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Many musicians are fans of kinds and genres of music other than theirs, and this is a healthy thing. However, from being a fan to creating the music that you are a fan of, can be a difficult task even for musicians. And I guess it is also a risk when it comes to musicians like Adam Darski aka Nergal, the founder and frontman of Behemoth, who have already left their mark in music. I am not implying that music has limits – on the contrary. The risk could be found in the potentials a musician has and what he/she achieves when trying something different from what their fans know them for.

Back in 2014, Adam Darski said in an interview with The Quietus: “… The fact that I’m a heavy metal musician doesn’t make me go this one and only way; I’m here to be on this path and simultaneously be beyond it. I dwell in several different dimensions, some of them may look weird to you, some may seem to exclude one another, but for me, they don’t. To me they complete the full picture of complexity that is this duality of my nature.”.

And there was Me And That Man.

Adam joined forces with the British-born rock/blues musician John Porter and released on April 14th the debut album of Me And That Man ‘Songs Of Love And Death‘, a mix of dark country, blues, and folk rock. The metalheads who are fans of Behemoth will know that behind Nergal moniker is an open-minded musician. It’s not only that Adam Darski is a fan of folk/country rock and blues – Mark Lanegan, Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams III, to mention a few- it is also that he needed to expand his musical vision and possibilities as an artist.

Those who are fans of this genre will easily recognize the influences. Each track of the album comes as a representative of various artists who defined the genre, such as ‘My Church Is Black‘, ‘Cross My Heart And Hope To Die‘, ‘Magdalene‘, ‘Ain’t Much Loving‘, to pick some. The influential spirits of Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits are found in this album, which serves the “americana” sound.

Songs Of Love And Death‘ is an album which impresses with its simplicity in composition and lyrics. Me And That Man is about two musicians who don’t necessarily want to impress and shine through this, but mostly to serve the music they love and share the feelings their collab offered them. This is why this album is a very good effort with a satisfying result.

Mary Kalaitzidou