1.Yeah, partly you’re absolutely right about the
„promotional compaign” of our latest opus. You see, the deal with SOLISTITIUM
REC. was a real chance for us back in ’95 when we were about to record our
second album. We were completely fed up with PAGAN REC. and the italian label
than released our mini album and we decided to do something with some more
responsible people and to be honest, I have to say that when we did this deal
Carsten seemed to be very honest and reliable person. The things went pretty o.k.,
he released our second album „GROM” and sent us on tour which was the first
live experience for us...I think this period was very important for our
development and establishing in this scene. We’ve gained so much back than,
we’ve sold much more records than we had sold before, necessary to add without
any promotion. But well, we were debutants on western market and so was
SOLISTITIUM, therefore I had no problems with that. But when he wanted to
pre-long the deal we demanded more, it’s so natural. Carsten promised us to
arrange bigger promotion with an exclusive advertisments in proffessional
press...in fact we almost got none...some shitty split commercials in zines. Hm,
the only positive point was the studio budget so we could record the best album
so far, we were very comfortable and relaxed in the studio and this special
situation obviously affacted the final result. We did the films for the lay-out
in Poland and it looks really proffessional...so, in a result we have a new
album out, an album which in our opinion stands far above the avaragism of
today’s black/death metal scene. An album which could rival with the top
releases from the genre but all of these seem to be nothing ‘coz there’ve been
NO PROMOTION. We went on tour with ANCIENT one month after album’s release but
still there were many people conscious we had a new release out, you know. It
was so annoying...and every time I spoke to him he assured me that something is
gonna change in that matter but as you can see no changes occured. Hell, I got
really infuriated than, but in responce for our demands and questions we got a
blackmail reconse from SOLISTITIUM. He told me that he’s not gonna do anything
more than it was already done, if we don’t sign for one more album...I must
admit I haven’t expected such a behaviour from Carsten’s side as he always
seemed to be quite honest. But, the problem lays at his side only ‘coz we are
far too professional band for such a crapy label! Becouse how would you explain
such a behaviour...at the moment he prioritates Forbidden side the most, it’s
quite silly and irresposible I would say becouse all in all we are the best
selling band in this label, right? Huh, you must know that I feel really sorry
that I have to say all these things but that’s the only way we can face the
problem. I don’t want people think we have a war with a label or something like
that...wars are for little kids. We just try to fight unprofessionalism, fight
for our rights... because the most annaying thing in the whole situation is an
ignorance... You know, BEHEMOTH have existed on this scene for so many years,
we formed the band in the begining of this decade so, I guess after dealing
with so many assholes and moneysuckers we finally demand for something more and
what we get? Again we have to face the same problem... But there is new deal
appraching with a really trustworthy label and we deeply hope things are gonna
change quite drastically pretty soon...Beware! We’re rule this world in near
future!
But back to SOLISTITIUM matter...if the guy doesn’t change his relation
to bands and doesn’t chose right priorities he will end up like all thouse shit
worthy small underground labels that surround us and fill this market ans scene
with crap bands and truely gruesome albums...Please, don’t get me wrong, it’s
against SOLISTITIUM, it’s against stupidity and unprofessionalism! This is my
final word in this case...
2.Actually you’re right...but let me explain the
topick in a wider chorizon. You see, peaople are aware of the fact that
BEHEMOTH is an established, professional band with three albums released, with
sort of tradition, with its own group of listeners etc. etc. That’s pretty
comfortable situation for any label interested in extreme music, and I
understand this very well. Unfortunatelly for SOLISTITIUM REC., they have
already lost the chanse to grow bigger with our help, I’m not gonna act like a
horse, without gaining a deserved profits out of this. Therefore BEHEMOTH is
keen on professional, more than underground labels thesedays and this should be
obvious noticing the fact we’ve been wandering in this scene for so many years
and not improving that intensively as we would like to. I don’t say that
NUCLEAR BLAST offered us a deal...the fact is that my close friend who works in
their office really enjoys our last work and she passed this CD to the chief of
the company and he shown quite abig interest in us, he was very impressed by
this opus, it’s lay-out, great sound and song arrangements...well, there have
been so much said about NUCLEAR BLAST but I don’t give a fuck about problems
people have with this company. It’s not my business...I just want to say that
we still have a great potential and such reaction means one thing, WE ARE
enough professional band to attract even the biggest labels from the genre. But
of course this doesn’t mean we’re gonna sign them or something...that’s true
we’ve considering it but finally we decided to concentrate our potential in a
bit smaller label but a label which proudly stands for their bands and they’ve
already gained almost „cult” status by releasing MAYHEM „Live in Leipzig” LPCD.
Of course I mean AVANTGARDE MUSIC from Italy...
