BEHEMOTH's NERGAL Is Ready To Collaborate With ROB HALFORD On Black Metal Project: 'I'm Just Waiting For His Call'

BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski says that he is definitely open to the idea of collaborating with JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford and EMPEROR's Ihsahn on a black metal project. "I'm just waiting for [Rob's] call," Nergal told Elliott Fullam of Little Punk People in a brand new interview (see video below). "I mean, if he says, 'Hey, I'm ready', if we're touring with SLAYER again ever or METALLICA, I have to drop that tour and just fucking run to Phoenix, or wherever Rob is living, and fucking work my ass off to bring the best song I can afford, so he can sing there. And I'm trying to sound funny, but the truth is that me and Ihsahn would love to do some music and we would love for Rob Halford to do some vocals over it. That'd be... that'd be beyond cool."

Asked if he has ever met Rob, Nergal said: "Yes, we met a couple of times. We just met at Wacken, a German festival, a couple of weeks ago. Again he was super cool, very friendly. One of the most humble human beings you'll meet ever is him. And considering his status, who he is, what he did to this genre, to heavy metal, it only makes you even a bigger fan of that person."

Halford has long spoken about wanting to work on a black metal album, revealing more than a decade ago that he had discussions with Ihsahn about doing something together.

Earlier this year, he told Noisey that he still hopes something will happen in the future.

"The black metal project!" he said. "It keeps being about to lift the launchpad, but it never quite gets anywhere. I met Nergal from BEHEMOTH recently, and I said, 'You know I love your kind of music. I would love to kind of put my toe into the water and see what would happen.'

"So now I've got these two very nebulous, but I hope at some point very real opportunities, to do something with Nergal and still something to with Ihsahn.

"'Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk' — that's my big EMPEROR album. Both of them are incredible; they just have this real mastery of their world."

Ihsahn, whose real name is Vegard Sverre Tveitan, told Finland's Kaaos TV that he would love to collaborate with Halford on a black metal project.

"I actually talked with Rob about this project… He approached me… that's quite a long time ago," Ihsahn said. "I think I met him the first time in 2001 or something. But, of course, as he said in so many interviews as well, the situation with him being back in PRIEST since that time, and my schedule, doing both bands [EMPEROR and the solo project], it's one of those things. But at some point, that would be great. When the god of metal calls, that's not something you want to miss."

He continued: "Then [Rob] met Nergal from BEHEMOTH as well, and he [discussed a possible collaboration with him as well]… Because he's a big fan of black metal — Rob — so at some point, he just wants to do something, as I said, tip his toe in the water with that kind of expression. So if time allows and fate will make it happen, and, for example, me, Nergal and Rob would come together — Nergal from BEHEMOTH is also someone that I have great respect for, a great artist — I think that would be amazing."

Ihsahn went on to say that if the project with Rob and Nergal does come to fruition, all three musicians would want to invest the time and effort to make it truly special. "It's not something that you just would throw together, because I think those kinds of collaborations where it's just putting names [on an album don't work]," he explained. "You need to do it proper. And I think all of us, the way I know them, I think that's their mindset [as well], where [we all think] it would have to be done properly. I think we would be very much on the same page on that."