How Behemoth's Nergal Learned to Scream

Behemoth frontman Nergal is the latest harsh vocalist to join Loudwire on ‘How I Learned to Scream.’

Just like Nick Holmes from Bloodbath and Paradise Lost, Nergal’s introduction to extreme vocals came from Venom. “It was Cronos who really made me want to scream,” Nergal says. “He was a vocalist but also a combination of screaming and singing, because his screaming technique kind of included the melody in it as well.”

As a kid, Nergal would listen to Kreator and attempt to imitate the sound of Mille Petrozza, and for a good portion of Behemoth’s career, Nergal was unaware of the techniques to preserve a guttural vocalist’s voice. “In the very early days and the first tours and even during our 2000s tours, I had a tendency to kill my voice every now and then. I remember the tours for Apostasy… wow… it was a lot of effort to pull it off.”

“I never practice my vocals,” Nergal continues. “That may be disappointing for some, but I never do it. Even in rehearsals I never sing, I basically talk the lyrics using my regular voice. What does the trick for me is the adrenaline and the environment, so for me, the screaming environment is when I make magic with the audience or I’m in the studio and I set up an altar or something. I never go into a studio that looks like a lab, no, I get into the mood.”

Find out more about how Nergal learned to scream and how he preserves his voice in the video below. Behemoth’s new album Opvs Contra Natvram is available now. To grab a copy, click here.