Sophia Deboick considers the English-language version of Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski’s autobiography, a work of more than just sensationalism for its own sake, via the Polish people’s love for scrambled eggs, The Voice and polarising views on religion

Music and religion have shared a close relationship for Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski ever since he bought his first electric guitar with money he was given for his first communion. The now infamous Bible-ripping incident at a 2007 gig in Darski’s home town of Gdynia cemented this relationship in the public imagination and has dogged the Behemoth frontman for years. Dragged through the courts on the basis of an anachronistic blasphemy law, Darksi was only finally cleared of all offences in the Polish Supreme Court earlier this month. His compelling confrontation of his 2010 leukaemia diagnosis as a literal battle – ‘It was not a hospital, but more a front line’, he explains – as well as his appearance as a judge on TV talent show The Voice of Poland, provoking antagonists from the Polish Catholic Church and right wing populist Law and Justice Party to threaten a licence fee strike over the appearance of this ‘Satanist’ on publicly-funded television, has seen Darski become a personality of interest far beyond the boundaries of metal culture. Now, in a book that sets him up as a kind of Renaissance man, the notoriously opinionated Darski gets the chance to lay out his philosophy on celebrity, religion, history, Polishness, life and near death in full. Taking an ‘in conversation’ format, and translated from the 2012 Polish original which won a place on Polish book chain Empik’s bestseller list, the book confirms Darski’s image as a serious and unique character who has more to offer than just his music…

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