BEHEMOTH have released "In League With Satan", the second single from "I, Scvlptor" — and the song is a VENOM cover with Shagrath of DIMMU BORGIR on guest vocals. The full release landed today, digitally through Nuclear Blast Records and physically through Massacre Records, with the video handled by the Polish production collective Grupa 13.
The cover started as a tour poster. "When we were looking for a name for our tour with DIMMU BORGIR, I thought it would be great to use a timeless slogan and basically quote the gods of satanic rock'n'roll — VENOM and 'In League With Satan' perfectly fit my vision," Adam "Nergal" Darski said. Having borrowed the slogan, the two bands went and made the record.
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"We recorded it on seven-string guitars with Shagrath from DIMMU as a guest vocalist," Nergal said. "The song gained a massive weight and a completely new dimension." That is a fair description of what happens to a 1981 Newcastle three-chord incantation when it is dropped an octave and handed to two of the biggest names in European black metal.
Nergal has been careful about what "I, Scvlptor" actually is. "We're fucking excited about the release of 'I, Scvlptor'. Even though it's not a regular studio album and is, in fact, more of a compilation, the mere fact that it contains songs nobody has ever heard before makes it a significant release for us."
Eight tracks: seven new studio recordings and one live cut. Two are re-recorded versions of early BEHEMOTH material, from the years when the band were still a raw Polish black metal outfit rather than the extreme-metal institution they became. Alongside the VENOM cover sits a BATHORY cover featuring Sakis Tolis of ROTTING CHRIST — two debts paid on the same record.
The full tracklist runs: "I, Scvlptor"; "Lord Ov The Horizons"; "Rise Of The Blackstorm Of Evil"; "In Thy Pandemaeternum"; "Begotten"; "In League With Satan"; "The Return Of Darkness And Evil" (live); and an alternative version of "Lord Ov The Horizons". It is out on CD, LP, cassette and a limited-edition box set.
The timing matters. Nergal said in June that BEHEMOTH will take at least a year off once their autumn 2026 touring is finished, which makes "I, Scvlptor" the last thing fans hear from the band for a while — a stopgap, but a loaded one, and the tour it is named after is the send-off.