BEHEMOTH Frontman Says Band's Success Is 'A Great Gift'

Michael O'Brien of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with BEHEMOTH mainman Adam "Nergal" Darski. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On recent attempts by Polish officials to get BEHEMOTH banned from playing in their home country due to the Satanic nature of their lyrics:

"We were like number one or two on the list. There were some politicians, in order to self-promote themselves, they tried to get some recognition in because, I don't know man, it just felt weird. At the end of the day we actually benefited from it because we toured with it in September and it was the best we've done here ever. Most of the places were sold out and it was just crazy. There were like 700 people at each show which for this small country is just crazy, it's unheard of."

"It was lacking the basic terms of democracy and Poland is said to be a democratic country. They just cannot tell you that you can't do this and you can't do that. They just can't do this you know? I feel pretty safe. It's worked out good so far for us and I think the fact that there's people that really support us, they stand behind our backs and they buy records, they love the band, is awesome. But you also need those people that try to fight you. You have to keep it balanced."

On whether he expected this level of recognition all those years ago:

"No (laughs). My answer is no man. I mean what's happening to this band, what's happening to my life now, I'm just speechless. I think it's a great gift. Of course I've worked on that so hard and it's paying off, it's a great reward, but I still consider it as a great gift from whoever, whatever you know. I'm totally speechless and I think it's awesome. I have a great life, you know? I travel around the globe playing my music and people like to hear my music and buy my music and it just feels great. Of course I could never have imagined when I was 15 or even 20; I could never have foreseen or guessed that all this could have happened. What can I say? It's a great surprise (laughs)."

On raising the bar higher and higher on each successive album:

“I can tell you that it's pretty fucking hard. With every new record it's more and more effort that we have to put into what we do. I can tell you that with 'The Apostasy' before even entered the studio I attended these guitar lessons and I had vocal coaching. Some people might be like, 'Hey, you've been around forever and you've put out several albums. You don't need that anymore.' But I'm like, 'No. Now, especially now I need that.' I need the extra push, I need the extra boost. It's never enough and we are never good enough. I'm never good enough. I'm always thinking I'm shit and I suck so I've got to improve this and I've got to improve that. That's what we did for 'The Apostasy' in order to make this album what it is. We really needed to push ourselves so hard. I can tell you that every time it needs more dedication, more effort, more work, more and more and more. I'm just fucking happy that people appreciate that. They really do. They see it, they notice it and they appreciate it, that's awesome."

Read the entire interview at www.themetalforge.com.