By DJ Monk
For those unfamiliar with the concept – and, if you’re not, where the feck have you been hiding for the past few years – Me And That Man is a sort of “alter ego” project from Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski which has seen him explore a much darker, and much personal side, of his artistry than the pure black metal limitations of Behemoth have allowed him to do. Now, Darski has never been a man to compromise. In his 25 years as the frontman of Behemoth, one of the most iconic, confrontational and innovative extreme metal bands not only of their own but any generation, he has never backed down from a fight. He has taken on leukaemia – and beaten it. He has taken on the Polish government – and beaten it. He has taken on the critics, and beaten us, consistently. He has stood on the precipice, and jumped wholeheartedly into the abyss below, confident in the knowledge that he will both survive and prevail.
In 2017, he confronted every preconception about himself with MATM’s bold and striking debut album, ‘Songs Of Love And Death’; it was a release which defied everything everyone thought they know about the man, and which stood proudly as a statement of his personal defiance, his continual desire to be the man that he wants to be, and knows he can be, answerable to no one but himself. Now, he has returned to that fight with the highly aptly named ‘New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1’, his latest collection of explorations of his love of Americana, country, blues and murder ballads, as well as multiple other cross-genre sounds, including industrial punk and noiserock.
Once again exploring the same gothic noir terror-tory inhabited by the souls of Cohen, Cash (at least in his later years), Cave and Waits, there is one major difference between ‘New Man…’ and that declarative debut. Whereas ‘Songs Of Love And Death’ was a straightforward collaboration between Darski and the English/Polish composer and multi-instrumentalist John Porter), ‘New Man…’ sees him teaming up with a whole host of special guests, only taking the lead vocals once as he hands the mic over to the likes of Corey Taylor, Brent Hinds, Ihsahn, Volbeat’s Rob Caggiano, Entombed’s Nicke Anderson and Matt Heafy, as well as Jørgen Munkeby and Niklas Kvarforth, from the Norwegian and Swedish incarnations of Shining respectively.
Each of the guest contributions undoubtedly helps to add to the depth and width of ‘New Man…’, which, in turn, in many ways, is a much lighter offering than its predecessor – even the likes of the morbid ‘Burning Churches’ is presented with a deftness of touch that belies the darkness of its subject matter while also evoking the sort of abject irony that Dr John brought to his canon. Darski also succeeds in drawing out new, previously unexplored aspects of each of the contributors’ musical characters: on ‘By The River’, Ihsahn, for example, delivers a dense, dynamic torch-like performance which truly exploits the upper end of his range searing and soaring in its surprising nuances, while Nicke Anderson blends seamlessly into his collaboration with Lucifer’s Johana Sadonis on the pumping harp-led country jig that is ‘Deep Down South’ in a way which is just sublime as it is surprising.
Elsewhere, other highlights – and it is not really fair to draw any out, as each and every one of these tracks is a true work of art – include the gospel-infused stomp of ‘Surrender’ (featuring Rob Caggiano alongside Swedish industrialists Dead Soul).
‘New Man…’ does not have the immediacy of ‘Songs…’. It takes more than a few listens to really get into the essence and fibre of its being. But, when you take time to bite through its façade and explore its fluorescence-lit depths, then it is a richly rewarding listening experience, and one to which you will find yourself coming back to, time and again, in the search for redemption for those dark thoughts that these dark times undoubtedly will bring to many of us.
- ‘New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1’ is released today (Friday 27 March). You can get your copy HERE.
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