In a conversation with Metal Hammer, Behemoth‘s Nergal and Amon Amarth‘s Johann Hegg talked about Metal, of course, and fans. Here are excerpts of the conversation:
Why do some bands still get rejected so harshly by the metal community?
Nergal: “Let them do whatever they want with it. We’re not here to preach, we’re not here to say what is true or untrue…”
But a lot of fans do seem to take that role themselves…
Nergal: “That’s just kids, you know? That’s their right, the privilege of the age we’re in now. When I see that all over the internet, I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve been there, I’ve done that.’ Let them f**king struggle! Let them battle over this stuff. For them, this is their life. When they see their idols change, they freak out. From our perspective, we see it differently.”
Johan: “Yeah, I think that’s very well put. We’ve all been there. We as a band were there!”
Were you the guys shaking their fists at Metallica for cutting their hair?
Johan: “I mean, obviously we never said that about Metallica – they’re one of my favorite bands – but we used to take the piss out of, for instance, Hammerfall. Even on our albums! Looking back, that was immature, but that’s where we were. And it’s the same with kids; they have their music, they have their favorite bands, and they want to build an identity around the music they listen to. Eventually they’ll probably learn that there’s room for everyone here. You don’t have to like everything.”
Nergal: “I cannot really imagine f**king Kerry King or James Hetfield bashing any bands now. If you really achieve something in your life, if you get successful, and you get a strong sense of who you are and what you’ve achieved, if you don’t like something you just shut the f**k up.”
Johan: “It takes humility to be successful sometimes.”
Nergal: “Exactly. Even at festivals we play, there are bands that can f**king burn. I can’t f**king listen to it, but hey, they’re big, they made it, respect. I’m not gonna listen to them, because it’s not my f**king cup of tea, but I won’t spend a single f**king bit of my energy on hating someone, or even talking about it.”
