In a recent interview with Exclaim!, Nergal of Behemoth and Me and That Man fame made it a point to explain why he is doing a new, blues-inspired band instead of churning out more black metal.
"Imagine me starting a death metal band: useless. Imagine me starting a pure black metal band: fucking boring. Of course, you can still come up with something unique or fresh in metal, but it would just be useless for me. I want to just go to the territory that is completely unknown to me and hope for adventure."
Explore that territory he has, as, despite the confusing title, this is not his first album with the new project. For this one, he teamed up with several of "those men" for big-name guest spots, including Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Matt Heafy of Trivium, Brent Hinds of Mastodon and Ihsahn from Emperor. The focus with this one was collaboration and digging into different pockets of sound through a more palatable lens.
The songs all pretty much pull from the same concepts of doomy, bluesy rock. "Run With the Devil," the first track, feels like a soundtrack from a '70s horror film, and "By the River," the song with Ihsahn, feels more like a slow, more traditional doom track. "You Will Be Mine" feels dark and evil, almost like Electric Wizard, and "How Come?" with Corey Taylor is more like straightforward blues.
The only issue with the record is that, while all the songs Nergal did with individual artists are amazing in their own right, there isn't really any cohesion. It feels more like listening to a compilation than an actual record, and someone who really digs a few of the songs might not like all of them. For those who love listening to a record all the way through and enjoying how if flows, this may leave something to be desired.
Still, despite this issue, the album is full of awesome songs created with cool musicians, and there's clearly a great deal of grit and desire to create here. It just doesn't really flow like a typical metal album.
(Napalm)"Imagine me starting a death metal band: useless. Imagine me starting a pure black metal band: fucking boring. Of course, you can still come up with something unique or fresh in metal, but it would just be useless for me. I want to just go to the territory that is completely unknown to me and hope for adventure."
Explore that territory he has, as, despite the confusing title, this is not his first album with the new project. For this one, he teamed up with several of "those men" for big-name guest spots, including Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Matt Heafy of Trivium, Brent Hinds of Mastodon and Ihsahn from Emperor. The focus with this one was collaboration and digging into different pockets of sound through a more palatable lens.
The songs all pretty much pull from the same concepts of doomy, bluesy rock. "Run With the Devil," the first track, feels like a soundtrack from a '70s horror film, and "By the River," the song with Ihsahn, feels more like a slow, more traditional doom track. "You Will Be Mine" feels dark and evil, almost like Electric Wizard, and "How Come?" with Corey Taylor is more like straightforward blues.
The only issue with the record is that, while all the songs Nergal did with individual artists are amazing in their own right, there isn't really any cohesion. It feels more like listening to a compilation than an actual record, and someone who really digs a few of the songs might not like all of them. For those who love listening to a record all the way through and enjoying how if flows, this may leave something to be desired.
Still, despite this issue, the album is full of awesome songs created with cool musicians, and there's clearly a great deal of grit and desire to create here. It just doesn't really flow like a typical metal album.