A few months ago we got an offer from them and till
today we’ve been negotiating a deal for two albums and I believe we’ll finally
sign it in september if everythings goes in our way. And again I agree with you
my firend, than such a label can do much more for us...why? that’s pretty
simple, they’ve already qiut a contract with KATATONIA which means that
BEHEMOTH will stay the highest priority there, they’re gonna focus on our
future albums and I sreongly believe both sides will be more than satisfied. They’ve
so far done quite a lot I would say...at the moment we’re negotioting a tour
conditions for the first months of the upcoming year, we’ll get an exclusive
whole page advertismens in professional press, we’ll be interviewed etc. etc. Not
to mention that AVANTGARDE is kind of elitarian label as they never sign bands
they don’s like personally, they never try to sign as many bands it’s possible
with loosing quality of the relases at the same time. I really like their way
of acting and all those argumentations make me feel very optimistic as for the
future of the band. On such basis we can reach a lot, believe me girl, I feel
so much potential inside and this new deal mean a new beginning for us! About
other offers..yeah, there were a few, the most interesting ones came from
AVANTGARDE of course, but also from dutch HAMMERHEART which is a great company
as well. They do a lot for their bands but the thing I don’t like is so big
quantity of avarage bands on their label.
QUALITY not QUANTITY counts!
3.Hm, you see, the problem has always been and I’m.
not sure it’ll stop, although I’m satisfied from the current line- up which
cosists of three members now, me, the leader, spokesman and the main composer
in the band, MEFISTO, new bass player who has replaced LES, and INFERNO on
drums. Well, the point with all those line up changes is that there have always
been strong personalities within the band, and we had to work with each
other...I guess in a short relation it works out but in a longer prisma things
start to complicate a bit. That’s because we have so diffrent views uopn the
future of the band, music etc. etc. Than it’s hard to force your idea upon such
a person because he feels very comfortable in the band. At the moment these
boundaries are much clearier ‘coz it’s been shortly said: I am the leader and I
am the one who have the last word in each matter that has anything to do with
the band. If other members accept such a situation, and so far MEFISTO and
INFERNO do, there are hardly any problems apear. The problem will start when
they change their mind in that case what I hope won’t happen that soon, he, he,
he....Anyway, the new line-up seems to be the ultimate one, and I can proudle
annouse that it’s the best one, the most comfortable and most effective we’ve
had so far. Eventhough we differ quite much from each other, the most important
fact doesn’t change, BEHEMOTH is the biggest priority in out lifes and we know
our places and roles in the band and I believe that as long everybody will does
his best and develope...this hellish machine will conquers across the Universe
endlessly!
4.Yes. We’ve done almost everything before I left for
the vacation...the only thing that was partly not finished were the
translations of some of the lyrics. But 95% of the music were completely
finnished and ready to work on in the studio.
Hm, you see, with my last year vacation it was a bit
complex situation I dealt with at that time. After we came back from the german
„FEASTING THE BEAST TOUR” with DESASTER and SVARSTYN lotsa personal problems
occured afterwords...most of the shit was connected with a girl I used to be
with, but it was just a part of the whole hell I had to go through back than. I
must say that at that time I had a really bizzare period of time, I was pretty
depressed and lost, so many things changed very drastically and it’s not a
secret it was connected with my spiritual and intelectual dvelopment. I simply
startded to see things in a different way than I used to before. So many
matters became useless and lost its values from the past...it’s difficult to
explain as it was something that I had to face deep within my inner self, it
was mine and only problem therefore it caused so strong and intense breakdown. Not
to mention that LES has left the band right before I left to Scandinavia...hah,
just try to imagine all the shit I had to face at that time but I guess each
active human have such a period in his life, not even one but more times I
guess. Succesfully I found the replacement quite fast so I could leave Poland
with no line-up problems. So, this story says for itself...I needed one month
of relax so I decided to visit some of my scandinavian friends. I visited guys
from LUCIFERION, DIMMU BORGIR, GORGOROTH,
HADES, AETERNUS and many more...you know they are very
specific kind of people. Quite calmed down, stoical...those people and the
evirement (mighty Bergen’s mountains,
fjords, lakes, woods and sea...) was like a spiritual healing for me and
believe me, I started to think and feel much better, it helped me so much. Hm,
as you can see, I went there in search for promised tranquillty and peace
but in result I also found a lot of marvelous inspiration and motivation to
further moves in life and with BEHEMOTH...I hope you know exactly what I mean.
5.Actually I know nothing about any problems with
DAMNATION, but if they spread shit behind my back please tell me, he, he...in
fact we are still good friends with LES and we meet quite often, from time to
time we play with both bands on ocasional festivals etc. The only problem that
occured, was the change of line-up before we recorded „PANDEMONIC
INCANTATIONS”. He decided to concentrate himself on DAMNATION only and I
respected his decision, eventhough I was very surpriced and confused...he
declared that he would like to record bass lines he did with us but I didn’t
agree. It would have meant that he would get the profits out from the sold
copies of the album and for us it was useless. So I found MEFISTO to change LES
and it turned out to be a right choice. You see,...there were some minor
problems in the past...LES is rather old guy with a family, kids and
obligations concerning that fact. He was not able to dedicate himself to the
band as much I wanted him to do. I always demand from band members to focus on
band the most...the rest of the things in their lifes are of course less
important. Only such a treatment provides a succes and good results.
