BEHEMOTH To Take Part In This Summer's ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL, Says Bassist

D.T. Metal of Metal Storm conducted an interview with bassist Orion (real name: Tomasz Wróblewski) of Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH aboard Barge To Hell — the world's most extreme metal cruise — which sailed on December 3, 2012 from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas and returned to the real world on December 7, 2012. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Storm: As [BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski] did have a brush with death (in December 2010, Darski underwent a bone marrow transplant procedure after being diagnosed with a life-threatening form of leukemia. — Ed.),did the daily business routine of BEHEMOTH change since tomorrow could be the last day?

Orion: Tomorrow could be the last day for any of us, but the situation we had with Nergal makes us more aware of this fact. It was just one big lesson and I feel that the way we treat the band, and life in general, now is just — better. We do have a lot more appreciation for everything and we are trying to get as much as we can out of it all, professionally and personally. And everything that is happening with the band, it takes some work, but it's growing. It's hard to explain…

We are actually working on a new album right now and it's going really good. We have been rehearsing for a couple of weeks now and we have about four or five songs ready. We recorded a demo so we can listen to it and see if the approach is the right one. It's going really good and we have scheduled the studio for the end of February. If everything goes as planned, the album will be done in the summer and we plan on releasing it in the fall of 2013.

Metal Storm: You are going back to Hertz Studios? And weren't you involved with the production or studio work on the last album as well?

Orion: The last recording session — I don't even remember how many studios were involved… Like, six or seven, and lots of sound engineers as well; that's just the way we work. This time we will probably do most of the work in Hertz Studio, but we might do some stuff in other places as well. Plus we are still talking about mixing of the album and that's going to be probably somewhere else other than Poland.

Metal Storm: So you might go back to Colin Richardson for the mixing?

Orion: He did our last record and it went really good, so we are still considering working with the guy again; but there are a few other ideas as well.

Metal Storm: What's on next year's calendar for BEHEMOTH other than the new album, of course?

Orion: I am pretty sure I can talk about that; I don't think it is confirmed yet, but we are coming back to the States this summer to play on the Rockstar [Energy Drink] Mayhem Festival. This will be the very first thing we will do before the new record comes out. After that, we plan on doing some other festivals, but they are not confirmed yet either. We have done quite a few European festivals this year (2012) and I am not sure if it would be the best thing to do before the album comes out.

Read the entire interview from Metal Storm.