Special report by Mark Gromen

During his brief time in North America, as part of the live appearances supporting DIMMU BORGIR, Nergal (guitar/vocals) talked to BW&BK; about the band's forthcoming 11 track CD, The Apostacy (of which we heard 'Christgrinding Avenue', 'Inner Sanctum', 'Pazuzu' (a Samaritan demon) and the acoustic begun 'Left Hand Of God'). The cover art features an 8-armed Hindu deity, weilding various weaponry and the music, on paper, sounds radically different from past efforts (trumpets, horns, choir and jazz piano), but rest assured it's in the brutal Behemoth style.

The mainman reassured, "If people thing Behemoth has gone Therion, they couldn't be more wrong!"

With regards to having NEVERMORE singer Warrel Dane add his growl and higher pitch to 'Inner Sanctum', Nergal says, "Originally, I wanted one of my death metal icons to sing on 'Inner Sanctum,' but he couldn't do it. I've always been a fan of (Dane's) so after a call to Century Media, I spoke with Warrel, who said Demigod was one of his Top 5 albums for the year. He said it was the first time he'd been asked to be part of a record that's not some crappy power metal album and from some band that he actually listen to. The guy is a legend. They are doing music. We do controlled chaos. It took a few takes to get him on the right track, but I'm blown away."

After the highly anticipated Ozzfest dates (direct support on the second stage), Behemoth will do a fall co-headlining North American tour with JOB FOR A COWBOY.

"We're not going to do five tours this time, bore you to death," jokes the corspe-painted frontman. "You have to be selective."

Watch for a full length Behemoth interview in an upcoming issue of BW&BK.;