6.It’s a shame but what you’ve said is partly
true...It’s true that Poland has been opressed by the commuistic system for so
many years and that we’ve had many economical troubles, which appear even
thesdays by the way, but we are not an examption in that matter. But if you try
to be objective you will notice that Poland belongs to those countries from
this old commusitc block which developed the most. Well, yeah, we don’t have so
glorious past, I mean last few decades especially...that’s true that Poland are
often labeled as theifs etc. but what can I do about it...I don’t wanna hide
the truth from its reveal. But I can assure you than theesedays Poland stands
as one of the most succesful countries and we improve very fast learning on our
own faults from the past. It’s pity that majority of people don’t know about
the glorious historical past of my homecountry. Believe me, Poland wrote so
many pages in european history, especially in ages from XII to XVII we fuckin’
kicked some serious ass and that what make me feel pround about Poland. But I
don’t wanna start any historical matters ‘coz I’m pretty sure there are too
many details and stuff I’d like to reveal and show off.
But let’s back to reality...We’ve never experienced
any idiotic behaviour from the pwople on tour etc. I mean, BEHEMOTH, similar
like VADER, has gained a good reputation in Europe not as a polish band but as
a quality and honest band. That’s what counts the most for me...Yeah, probably
if we were born in Scandinavia we would have reached much higher dimentions I
believe but I don’t give a fuck about it anymore. I’m pround of who I am and I
love my land...that’s pretty obvious but I would like to point it expressively,
it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long you have respect to yourself and
other people, as long you act with your natural instoncs and do your best in
each fuckin’ way of life.
As I said before...BEHEMOTH seems to be more european
band, exactly like VADER, but let’s interprete it like this, the fact we come
from a country that doesn’t belong to EU we have much harder work to do, and I
take it as a challange and I love challanges! This is maybe something that
makes our band even more valuable in the eyes of other people because to reach
what we’ve reached sp far we had to do twice more than other bands...but don’t
think I depressed because of that, it only leads me to greater satisfaction
from our results, I believe we truely deserve a lot and with each next record
we try to push things further, hard and bring our band and this genre of
extreme music to yet unkown heights...heights we don’t know yet but we’re gonna
reveal in the nearest future, I can promise you!
7.Well, there so many great things from the tours to
tell...but believe me girl, there far to many to mention them all. But maybe
I’ll start with a statement that we deeply enjoy playing live and we’ve gained
a lot experience throughout last years. We did three tours so far played on
some exclusive festivals abroud...
The first tour was „PAGAN TRIUMPH TOUR’96” we did
together with HELHEIM and CHRIST AGONY. And this one was really siccesful I
would say.
Most of the things were arranged in the right way and
that what we demanded from the organizer...some months later we did one tour
more but with a local promotor from Berlin, Folter rec. In fact it was the
worst tour when it comes to organisation but I don’t doubt that people from
Folter had good intentions. They fuck up the promotion and this caused really
bad frequency on the shows...but all in all I must say I’m still satisfied from
this one as well. I would also like to thank Folter rec. and especially one
special girl, Andrew from Berlin, who did her best the shows to turn out in the
proper way...next you’ll successed, but we have to learn on our own mistakes. But
the thing that has to be mention is the great company we had on „FEASTING THE
BEAST TOUR”, I mean SVARSTYN and especially DISTASTER guys. They are an
excellent live band and personally extremely nice and symphathic guys...I will
never forget all those nights full of alcohol and METAL!!! I’d also like to say
HELLO to them right now....
Hm, this tour was full of great moments...I remember
that the last performence we did, we mixed our line-up’s and set up a new band
or something, ha, ha...I was playing drums, Kolgrim from SVARTSYN was playing
bass, Infernal and Ocullta did the rest of the instruments and we did „COUNTESS
BATHORY” from mighty VENOM. I also remember that there were some shows with a
really very few people in the audience so we were changing our set permanently
and played songs for „PANDEMONIC INCANTATIONS” but they were not scheduled in
our live set, ha, ha...I didn’t even sing because I had no lyrics back
than...you know, it was very friendly atmosphere, we complenty had no
stagefraight, no stress, nothing...in a way it was a great experience.
Recently we did our third tour and we were
co-headlining ANCIENT...there was also one more band from Austria, BELPHEGOR. Well,
both bands were really o.k., we didn’t have any problems with the guys...I
would even say that ANCIENT guys were more than friendly and so we were. Maybe
I’m not the biggest fan of their music but one thing is sure, they are very
nice people.
