BEHEMOTH mastermind Adam “Nergal” Darski has confirmed to Bloodstock TV‘s Oran O’Beirne that he is working on the fourth album from his dark folk/blues/Americana influenced solo project ME AND THAT MAN. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s almost done… We are like deep into the recording process. We’ve got all the instrumentation recorded and vocals demoed so far. But it’s a matter of months that we have the whole product wrapped. We still don’t know who’s gonna release it. We don’t know what formats and how and where.”
He continued: “There’s the whole thing about ME AND THAT MAN that is like less tension, because it’s less… I mean, BEHEMOTH is a big business, so to say, it’s a big production, it’s many people involved and… When I say business, I don’t mean… You know what I mean — it’s just a big production while ME AND THAT MAN is way more relaxed and a niche thing. This band helps me to go to places which I could never explore with BEHEMOTH. Yesterday, we played up there in the Swiss Alps, 2000 meters above the sea level, fucking goats running around and just people trekking and 500 people, a really low-key kind of festival, but probably absolutely unprecedented circumstances and great atmosphere. And we could have never done this with BEHEMOTH because it’s just too big. So this band is a gateway for me to go to places and just to play smaller clubs, smaller venues that I miss playing, because there’s a lot of pressure with BEHEMOTH and a lot of responsibility on me solely. And with this band, I can just step back a little bit. I mean, I still run the show, but I’m not the main vocalist. Actually, [there’s] a very young Polish jazz musician that’s singing for us now, and we demoed the new album with him and he’s amazing — a beautiful and really deep vocal timbre and a beautiful baritone. So I’m very, very happy. So yeah, it’s just a different animal.”
Asked if there are any collaborations on the upcoming ME AND THAT MAN album, like there were on 2021’s “New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 2” and 2020’s “New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1”, Nergal said: “We have one guy singing. We did two volumes with a whole gang of my good friends and artists that I appreciate and I like and we’re friends with, and they would just make those two albums very special. Trying to do a third volume, it’d be, like, ‘Ah, man.’ No. I just sense that it’s just not right. The formula is done. Two records is enough. So with the fourth record, I had no idea what I would go for. And I had this thought that, okay, with BEHEMOTH, we could, but it’d be lame, to do a cover album, and there’s nothing new about it, and plenty of bands have done that before, but with ME AND THAT MAN, I thought, ‘Oh, shit. I would love to do a cover record with ME AND THAT MAN.’ And then when we play songs, we can throw all these covers here and there, we can just shift around songs and it’s gonna be pure fun. But then I met [the new ME AND THAT MAN singer], and it completely changed my optics, and I immediately started working on new music and he inspired me to do this ME AND THAT MAN‘s music.”
ME AND THAT MAN, launched in 2017 with the release of “Songs Of Love And Death”, serves as an outlet for Nergal to express emotions and themes outside the realm of black metal. Drawing inspiration from artists like Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, the sound is markedly different from his previous work.
Seeking collaboration to fully realize his vision, Nergal teamed up with British/Polish musician John Porter for their debut album. In 2020, they released “New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1”, featuring guest appearances from Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT),Brent Hinds (MASTODON),Matt Heafy (TRIVIUM),and Sivert Høyem (MADRUGADA). This was followed by “New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 2” in 2021, featuring guest appearances by Gary Holt (SLAYER, EXODUS),Alissa White-Gluz (ARCH ENEMY),Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD),Myrkur, Devin Townsend, David Vincent (MORBID ANGEL),Doug Blair (W.A.S.P),Hank Von Hell (TURBONEGRO) and Olve “Abbath” Eikemo (IMMORTAL, ABBATH).
