THE BEAST

"Magdalene", the new video from ME AND THAT MAN, which pairs BEHEMOTH founder, songwriter and singer Adam "Nergal" Darski with British/Polish rock musician John Porter, can be seen below. The clip was directed by Zev Deans and shot on location in Poland.

Ever the firebrand, Nergal stated about the inspiration for the video: "Well… let's say Jesus walked this earth. Let's say he really was a leader of a new founded sect. And look around… every guru, every charismatic leader, they were surrounded by many gorgeous women of which I'm sure they took advantage of. I bet Jesus was no different. But one day, like every other Casanova, he falls in love with one woman. Let's say her name was… Magdalene. She's resistant to his adoration, so he pulls out the strongest cards to prove his love and devotion for her. He changes water to wine, walks on the water… just to convince her. What's the result of his attempts? Listen to the song and find out yourself."

Deans states: "Here I present to you a simple tale of religious devotion, by way of Marquis de Sade. This little morsel was lensed by fashion photographer Ryan Michael Kelly, and it stars the salacious Nikki Delmonico. The band footage is a combination of the brilliant work of Grupa 13 and my own Kodak Super 8 footage, shot on location in Poland. I hope you enjoy!"

"Magdalene" is taken form ME AND THAT MAN's debut album, "Songs Of Love And Death", which was released in March through Cooking Vinyl.

With the release of this side project, the duo puts away any pre-conceived ideas about what heavy music "should" be. The project draws heavily on blues, country and folk to make music as dark as if it was being screamed over shredding guitars.

"Songs Of Love And Death" is a dark journey through sun-bleached, dusty plains, soundtracked by low-slung acoustic guitars and steeped in the rawest essence of rock and blues. The duo's debut proves to be a revelatory affair for BEHEMOTH's huge global fan base, while simultaneously luring many more people into Nergal's artistic world. Fans of everything from Nick Cave, DANZIG, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash's American Recordings, through to the grim, frontier polemic of WOVENHAND are finding countless mesmerizing moments on the album.

"This album is not meant to turn ME AND THAT MAN fans into BEHEMOTH fans," Nergal notes. "If one day they follow, okay. Something like 'My Church Is Black' is a strong declaration, a song that naturally invites people from the extreme metal world, and perhaps they'll want to enter this world too. They might even like it. With ME AND THAT MAN, I'm telling simple stories in a simple way, not overloaded with metaphors and hidden meanings. It's just got to be as natural, organic and stripped down as it can be."

He further explains: "With ME AND THAT MAN, the songs just come out in a very organic way. One would be bluesy, one would be more of a ballad, but put together they all made sense. I need ME AND THAT MAN to keep the balance, as the potential of my mother band seems limitless. It gets bigger and bigger, more advanced and more sophisticated... and darker ...and blacker. But ME AND THAT MAN is at the opposite pole, artistically speaking. With all the best art, once you have it in you, you have to release it, otherwise it becomes intoxicating and dangerous to your own system. This is how I deal with my emotions and my dark feelings and shadows. This is not happy music, but it's liberating."

"This is a side-project, but I don't really know what it's going to grow into," Nergal concludes. The idea was just to get this music out to people. There's no hidden agenda. It is what it is, and if you like it, it's cool. If you don't, that's cool too. This is the battle we've already won."
"Songs Of Love And Death" features artwork by Daniel P. Carter.