The third tour was the one we promoted „PANDEMONIC
INCANTATIONS” and it was also the longest and the widest one. For the first
time we invaded such coutries like Slovenia, Italy, Austria, France or
Switzerland...all of them were good but I would especially mention Paris. To be
honest I’ve never seen wilder audience, they went fuckin’ crazy when we played,
it was unbelivable, really.
Cool nites in Hellraiser, Essen (even if there were
only 100 people, because the local promotor annaunced our show two days later,
damned! I’m still very sorry if there were people who wanted to see us but we
didn’t play!), surpriceingly all the shows in Holland were good, with good
frequency and right reaction from the crowd...it was something I didn’t
expected from its most stagnated audience!
Not to forget great responce in Waregem in Belgium,
those people know what a real metal party means...You know, this tour was
really o.k. Some shows were great, some crap and some avarage, that’s the way
it is...
8.That’s correct...the atmosphere was totally fucked
up but I wouldn’t say it was BEHEMOTH’s fault...or, it could be our fault if
you state that being unprofessional and not serious was the right way of doing
things and we hardly accepted this. The problem was also with CHRIST AGONY guys
‘coz noone of them was able to speak fluent english what caused some troubles
as well. In opposition to the second and the third tour this one was very
stagnated, the atmosphemere was not good ‘coz each band didn’t bother about
other’s problems. The crew was split and we hardly got along with each
other...but I wouldn’t like you to think we had any major problems or
something. I think I’m. pretty easy going guy and have no problems in coping
with people but sometimes there is someone who exeptionally gets on my nerves,
you can imagine how it is?
I don’t really know anything about this blood...well,
yeah, we wanted to have it on stage but of course our chief didn’t give a fuck
about our needs. But there was no big deal...I remember once we almost
cancelled the gig because everything was totally fucked up. I mean, we were
supposed to play a show in Trier if I remember well, and when we arrived to
this place, we found out that an important cabel is missing and there was no
possiblility to use any lights there...Ha, ha, jsut try to imagine metal gig
with no lights...it was impossible to do. But we kicked ass of our label chief
and he organised strob and some candles just to create sort of atmosphere, you
know...
9.As far as I can recall we did the first arrangaments
in autumn 1996, but those were only some main schemes, not the whole
songs...but the first months of 1997 were very fruitful, as you know along with
the tour we were working hard on the new songs. The whole material was
finnished before the vacation as I mention somewhere above. When it comes to
our way of writing process we almost never put any songs aside...we compse
album and we see the whole concept that rather can’t be split in parts or
something. And it was the same with „PANDEMONIC INCANTATIONS”, I had some
potential and I did around nine songs and to be honest at that time, when we
finnished them all, I completly ran out of ideas...it’s pretty schematic when
we compse an album and record it in the studio. But when the album is recorded
I treat this more less like a close chapet and my will is free to create new
things...When the album is recorded I start to think about the future album not
bothering that much about the past...but I reckon that „PANDEMONIC..” is the
most succesful piece we’ve done so far...I draw a conclusion from the long time
prisma and I’m still very satisfactory from the final studio result, the
saound, arrangements etc.
Hm, the composing process seems rather normal I would
say. First of all I have to get some motivation but it’s rather not a
materialistic one like for ex. Contract that force you to record a new thing or
something. I need something to stimulate my mind, something that will push me
to the creative moods...it’s something that comes very naturally and it’s
impossible to make myself do something...the melody, the idea, the concept has
to play deep within me, play with my emotions and I have to feel it very close,
you know. It’s very personal, that’s obvious, therefore it’s hard to
describe...you see, I rather use melodies and themes to express myself in that
way, I don’t need to describe this process...it’s clear itself.
When I come up with a melody, that in most cases is
compsed on my guitar, I try to build some more parts on this motive...it’s much
easier when I find the leading theme of the song, you know, the main melody. It’s
also much easier when I find more charachteristic parts that I’ll use as a
chorus or strophe, than it usually goes fast like hell...in reality it’s much
more difficult to compse a song than one might think. It takes a lot of time,
emotions, dedication etc. You have to put yourself within a tune, you have to
present a part of you in the best possible way...I’ve always claimed that music
says a lot about the compser. If it’s not original and not interesting (as the
majority of today’s bands) it’s useless to care about people in those
bands...they are most probably not inetersting at all. This is very simple
theory but it really works...just check it out!
Well, bandmembers didn’t contribute in the writing
process of this album but it’ll change with the next record...now they seem to
bother much more about things,
I’m it’ll make our sound much richer and varied, I
guess.
