Announcing In Absentia Dei: Heavy Metal vs. the Church

We’re delighted to announce that the w\m/c returns with a series of livestream events designed to challenge, confront, and break new ground beginning with an audience with Nergal of Behemoth and Lucien Greaves, founder of the Satanic Temple as part of Behemoth’s In Absentia Dei pre-show

Following a successful launch with our debut event in 2019, the World Metal Congress has returned in digital form, and we hope to continue our work in bringing together great music and challenging ideas together in celebration of heavy metal’s global impact.

Ahead of Behemoth’s immersive livestream experience In Absentia Dei, World Metal Congress is very honoured to host an online discussion between frontman Nergal and Lucien Greaves, co-founder of The Satanic Temple.

Nergal should need no introduction. He is the lead singer of Behemoth, the planet-beating death metal band from Poland’s Gdansk who formed almost 30 years ago. One of the biggest extreme metal bands in the world, Behemoth were crucial in establishing the metal scene in their own country and then bringing Polish metal to a wider global audience. They recently released the EP A Forest, tracks of which they will be debuting live during the In Absentia Dei performance. Behemoth have promised their 12th studio album will be released next year.

Nergal also has a successful solo recording career with a side project called Me And That Man. Earlier in 2020 he released the band’s second album New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1 which featured guest vocalists Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Matt Heafy (Trivium), Ihsahn (Emperor) and Niklas Kvarforth (Shining, et al). Now a household name in Poland thanks to appearing as a coach on the Polish TV show The Voice of Poland, Nergal was born in 1977 ND raised as Catholic. In 2010 he was held on trial in Poland on blasphemy charges for publicly denouncing religion.

From Detroit in the USA, Lucien Greaves is a social activist and co-founder of The Satanic Temple. A Harvard graduate of neuroscience, Lucien is a recognised expert speaker on humanism, atheism and secular issues. As an activist he has led several political demonstrations and legal actions designed to highlight social issues involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state in America. In 2013 he co-founded The Satanic Temple which uses Satanic imagery and devices to highlight social inequality and injustice through the use of satire, pranks, and theatre, as well as legal actions and political lobbying. His work is also subject of a recent documentary, Hail Satan? directed by Penny Lane. (Watch a trailer here.)

• Watch it on here as part of the In Absentia Dei pre-show on Friday, September 4th at 9pm CEST / 8pm BST / 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT

Get your tickets to In Absentia Dei here!