More than three decades after helping shape the early Finnish black metal underground, Beherit are finally preparing to unleash their music on Australian stages this December. But for founder Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance, bringing the band back to life was never simply about recreating the past.
When I caught up with Nuclear for Crannk ahead of Beherit’s first Australian performances alongside Portal, one thing became pretty bloody clear. He’s spent much of his musical life following whatever creative direction interests him, whether that’s the primitive brutality of the band’s earliest recordings, the hypnotic darkness of Drawing Down the Moon, or the electronic experimentation that took Beherit somewhere completely different.
And even now, after several years of bringing those classic recordings back to the live stage, he’s already considering what comes next.
Our conversation took us from a connection with Australia’s Portal stretching back to the Engram era, through Beherit’s deliberately unpredictable live performances, and towards the possibility of another transformation for a project that has never been particularly interested in following the rules.
A Connection With Portal That Goes Back to 2009
One of the more interesting discoveries I made while researching Beherit was an interview Nuclear gave back in 2009, when he mentioned plans to travel to Brisbane and catch up with members of Portal.
That immediately caught my attention, particularly considering that Beherit are finally heading to Australia in 2026, with Portal joining them for three shows presented by Soundworks Direct.
When I brought up that old interview, Nuclear confirmed he’d travelled through Australia shortly after recording Engram, spending time in Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as Auckland in New Zealand. He recalled spending approximately two months travelling through the region, and the idea of the two bands sharing a stage was already being discussed back then.
“We had the vision that it would be great to play together,” he recalled.
While Nuclear didn’t specifically confirm whether that original Brisbane meeting happened, the idea of performing alongside Portal had clearly been around for a long time.
And there’s something particularly fitting about the pairing.
Portal have spent decades developing their own deeply unsettling approach to death metal, creating music that feels almost deliberately hostile to conventional structure. Beherit, meanwhile, emerged from the early black metal underground with a similarly uncompromising attitude before Nuclear began pushing the music into increasingly experimental territory.
Neither band has ever seemed particularly concerned with fitting comfortably into the expectations of its genre.
Now, after years of that connection existing in the background, Australian audiences will finally get to experience both bands sharing the same stage.
Finding the Sound That Makes Beherit Unmistakable
One of the things I’ve always found fascinating about Beherit is just how far Nuclear has been prepared to take the music.
Those early recordings were absolutely fucking savage. Primitive guitars, distorted vocals, chaotic rhythms and a rawness that helped establish Beherit as one of the more uncompromising names in the emerging black metal underground.
Then there’s Drawing Down the Moon, an album that still carries plenty of that original brutality but introduces something altogether more hypnotic. The slower passages, repetitive arrangements and unsettling atmospheres give the music an identity that reaches beyond simply trying to sound as extreme as possible.
From there, Nuclear moved into electronic territory with H418ov21.C and Electric Doom Synthesis, exploring dark ambient compositions, industrial textures and experimental soundscapes.
On paper, those records might look like the work of completely different artists. But listening across the catalogue, I’ve always felt there’s something connecting them.
When I put that observation to Nuclear, he took things right back to the late eighties, when Beherit were teenagers in a rehearsal room making brutal noise and experimenting with sounds that sometimes crossed into grindcore territory.
The nineties brought an increasing interest in electronic music and ambient experimentation, before that journey eventually led him back towards recording with a metal band on Engram.
What stood out was how naturally he spoke about those different periods. There was no suggestion that moving away from black metal had been a mistake, or that returning to heavier music meant abandoning everything he’d explored in between.
“I’m lucky that I have had the freedom to kind of make whatever comes to the mind,” Nuclear explained.
That freedom seems fundamental to how he approaches Beherit.
Rather than deciding what a black metal band should sound like and remaining within those boundaries, he’s followed the sounds and ideas that interested him, allowing the music to change along the way.
Despite those changes, Nuclear believes listeners can still recognise Beherit’s underlying identity.
I find that particularly interesting because it suggests the band’s sound has never depended entirely on distorted guitars, blast beats or even a particular style of songwriting. The atmosphere itself has always been part of the foundation, regardless of the instruments being used to create it.
Rebuilding Beherit Instead of Recreating the Past
That same philosophy played a major role in Nuclear’s decision to bring Beherit back to the live stage.
He explained that people had been asking for years whether the band would perform again, but he initially struggled to see the point in simply repeating what they’d already done during the early nineties.
For Nuclear, there needed to be another reason to return.
The answer came from looking at the different musical worlds he’d explored over the years and considering what might happen if they were brought together.
Instead of reproducing the original recordings exactly as they were, Beherit could combine those familiar riffs and rhythms with electronic noise, experimental textures and additional atmospheric layers.
Nuclear recalled earlier live experiments and performances, including an appearance in Osaka that received an encouraging response. As the live project developed, the band continued introducing more electronic elements into the arrangements.
But there was an important balance to maintain.
He didn’t want the electronics to overwhelm the original compositions. The audience still needed to recognise the songs, even as the performances began taking on a different character.