10.Yeah, this was SELANI studios near our hometown. Today
it seems like this is the most popular studio for metal bands in Poland...but
unfortunatelly only very few bands can manage to reach a really quality sound. VADER
and CHRIST AGONY are the most known bands that did their last works there and I
can assure you it turned out really good...I mean, the studio equipment itself
is not that great, I would say it’s just an avarage one, it’s 24 track recorder
so you can record a really professional album but the fact which is necessary
to mention here is the sound engineer Andy. He’s a perfectionist and it’s
mainly his merit that all those records sound such impressively...secondly this
is still one of the cheapest studios in Poland therefore we could spend there a
couple of weeks and work with no stress, no hurry...completely relaxed, this
was also an important cause why we succeded so much with that album...
Well, to be honest we have thought about using another
studio, possibly somewehere abroud in near future but I’m not if it calculates.
Recently polish label MYSTIC rec. wanted to sign us and they promised to send
us to ABYSS to Sweden for two weeks...hm, I’m really impressed by their works
but I have and impression that most of albums that come out from this place
sound the same, the sound is pretty lifeless and synthetic, I think. My faves
are for sure german Woodhouse and if there’s a chanse to go there in the
future, we’ll surely do this.
But I’m quite convinced that we are able to find
polish studio with the same quality level...the problem lays with the sound
producer because it’s obviously half of the succes...
11.Yes, I believe so...at the moment we have around
four finnished main themes for the songs and some more ideas for the future
album and I can assure you it’ll be continued. I mean, new songs are more
matured of course, there is even more variation put into but all in all one can
say we found our new style and we’re gonna stick to this one. I’m sure there
won’t be such a difference between this albums like it used to be in the
past...Today we are much more convinced what we’re gonna reach with the band,
we are more self confident and finally we’ve developed as musicans and
individuals so new album will reach even further heights. As you can notice,
the new BEHEMOTH’s style is far more progressed than it used to be before, some
might call it death metallish influences but the point is that we just leart
how to play our instruments. And the impresion is that people think we started
to play clearier, faster,... we are like one unit now, not that someone doesn’t
develope along with skills of others...Now we are stronger and more
proffessional than ever and this will be continued as I said before.
I still have plenty of marvelous ideas and I’m
constantly very enthusiastic when it comes to creating new music for the
band...this means I don’t get bored by what we do and this will not change soon
I hope. You know, in the past we did things not thinking that much before doing
them, now we are far more conscious of our activity, we have new aproach, new
goals, new heights to reach...this is the main difference.As you might know,
our music in the past was very barbaric, not that complex, simple and easy to
get along with...today we are keen on creating more complex sound, not that
cheap anymore. I know there are still some listeners who prefere first or the
second album but they certainly don’t understand the artistic intentions of
BEHEMOTH, they would like us playing the same riffs all the time...yeah, that
might have kept them with us but we wouldn’t have been satisfied from our work
anymore, is it clear? We can’t go on compromises with the listeners...they
might accept our change and it’ll be highly appreciated but is they don’t, it’s
their and only problem. I’m. not sorry about that. But I’m very
sure thare are more and more individuals who are into
our new sound ‘coz it simply delivers them more emotions and attraction. When
listening to „PANDEMONIC..” it demanded from listener to listen to this album
more than one time ‘coz only this way will provide him a succesful listening, you
know. Today’s BEHEMOTH sound is much more complex and massive and you have to
get really deep into the songs to find out what going on there, but believe me,
you have to pay more attention but at the same time you gets greater
satisfactory from the listening, at least I think so. I also don’t want anyone
think that we cut from our past releases, it’s not like that...but I see it
more as a close chapter, the chapter which was not that professional but of
course we do respect our first demo tapes and albums...on live performences we
still play some songs from the these albums so...But people have to understand
that truely work hard on new songs and their level of quality is much bigger so
I deeply hope it’ll be appreciated both, by old and new fans as well...
12.As I partly explained above, with each new record
we try to push hard things, to go further in our development, not to repeat the
same ideas all the time...But this is connected with my personality and
character of course. I hate rutine in life, therefore I’m very active person,
still alert and conscious of its role I play here.
I like changes because changes provide me the right
way of development, only than I feel comfortable with our art... only when
there is audiable improvement.
13.Well, it was not arranged before we enetered the
studio...some months before I came up with an idea of making such a song, a
song based on very bombastic and powerful riffs, simple but very powerful at
the same time...I wanted it to become kind of experiment and it really is. It’s
not a regular song from BEHEMOTH...you know, it differs a lot from all the
other tunes. But, I draw some inspiration from the great russian classical
composer MUSSORGSKI and we stole some tunes from his „Pictures from the
exhibition” and we mixed this with this symphonic metal sound...I intended this
to sound like LAIBACH a bit, and I think it does, it has also some similarities
with „Hatework” of MORBID ANGEL...hah, as I told you, kind of experimental tune
but at the same time it has very symbolic massage. You see, I wanted to keep
this track more as a manifest of our hate and wrath towards what happened in my
hometown Gdansk/Danzig.
