BEHEMOTH Announces June/July 2023 European Tour

Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH will embark on "The Deathless Svmmer" European tour in June. BEHEMOTH will make appearances at some of the biggest festivals, including Download, Hellfest, Graspop Metal Meeting, Sweden Rock and more, plus play headlining shows with a curated accompaniment, featuring HYPOCRISY, VENDED, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT and GAEREA.

BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski states: "A European festival run is truly my favorite way to spend my summer! We aim to make a lasting impression on these massive stages alongside the biggest names in metal. We've also put together some awesome club shows with a mix of legendary and contemporary artists. We can't wait to be amongst you, Legions!"

Tour dates:

June 04 - CZ Plzen - Metalfest
June 08 - PL Gdansk - Mystic Festival
June 09 - SE Sölvesborg - Sweden Rock Festival
June 11 - UK Donington, Download Festival
June 13 - CH Pratteln - Z7 (w/ VENDED, GAEREA)
June 15 - FR Clisson - Hellfest
June 16 - BE Dessel - Graspop
June 17 - NL Utrecht - Tivoli Ronda (w/HYPOCRISY, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT)
June 18 - DE Hannover - Capitol (w/HYPOCRISY, SPIRITWORLD)
June 20 - DE Karlsruhe - Substage (w/HYPOCRISY, SPIRITWORLD)
June 22 - NO Oslo - Tons Of Rock
June 24 - FI Nummijärvi - Nummirock
June 28 - ES Viveiro - Ressurection
July 02 - IT Bologna - The Return Of The Gods Festival (w/KREATOR, PANTERA)

In a recent interview with Australia's Heavy, Nergal spoke about his desire to make BEHEMOTH's 12th studio album, "Opvs Contra Natvram", "sound very organic", especially when compared to its predecessor, 2018's "I Loved You At Your Darkest". He said: "Every band these days, you talk to every band, and every band — literally — heavy metal band, thrash, death, whatever, says, 'Oh, we managed to get that organic sound.' And then I go and listen to those records and I'm, like, 'There's nothing organic about this record.' Ninety-nine percent of the records, they sound robotic. Every fucking click, every kick, every snare drum, every part of the record is exactly the same. It's not organic. 'Organic' is when music fluctuates, when there's dynamics, when it goes up and down. That's why we tapped Joe Barresi [to mix the LP]. You know him for his work with NINE INCH NAILS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MONSTER MAGNET and a lot of rock bands. SLIPKNOT… Basically, rock bands, mainstream bands. And he does this old-school mixing. He doesn't use Pro Tools. I mean, he uses Pro Tools, but then, when he's done with one song, he just pulls all the knobs down and starts from scratch. You go, 'Hey, but I wanted to do some tweaks in the previous one.' 'Sorry, it's done.' You've got to pay for everything again. So [when] it's done, it's done. You don't endlessly go and correct that, which is beautiful. Twenty, thirty years ago, it was done that way."

He continued: "These days, you can fucking perfect things to the point that you cannot fucking listen to it, because the perfection makes things boring, imperfect and a whole lot uninteresting. Live, it's not perfect; that's why it's so fucking exciting. So why make things that are just so fucking polished? I don't get it, especially in extreme metal music. It's gotta be fucking weird, it's gotta be dangerous. Where is the danger factor? So I really wanted to bring the danger factor back to our music. It was present, but maybe this is the record [where] it's the most present ever."

Released last September, "Opvs Contra Natvram" was previously described in a press release as "a stark reminder of the rebellion, individuality, and unflinching self-expression that BEHEMOTH's phenomenal work imbues, shaped by a literary worldview."

"Opvs Contra Natvram" features twin cover art available in both black and white and was released in an array of physical formats designed by Bartek Rogalewicz (Lodge.Black).