On Friday, 5 April next year, Vilnius will be painted black by the dark folk/blues/Americana project "ME AND THAT MAN". This is the solo project of Adam "Nergal" Darski, also known as the leader of the scandalous black metal band Behemoth. Nergal has once again signed a pact with the devil and will present his latest album "New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.2" in Lithuania, at the Arts Factory LOFTAS.
Scandalous personality
Nergal (in his passport as Adam Michał Darski) was born in Gdynia, grew up in a Catholic environment and started playing guitar at the age of 8. The stage name Nergal is a Babylonian deity, the god of war, whose role in iconography is illustrated by attributes such as the dagger and the bow.
After forming the black metal band Behemoth in his teenage years, Nergal was put on trial in Poland in 2010 on blasphemy charges for publicly despising religion. In 2007, he tore up a Bible during a concert and argued in court that it was an artistic expression, claiming that it should not have been an offensive act. He also argued that freedom of speech should take precedence over religion in Poland. However, he was facing up to two years in prison for ripping up the Bible, but on 28 June 2010 the charges against Nergal were dropped.
Other performances
The performances of Behemoth and ME AND THAT MAN are arguably radically different, but also in some ways very similar. Different, of course, first of all in terms of musical expression and paradigms of presentation. The mission of the first project is to glorify Satan with black metal, while ME AND THAT MAN sounds uncharacteristically melodic, sometimes even heady and romantic, and immersed in a state of black meditation.
ME AND THAT MAN, not as a side project of Nergal's black metal, does not use corpsepaint, leather stage suits, and does not avoid the already mentioned scandalous acts of bible-ripping. On stage, they are like devilish gentlemen of love, dressed in stylish black suits and hats and, as with Behemoth, they don't renounce their love for Satan.
New album with a bunch of iconic names
"ME AND THAT MAN"'s third studio album, "New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 2", released on November 19, 2021, will be the first in a new series of albums. "Napalm Records, the follow-up to the project's previous record New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.1 (2020). The new and refined record takes you on a dizzying journey, fuelled by Nergal in both hands.
Heavy music icons abound once again, which takes the record to new heights. Names like Gary Holt (Slayer, Exodus), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God), Doug Blair (W.A.S.P) and Olve Abbath Eikemo (Immortal, Abath) round out the album's spellbinding collection of occult anthems. "New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.2" marks another breathtaking symbiosis of unfiltered blues, gothic folk, country essence and a touch of evil that was most likely beamed straight from hell or the blackest church.
First time in Vilnius
For all the reasons mentioned above, it is probably needless to say that on Friday, 5 April next year, the Arts Factory LOFTAS will not only be the setting of a romantic hell, but also the burning of churches in the imagination and the sending of greetings to the Devil. But there will also be one of the most interesting concerts of the next year in Lithuania with Adam "Nergal" Darski's already cult project "ME AND THAT MAN".