There was an anniversary of the town, 1000 years has
passed but the authorities chose Saint Wojciech as a patron of this
happening...Well, the thing with Wojciech is quite complex and in my opinion it
must not be mixed with the pagan history of these lands. You see, when
Pomerania was a heathen land in the fall of Xth century and it was not
connected with young political polish organism...you know, there were all those
tries to christanize these lands and Wojciech was sent from Czech to Poland, he
was invited by polish king Boleslaw and sent to Pomerania to invade and spread
the name of christ. Heathens warned him twice not to come closer to their
sacred woods and fields, the magic spots, but he did. So they killed him and
stock his head on the stick as a warning for others...
Polish king shortly after bought his corpse from
Pomeranians and Wojciech became saint one. It’s a really disgusting story and a
true shame in our history.
Unfortunately today they glorify his name and treat
him as a patron...but for me these lands will remain heathen for ever...no
labels, no stickers will change the fact that Pomerania remains pagan forever! And
the title can be translated in english like „Hail to the assassins of Wojciech
(997-1997 ten centuries of a shame)”...Huh, I hope you get what we meant by
puting this on this record. In fact we didn’t any lyrics ‘coz they simply are too
strong so we could get some troubles as there is quite strong intolerance in
christian Poland...
14.Yes, you’re that we did a step back to our demo
tapes when it comes to the topicks we speak about again. The new album is
surely more oriented in satanism and I won’t try to hide it, of course. You
see, on „SVENTEVITH” album we started to deal with more cultural topicks,
things that we could relate to our glorious past and pagan traditions. I would
even dare to say that in a way we still glorify our ancestors but of
course the way of expression has changed so drastically. That’s connected with
my intelectual development as an individual and I started to reveal yet unknown
dimentions for me. Yeah, we can admit we are back to satanism but it’s not that
we have ever quit it. No way! We just try to express our emotions through
different aspects and forms of what surround us. But I would say that basis of
my lyrics never change...I mean that they always are build of very strong and
uncompromising antichristian basis. They have always spoken about the
admiration of earth, man and what is the closest to us, nature in its most
magnificent form. Now I deal more with some biblical concepts, I used to use
many describtions taken from the bible like angels, devils, satan etc. etc. but
it’s just another way of expressing my deep inner spirit...You see, BEHEMOTH
has always claimed himself as a satanistic band and even if we start to deal
with another mithological aspects from let’s say Sumer for example, it won’t
change anything...Nowadays I try to speak about more personal things therefore
you will hardly find such things like describtions of nature, cultural topicks
etc. Instead of this you get more personal and at the same time much more
difficult to understand lyrical concept. But I see it more as a natural
development, thesedays my words are thoughts are more introspective, deal with
a real topick which means myself and my own evirement. Maybe it sounds less
interesting for the readers but let’s see, everybody speaks about everything
else than themselves. It’s not what I mean to achive...Thesedays my thoughts
are closer to neatzchian way of seeing things therefore you’ll find many things
in lyrics that deal with the releasing of my own self, my own spirit. I focus
more on my own needs and feelings, emotions, try to live the best life it’s
possible to do things that are more useful for me. Of course it’s been said
through different, rather irrational prisma therefore you’ll find so many
poetical influences in my songs and it doesn’t make it easy to understand. Generally
I don’t like speak about my words as I don’t wanna destroy the reader’s own
vision of them. I believe there are enough universal, they deal with timeless
topicks so more intelligent individuals might find something for themselves I
hope. Let’s take the first tune from new album, „Thousand plagues I witness”. As
everybody can easly notice it deals with my relation to what I define as
weakness, christianity.
But there is much deeper meaning of this song than
just antichristian, it speaks about deep inner strenght, the power I can
confront and win...that’s my point of seeing things, we have to win our own
batteles within ourselves, just to be conscious of our individualism and
self-confidence.
„Driven by the five-winged star” is one of the most
personal lyrics I’ve ever written I guess...it speaks about so important need
of having someone you could pour your emotions on...one will call it love,
anyway, I do, but read the lyrics and you’ll maybe find out what I meant...it’s
very strong feeling, believe me, very natural and hard to express. „The
entrance to the spheres of Mars” speaks about me as well, but it’s more direct
relation, as god of war Mars is identify with NERGAL. It says about storming
the heaven’s gates and dethroning my step father but again, read the lyrics,
it’s not just another antichristian song, it’s written very poetically and here
I would search for its real values...of course again we could say it speaks
about lonliness, about a need to fight and win, to reach more than we have...to
keep a strong spirit within ourselves.
You can find some influences from polish writers and
poets from the „Young Poland” era, like Tadeusz Micinski, or Stanislaw
Przybyszewski...both were the precursors of satanistic thoughts in polish
literature. I hope these wrods gave at least small light upon my thoughts that
I try to speak about in lyrics...
