An Open Letter to Adam Darski (Nergal)

Adam, I have been familiar with your project, Behemoth, for several years now and would finally like to take the time to make a few philosophical/worldview comments on the meaning and direction of the band. I would like to start by recognizing your apparent well-educated perspective on things spiritual and mystical. You seem to be well read on the dark, Nietzschean philosophical perspective and explanations, and, judging by your recent video "Lucifer", have some exposure to Eastern Orthodoxy, at least Eastern Orthodox icons.

But I would like to make a few comments on your perspectives, at least as explored in your videos and lyrics. As I see your videos or read your lyrics, I have to wonder at why you find such appeal in darkness, ugliness and death. The worlds you create and the fantasies in which you revel are strictly the fruit of your own imagination, there has never been and never will be, a reality that mirrors your fantasies. What seems especially odd to me is this obsession with darkness, evil and destruction in light of your recent diagnosis of cancer. When you received a diagnosis of cancer, you expended much energy and time to defeat the disease. In that circumstance, you chose to seek after life and to fight against sickness and death. Why?

I would suggest that deep inside your person, you understand that light and life are superior to death, darkness and destruction. The meaning and strength that you seek are found only in historic Christianity. The depth, the mystery and the beauty of the historic Christian faith far surpass anything in Babylonian or Egyptian lore, or the human imagination.

The trouble that so many people have is the failure to rightly see the historic Christian faith.  A large part of this problem comes from the very distorted example of Christianity as represented by Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. These two deviations from the historic Christian faith have dangerously altered the common view of Christianity.

As you are someone well educated in history, I strongly suggest that you pursue a deeper understanding of the historic Christian faith. This would begin with you instigating a dialogue with someone in the Polish Orthodox Church. I would suggest:

Father Darius Jozwik

Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church

ul. Traugutta 45, 80-221

in Gdansk, Wrzeszcz

telephone # 58 341 95 30

I really hope that you are willing to pursue this challenge and honest enough to embrace the results of such an investigation. I am praying for you.