On this past Sunday night's episode of The Strombo Show on CBC Radio 2, Behemoth's Nergal visited for an intimate conversation about faith, health, The Satanist and his upcoming country-blues record.  A few quotes from their conversation follows:

Nergal on the response to The Satanist: “I felt that we are doing something super significant, at least for ourselves. Its hard to project what the album is going to do in the market and how it is going to be received and since Behemoth has never been a band that would fabricate records in order to get people's attention, media attention or just get a reason to go on tour. We've never been none of this. So you never know. Any record we approach, its like this is it, this is our fucking balls out, all out. It just got to leave your system and then just up to people, they're going to pick it up. They're going to believe that. I think the reason that The Satanist got so successful for us is that we're always been honest, us people and us artists. This is a super sensitive record. Considering all the circumstances that I'd been into prior to recording, the health issues, it was pretty revolutionary so people are kind of expecting - ok what's going to happen next? Are they going to come back with some reggae record? We went even more radical in one way and on the other hand, the music, we didn't push hard. We didn't try to overcome ourselves in a sense to even try to top the previous album, we went the other direction with more organic, relaxed, in a way. It's a very tense record. The pace is not really the fastest record. You cannot say that The Satanist is the heaviest record because its not. Its not the most technical record, but it is definitely the most sincere record and people believe that. In the end of the day, its all about the truth... Its pretty wild. There's this insanity factor that is probably a driving a force behind the songs and idea. It is a very human oriented record as well, to the bone of approach to it. As I said, its super sincere. I love it. I'm still proud of it. Thats why on this tour, we're playing the album in full. I truly believe experiencing the Satanist as a whole makes a lot of sense and people seem to really dig it."

On how fresh the songs on The Satanist are to him: ”Its very refreshing. There's obviously a routine. We go on stage every day. Then I see nothing wrong with routines and rituals, its something that happens daily. I love it. I learn how to appreciate brushing my faith, same goes with tuning my fucking guitar and just going on stage and doing my thing because I know I'm pretty fucking good at it and I'm not faking, I'm just being myself, just covered by mask and some wardrobe, but its me. I love the character, just coming out of my system, my nature…”

On what Behemoth is: “I think that Behemoth is all about loneliness. A good friend of mine, she is also my coach, she said that if it wasn't for music that I would probably be in jail or i would just kill someone or be a criminal or something. I don't know. I'm an observor, you know. If she thinks that maybe there is something behind the surface, I don't know. I just there's a darkness that each of us are carrying along, we have to learn how to deal with it and eventually become friends with it because it is part of our nature. Unlike religions, they try to castrate that the dark part of our nature because they define it as evil. We freethinking people, artists, we think opposite. We think that we should embrace all of it and learn how to deal with that. That is probably the biggest challenge, you know... I think that Behemoth and my artistic trip is basically a road to get to know myself better.”

Listen to the full conversation on CBC Music (2:10:00), here.

Behemoth recently premiered their new video for “Ben Sahar”, a track from their latest album, The Satanist, released in 2014. Watch the new clip below:

Behemoth have announced a fall tour for their homeland, dubbed The Republic Of The Unfaithful Tour. Nergal issued the following update: "We are closing The Satanist tour cycle with this Polish leg of the tour. We will be playing on that tour the whole The Satanist album for a first time in our history in Poland! Behemoth is in its highest condition and you will see it yourselves this autumn. See you there!"

Dates are as follows:

September
30 - Katowice, Poland - Mega Club

October
1 - Katowice, Poland - Mega Club
2 - Wrocław, Poland - Eter
6 - Bydgoszcz, Poland - Hala Artego
7 - Kraków, Poland - Hala Wisły
8 - Warszawa, Poland - Progresja Music Zone
9 - Gdańsk, Poland - B90

(Photos - Danny Patterson)