15.Satanism has been an integral part of my life since
’91...so, you can ralate this date to the moment when I formed the band and
this is the ultimate truth. Metal and dark side of life opened for me different
doors...doors to unkown, wider and chorizontal dimentions. In fact i was
interested in spiritual side of life some years before, when I was a kid but it
was never that serious due to my little age and lack of life’s experience. You
see, I was brought up in christian family but when you read on polish
statistics you will notice that 95% of this society claims to be catholics. So,
I was raised in so called catholic family, statistic catholic family if we want
to be detailed, and my parents never gave a damn about that strict rules. In
one way it was very comfortable situation as they have been very tolerant and
even when I enetered the satanistic dimention they treated this more less
serious.
On the other hand it was much easier for me, there
were no strict rules I was forced to follow or something like that. In the age
of 14 I realised that I belong to another dimention, my life is much more
colourful and it stands for vital powers and useful energy. And this what
satanism meant to me...in the very beginning it was pretty difficult and quite
depressive at times ‘coz Satan means destruction.
In my interpretation Satan is an archetype of the One
who breaks all stagnated rules and principles, he’s a rebel and so was I. I
found in myself deep rebelious spirit and satanism was something that attracted
my young, hungry for new knowledge and emotions soul. Satanism has so many
different describtions and definitions so I would’t like to mention them or
something...Thesedays I’m more
into creating my own values and life philosphy. Of
course, Crowley, Nietzche, La Vey...and some others, mostlly those who revealed
their satanism in poetry, have influenced me quite strongly and I have a deep
respect for their work and dedication but as I said before, I have an creative
power to build my own envirement. Therefore I started to work on my own
beliefs, well, I call them satanism as it has its roots in that philosphy but
it means more to me... As Nietzche said, we have to destroy the old values to
bring the new ones, to make space in ourselves to adapt the new virtues,
virtues and values that are beilt on strong and unlimited WILL! Satanism might
be destructive in the very beginning of its development in our spirit but than,
when we remain strong and proudly go through all those changes we may become
divine...Than the real meaning of satanism is revealed and it means creative,
vital POWERS, something that have to make our life phenomenal, great and
glorious. We are responsible for how do we feel, how do we act and live our
lifes...it’s only us who can make a decisions in life. I’m conscious of being
acompanied by some unknown strong power that lives along with me, supports me
and gives me needed strenght to live... but it’s mainly us who have to decide
what is gonna happen in our life, if we do really want become something more
than avarage. We have to remember that in life the most important thing is to
improve our individuality, than we can become something in our own eyes and
gain respect...this is what satanism stands for in my opinion, but I have to
pint out that it’s based on my own experiences and these are not facts, these
are MY beliefs which are my presumption...I don’t wanna force my ideals upon
anybody, you have your own right to follow your lifes the way you like, but
it’s important to have the priorites in life, to have something you can be
proud of, something that will push you further, develope your body and
soul...BECOME DIVINE INDIVIDUAL, these are my final words...
16.Yeah, that’s correct, this thing has changed with
this album ‘coz as you probably know all of our previous releases had different
paintings and those were mostly drawings done by Mr. Darkarts from France. With
this album we wanted to create something new and very special...look, it’s the
first time we use colours but they are not that bright, it’s rather very calm,
grim and mysterious so and so is the music. Yes, that right that new
coverartwork is very symbolic but thesedays we are keen more on occult
symbolism which has its source in the farest past of the earth’s existence. The
pentagram is taken from Necronomicon and it symbolises an individual forces of
the most ancient ones...nothing more can be revealed here, sorry. The rest is
just my interpretation of this symbol, it’s my artistic vision and of course it
strongly deals with my personal beliefs...
17.I’m fed up of this black metal thing which appears
thesedays. You see, I’ve always claimed that BEHEMOTH is a strong individuality
within the scene and each time I try to prove it with our music, live
performences, acts, goals and everything else that counts...Just take a look on
swedish metal bands for instance, they all look the same, and it’s boring, it’s
dull and we are not gonna follow that way. Yes, we are metal band but it
doesn’t mean that we have to follow old stagnated metal rules...thesedays I
wear a different uniform, more original for sure, MEFISTO wears a velvet old
fashioned blause, we also try to go a bit further with the make-up thing, just
not to be similar to everyone else. I believe that at least partly we managed
to point out our individuality and far above avarage level, but it’s just my
opinion, and everyone has his own, so...But in conclusion I whish to say that
we will try to push further in the future, we will experiment with our visual
concept, that’s more than sure.
18.No, there is rather stagnation I would say, and it
relates to world’s metal scene and not only Poland...well, about the
inspiration. I draw it from everyday’s life I could say, but it would be the
easiest way...hm, of course music is the most affective way to create my
artistic visions, but we could add to this list also literature, the natural
surroundings, people we meet everyday, almost everything we have to face each
day has more less influence on us...
