Aftonbladet caught up with Behemoth guitarist/vocalist Adam “Nergal” Darski at the recent Getaway Rock festival in Sweden to talk about how being diagnosed with cancer and subsequently beating it changed the frontman’s perspective on life. The video interview can be viewed below.
Nergal, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, said that having the illness made him a stronger and wiser person. “I would say in many ways — too many to mention, actually… in numerous ways. It made me a better person, for sure. On a mental level, spiritual level… pretty much anything. Physically, I’m stronger than ever, too.”
Nergal added that he thought everyone would benefit from contracting the life-threatening illness. “It may sound controversial, but I would say that everyone should get cancer one day and learn from it, you know what I mean?! Obviously, I don’t want anyone to get sick. It’s more or less a metaphor for people to realize how much potential they can unleash if they want to, and [for them] to realize their potential.”
In a recent interview with Terrorizer magazine, Nergal revealed that Behemoth had written several riffs for their next album and that he planned on writing more this summer. Now, the frontman says fans should expect to hear the complete record in the fall of 2013. “I can’t tell you much, because there’s not much done yet. There’s definitely new ideas, and I would say we’ve got roughly five [song] skeletons ready. We wanna start working collectively [on new material] in the upcoming weeks. I’d say that September 2013 is a very realistic date for the release date for our next record.”
When asked if the new record would be ‘the same Behemoth?’ a confused Nergal replied: “I don’t know what you mean [when you say] ‘the same BEHEMOTH,’ because we’ve never really sounded the same on any record, you know what I mean?! Every time it was a huge challenge and every record sounds very much different, so I’m more than sure that this new one is gonna sound much more different than ‘Evangelion’ [2009] sounded from ‘The Apostasy’ [2007] and [on that album there] was already quite a difference, so I would say just be patient, wait and be surprised.”
Stay tuned for more details.