context of them being a thrash metal band? No.

TM: Not anymore.

N: Exactly. The same with Metallica. The same with Maiden. Is Maiden part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal? Who remembers that? I mean they were part of British heavy metal and we were part of the black metal movement but we just moved somewhere else. But it's fine that people call us black metal. If they call us death metal it's fine. Although I see no parallel between us and Darkthrone and I see no connection with us and Suffocation really, apart from the small fact that I really hope that Darkthrone and Suffocation play good and  honest music. That's the only thing that connects us. And the whole labeling thing, that makes no sense to me anymore.

TM: On this new album will you be working with the same outside lyricist that you've worked with before?

N: Yes, Christopher, he lives in London. We're friends. He might do some stuff for the new record, yes. Although I've got plenty of stuff written down already.

TM: How did you guys begin working together in the first place?

N: I've been friends with him for 15 years, a long time. And I remember for the Satanica record I had no lyrics written and that was a pretty shitty period for me. He'd been writing different poems and he showed me some stuff and I was blown away. I was like, “May I use it?” And he said, “Yeah, sure go ahead.” And I remember even these days I was sitting in his apartment and he showed me the lyrics for a song called “Incantation” and it ended up as the track “Chant for Ezkaton 2000,” which is one of our biggest songs. And I told him I love these lyrics but you have to change the name. And he came up with a new name.

TM: You've basically been in Behemoth for half your life. So what will you do when it ends some day?

N: I'm going to transform my emotions into something else. As long as I have a need to express myself that way I'll keep on going. But I remember when I was 23 people would be asking me, “What are you going to do when you're 30?” And it seems so distant. And then all of a sudden I was 30, I'm 31 now, so I don't answer these questions anymore because we might be talking sooner than you think and I'll be 40 and we'll be at the show in Taipei. But if you ask me this type of question I'll be like, you know what, look at Slayer, they're still great and they're in their mid-forties. So I think we've still got at least one more decade to go.

TM: That's why I like seeing bands like Slayer and Cannibal Corpse, they're over 40 and they still kick ass.

N: I was 27 yesterday and I'm 31 now and you know what? Nothing really changed. I got a bit less hair and more wrinkles, that's it. And I do my thing in a more proper way, more professional I hope. And we perform better. But that's the only difference. And I'll be 35 and I'll think the same.  I know that. It's just the body that ages, that's it. The spirit is still hungry, which is the most important. Of course I've got people saying you guys are old but I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? You should have seen yesterday's show then because this show was proof we are fucking 18 still. We fuck like 18 too.

TM: You guys have been touring The Apostasy for over a year now. Are you getting tired of playing the songs at all?

N: Fuck yes. We did over 200 shows for it and we did 300 for Demigod. I think it's high time to bring in some new music. I'd rather just stop now and focus on new stuff but we got this Asian tour offer and we just couldn't say no because maybe it was like now or never. We just dropped everything.

TM: So after this you'll just go home and focus on writing or more touring?

N: Just writing, and I can't wait already. There'll be a few shows here and there, some festivals early next year, but that's it. We've got a big U.S. tour coming in May but I'm not gonna tell you a thing about it except it's gonna be big for us. I'm so fucking happy already.

TM: For The Apostasy when you brought in all these new elements like the horn section, the orchestral elements, the vocal choir, how did your band mates react to that?

N: They were like “Wow, let's see what happens.” We've never done that before, or we did that before but we've never done it organic with real instruments and real people doing it. So we thought OK, it's the right time to do it the proper way so that's what we did. And I think it worked out well. It's a different record, more complicated, more sophisticated, more organic. It sounds like it's not triggered that much. A lot of people appreciated that and it sold really well too so I think it was the right step, right move.

TM: Will you bring any of that back for the new one?

N: Less, but then it depends on the whole album. If the album needs some extras here and there we'll do it. Maybe it doesn't need anything then we won't do it. I can't say at this stage because it's just too early to say anything. It's all about what the album needs, the concept, what the music needs.

TM: Any idea when you'll be back in Asia?

N: Hopefully in January, 2010.

TM: And you'll come back to Taipei?

N: I'm more than sure, I just want to play this venue [The Wall]. It looks better, it sounds better, everything is better. The venue yesterday just looked accidental. So fuck it, we got the first Taiwanese experience behind us so we're gonna learn from it. We're gonna do much better next time.

Behemoth's new E.P., Ezkaton, is out now, as is their live album entitled At the Arena of Aion-Live Apostasy. Watch for a new full-length album in the fall of 2009.