19.At the moment I’m listening to the new ABSU mini
CD. which is absolutely fantastic I would say. Recently intensively I’ve
listened to the new GENITORTURES album, which brings some fresh breath within
the extreme metal music scene...the compilation album from OZZY OSBOURNE „the
Ozzmeth cometh”, KRISIUN „Black force domain” has completely blew me away...new
MERCYFUL FATE album seems to be a great come back, the same goes to solo KING
DIAMOND „Voo doo” Lp. I’m. also into new IRON MAIDEN and BRUCE DICKINSON
albums, Lp’s that prove that real metal won’t ever die...I’m. pretty
dissapointed becouse of the new RUNNING WILD and HELLOWEEN albums, which means
rather stagnation and lack of good and listenable ideas...TWO of Rob Halford,
is an excellent album, also new AETERNUS is and interesting one, but I prefere
the first full-lenght I would say.
Ah, from the things that impresses me quite strong
recently is the german band from Koln called BARON, they are absolutely
fantastic, it’s the best german band from nowadays. They were an opening band
on one of our shows from the last tour we did this year...hey, I encourage
everybody to get their demo tape and there is a small apeal to the record
companies, keep an eye on this band ‘coz with the right promotion they can
invade hell!!!
20.First off I want to develope all the time, there is
no limit for me in gaining knowledge and experience. So, I always try to do as
many creative things in life as it’s possible...to develope means to
improve your body and soul, ‘coz both are responsible for your psychophisical
comfort. That’s what I want to reach in general, but of course there are some
more materialistic goals as well, but all of them I could relate to what I said
above.
21.Yeah, there some things in my dayly life that keep
me far from the rutine of life...of course band is the highest priority and if
everything goes fine with this I’m generally in good meed. Besides I study
history at the Danzig University, at the moment I’m on the third year, and if I
finnish it succesfully I would like to attand two year „Jurnalism school”, but,
time shall tell, you know plans might always change so...As I mentioned
somewhere before I am also very active person, I care about my phisical
conditions so I do train a lot as well...I’ve trained vietnam martial arts for
four years now, apart from that I swim at the University section...there are
some more things I like to do but they are too prosaic so I don’t wanna bore
you with that stuff...
22.Yes, the follower of „PANDEMONIC INCANTATIONS” is
under preparations and the work title for the fourth opus is „ARS SATANICA”. At
the moment we are finnishing deal with AVANTGARDE MUSIC so it’s gonna be the first
from two albums for this label. The music will be the result of what we’ve
reached on „PANDEMONIC..” album and it’ll be natural continuation so if you
like our new album you’re gonna love the next one, I am sure about it. First of
all we’ll speed up a bit, that’s a fact, the album will most probably will be
much more intense so it’ll be a bit shorter, in case the listener would get
bored.
My opinion is based on four songs we’ve almost finnih
but as you know, things change so within next months some things might change
as well here, in the music, so...but, recently we’ve finnished the visual
promotion of the new album, in march we’ve played two exclusive shows in Poland
with LIMBONIC ART, later we did european tour with ANCIENT and recently we
played on open air festival in Belgium called With dragon’s blaze...we
co-headlined the festival with BENEDICTION, and before us there was HAMMERFALL
playing, as well as EDGE OF SANITY, AMON AMARTH, GEHENNAH and some less
known...
In the end of september we’re gonna play a tour in
Poland which will start at VOX MORTIIS fest. with DARK FUNERAL...than we’ll
concentrate on new material and in the beginning of 1999 we’ll enter the studio
to record a new opus, check this one out and have your eyes open!
23.My tatoos represnt myself, these are drawing of
goats...one is taken from Gunther Theys and the other one was fomerly painted
By E.Levi but later it was painted by H.R. Giger with his own
interpretation...well, of course it has a deeper meaning for me, the tatoos stand
for my life ideology...these are symbols which are very close to my code,
simple, but true...
24.I’m just visiting my brother in Spain...I need some
alienation so I need to get rid of all thoce things here in Poland, I’ll be
back in two months, than I will see things in much different prisma...it can
only heal my ego, I believe...
25.First of all I would like to express my high
appreciation to you, and Peter from ABLAZE for supporting us so strong, believe
me, the devil takes OUR side and we will win! It’s really great to be featured
in this magazine as it seems that ABLAZE remains as a monolith within extreme
music german underground, so there is small apeal to all the metal maniacs out
there...SUPPORT THIS MAG!
I would also like to say THANK YOU to all our fans and
music lovers from Germania for showing their interest in our activity, for
enjoying our music and visiting our shows during those three tours we did in
the past. We deeply hope you’ll come as well when we invade your country once
again in the next year or occasional festivals...Now it seems like the flame
burns higher for BEHEMOTH so I look very optimistic for the future...the new
album apraches so keep your eyes and ears open wide, we’re gonna come back and
conquer your hearts with even more extreme and proffessional record.Let
INTELLIGENCE. PASSION.
TIMELESSNESS and UNSTOPABILTY be my final words...