Review Summary: So, a Polish Satanist and a British emigrant walk into a bar…
There are few musicians who embody the phrase ‘free will’. Adam Darski is one of those people. Universally known as “Nergal”, the front-man for the Polish extreme metal band, Behemoth, Darski has always followed his own instincts with little care for the response. As the closest thing extreme metal has to a renaissance man, a mixture of his achievements range from being a professed Satanist, boldly tearing up bibles on stage, joining a judging panel on a Polish TV talent show and opening a chain of barber shops. Even as the face of Death stared back at his reflection in 2010, when he was diagnosed with an advanced level of Leukaemia, Adam Darksi has always chosen to do things at his own independence.
Going by Darski’s do-what-thou-wilt approach to life, fans of Behemoth should hardly be surprised at Nergal’s latest musical endeavour. After contacting John Porter, a Brit who moved to Poland and carved a successful career as a country-meets-rock-meets-blues artist, the two artists from repelling genres decided to combine forces. John’s latest album had been released on the same Polish label as Behemoth’s, Mystic Productions, thus creating the collaborative connection that would soon materialise as Me and That Man.
Me and That Man’s one-off debut album,
“Songs of Love and Death” , is a bleak journey through sun-bleached, sandy plains, sound-tracked by low-slung acoustic guitars and steeped in the rawest essence of rock and blues. It has a resounding sense of simplicity; not in a way that diminishes the duo’s talent, but in a way that makes the music sound characteristically organic. ‘My Church is Black’ eloquently sets the dusty scene with dragging harmonica and acoustic guitars that throb leisurely around an easygoing drumbeat. It serves as a subtle welcome to those from the extreme metal world as it continues Nergal’s familiar Anti-Christian lyricism, only it’s stripped of spite, obscure metaphors and grandiosity. ‘Better the Devil I Know’ may also draw in oblivious fans as Nergal’s muffled vocals sound like there shrouded in smoke and his lyrics touch on occultism, while the dark, depressed ‘Ain’t much Loving’ illustrates abandonment and the desolation of a man’s spirit.
Cherry-picking from a number of genres, Me and That Man travel down the path that Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen forged. John Porter and Nergal both sound tired and lethargic during ‘Cross My Heart and Hope to Die’ by utilising a baritone pitch that is contrasted against an innocent, child choir hymn that follows. ‘On The Road’ and ‘One Day’ don country outfits as the latter that flaunts light-hearted banjo and lyricism picturing a good ol’ simple life. Conversely, a sombre, gothic tenure is exposed during ‘Of Sirens, Vampires and Lovers’ where melancholy strings and mournful synth glide among John’s aching vocals to project a feeling of desperate longing.
There is nothing challenging about
“Songs of Love and Death” , except how hard fans of Behemoth are going to interpret Me and That Man. It was crafted to be an incredibly simple album that doesn’t delve deeply into asking or answering introspective questions of life, nor to target issues of religion, politics or violence. Simply, it is the sound of one man, working with another man, creating something organic, cleansing and, as Nergal says, necessary in balancing the extreme side of his musical life.
