BEHEMOTH Preparing To Enter Studio

Polish extreme metal veterans BEHEMOTH are in the final stages of the songwriting process for their upcoming, as-yet-untitled album. The record is tentatively expected sometime in the fall via Metal Blade (USA) and Nuclear Blast (Europe). BEHEMOTH mainman Adam "Nergal" Darski and his bandmates are planning to enter the studio in the middle of February.

Commented Nergal: "As I write this, we have seven songs that are completely written and arranged though there's still leads missing in some of them. It all sounds tight as fuck and very fresh! There are two more songs under working so after New Year break, we should start working on it. I want this album to be very consistent, intense and catchy at the same time. Judging by what what's been composed so far, that's exactly where we are with this new material."

He continued: "Last year was a very productive year for all of us… We've toured U.S., Australia and New Zealand, covered most of prestigious festivals in Europe and invaded virgin markets in Asia: Japan, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand. It was also the first time since ages that I managed to take two months off from any band activity. I travelled a lot, recharged my batteries and decompressed myself. I've been collecting ideas, riffs and pieces of lyrics throughout the whole 2008 but it was in October where I seriously kicked my ass and started full on work on the album. It went pretty rough in the very first stages but the more stuff was written the smoother it went.

"I must confess that I'm way more excited about this record than I was for 'The Apostasy'. It's probably the whole label situation that we had to deal back then, Inferno's injury that caused crazy deadlines that completely drained the energy out of my system… I even started treating that album as unwanted child. Weird, because from time perspective, it's a great one. This time though everything was planned much in advanced. I found time to live my life, get some energy back, get inspired and so on… When we met in October it was obvious that all of us were really hungry for making new music. It's definitely 100% BEHEMOTH. I would risk saying that we do have our own style but it's still improving, evolving in different directions every time we approach new project. Most of the songs are the really fast, technical and intense, at the same time there's a lot of diversity. There's even a very slow, massive song that's probably the most epic tracks in BEHEMOTH's history. Everything sounds more serious and…dangerous (I love that word, ha ha). There's probably more sinister vibe in our music this time too. I'm completely stoked and I just can't wait until we enter the studio!'

Check out new rehearsal photos by Krzysztof "Sado" Sadowski at this location (free MySpace registration may be required to view pictures).

"Ezkaton", the latest EP from BEHEMOTH, sold around 1,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The CD debuted at No. 26 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Ezkaton" features seven tracks, one brand new song titled "Qadosh", a live recording as well as a new studio version of "Chant For Ezkaton 2000 e.v.". Also included are live versions of "From The Pagan Vastlands" and "Decade Ov Therion" plus covers of THE RAMONES' "I'm Not Jesus" and the MASTERS HAMMER track "Jama Pekel". The EP was made available as a limited-edition box set that includes four picture-disc seven inches, a BEHEMOTH pendant and the CD all packaged in a deluxe box.