I Loved You At Your Darkest

“It doesn’t get more blasphemous than this.” That’s BEHEMOTH mastermind Nergal talking about the title of the band’s 11th album >>I Loved You At Your Darkest<<. While it certainly seems an unlikely title for a black metal band—especially one that called their last album >>The Satanist<<—its origin might surprise you even more than the words themselves. “It’s a verse from the Bible,” Nergal reveals. “It’s actually a quote from Jesus Christ himself. For BEHEMOTH to use it as the basis of our record, it’s sacrilege to the extreme.”

Of course, BEHEMOTH are no strangers to blasphemy. While anti-Christian sentiment might seem like stale bread where most metal bands are concerned, for BEHEMOTH such ideas represent a very real threat to their physical freedom. Time and again, the government of their native Poland has charged them with various “crimes” such as tearing up a bible onstage in 2007 and using the Polish coat of arms on a BEHEMOTH t-shirt in 2017.

“Obviously, stuff like that can piss you off. But I think it’s good to be pissed off,” Nergal says with a laugh. “Anger can be a massive driving force, especially when you make extreme music. But politically and socially, Poland is a very disparate country. You can never feel totally safe here. That makes it easier for me to get inspiration. If I lived in Holland or Australia, I don’t think I’d be doing what I do now. You can do or be anything you want there. I’m a huge fan of that kind of freedom, but I don’t really have it here. Struggling with that on a daily basis makes me who I am, and fuels my passion for this music.”

Nergal and his bandmates—Orion (bass) and Inferno (drums)—have channelled that passion into >>I Loved You At Your Darkest<<. A crushing salvo of black metal majesty replete with hellish riffs, thundering drum cannonades and soaring liturgical choirs reminiscent of classic horror cinema, the album is also bejewelled with nimble-fingered rock guitar solos on songs like “God=Dog,” “Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica” and “Sabbath Mater.”