Nuclear now concentrates on vocals, electronics and sampling, while the other musicians provide the instrumental foundation for material originally created more than thirty years ago.
Songs such as “The Gate of Nanna” and “Salomon’s Gate” remain recognisable, but the atmosphere surrounding them can develop into something considerably different from the original recordings.
Rather than treating Beherit’s black metal and electronic periods as separate musical identities, those different approaches can now exist together on stage.
And that leads into what might be the most interesting part of the band’s current performances.
No Click Tracks, No Synchronisation and Embracing the Chaos
One of my favourite moments from our conversation came when I asked Nuclear how much of Beherit’s live electronic material was prepared beforehand and how much came from improvisation.
His answer explained a great deal about why those performances can become so unpredictable.
“We don’t use any click tracks,” he told me.
There’s no rigid synchronisation holding everything in place, and the band doesn’t approach every song with each detail predetermined.
Nuclear was careful to explain that the performances aren’t entirely improvised. There are established arrangements and musical ideas that provide a foundation, but within those arrangements the musicians have considerable freedom.
Introductions can change depending on the mood, and individual sections aren’t necessarily confined to a specific number of repetitions.
“We don’t really count how many times we play some riffs,” he explained.
Think about that for a moment.
You’ve got musicians performing material that has existed for decades, with familiar riffs and arrangements, but they’re not necessarily following exactly the same structure every night.
The drummer responds to the music, Nuclear introduces electronic sounds and noise, and the band allows the performance to develop according to what’s happening between them.
For anyone accustomed to modern metal performances built around click tracks, backing tracks and tightly programmed arrangements, it’s a completely different approach.
And Nuclear clearly enjoys that unpredictability.
He spoke about unexpected noises appearing during performances, things not quite going according to plan, and moments where even the musicians themselves aren’t entirely sure where a particular sound has come from.
Rather than allowing those moments to ruin the experience, they become part of it.
What might be considered a mistake in a more controlled live production can become another unexpected element in a Beherit performance.
There’s something particularly appropriate about that when you consider where the band began. Those earliest recordings were made by young musicians experimenting with limited equipment and pushing their instruments towards sounds that didn’t necessarily fit established expectations.
More than three decades later, Nuclear has access to completely different technology, but he’s still leaving room for the unexpected.
The chaos hasn’t disappeared. He’s simply found more ways to create it.
Beherit Could Be Heading Towards Another Transformation
Towards the end of our conversation, I wanted to know whether returning to live performance had changed the way Nuclear thinks about creating new Beherit music.
His response offered an interesting glimpse into what might lie ahead.
After spending almost three years performing variations of the classic material, Nuclear is beginning to look towards something different.
He mentioned ideas involving a potentially different lineup, guest musicians and another shift in musical direction.
Nothing was presented as a confirmed new album or an official announcement of personnel changes. These were possibilities he was considering as the project continues developing.
But the reasoning behind them was familiar.
Nuclear doesn’t appear interested in performing the same material indefinitely simply because people want to hear it. He’s already looking for another creative reason to move forward.
That doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the music that brought Beherit back to the stage. It means allowing the project to become something different again when the time feels right.
Perhaps the most revealing part of his answer came when he explained how he views Beherit itself.
Rather than treating it as a conventional band operating within fixed boundaries, he described it as “more like a project in that way.”
And I think that distinction explains quite a lot about Beherit’s history.
The early black metal recordings, the electronic albums, the return with Engram, the later ambient experimentation and the current live incarnation are all different expressions of Nuclear’s creative interests.
There doesn’t appear to be any obligation to remain in one of those worlds forever.
Exactly what comes next remains uncertain, but after listening to Nuclear talk about the band’s history, it’s difficult to imagine him being satisfied simply repeating something he’s already done.
Australia Finally Gets to Experience Beherit
Before we wrapped up, Nuclear returned to how long the Australian performances had been in the planning and how pleased he was that Beherit would finally share the stage with Portal.
For Australian black metal fans, it’s a pretty significant moment.
Beherit emerged from an underground scene where recordings travelled through tape trading and small independent labels, long before the band had anything resembling the international audience it attracts today.
Those same recordings have since reached generations of listeners who discovered them at completely different points in their lives.
But what I found most interesting during our conversation was that Nuclear isn’t approaching these performances simply as an exercise in preserving history.
He understands the importance of those original songs and still wants audiences to recognise them. At the same time, he’s determined to leave room for improvisation, unexpected sounds and whatever else might happen when the musicians get together on stage.
It’s the same creative restlessness that has followed Beherit from those earliest rehearsal rooms through decades of musical experimentation.
After all this time, Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance still seems far more interested in discovering what Beherit can become than simply celebrating what it used to be.
And this December, Australia finally gets its turn to experience that bloody chaos.
BEHERIT WITH SPECIAL GUESTS PORTAL — AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
Presented by Soundworks Direct
Friday 11 December — Melbourne
Max Watt’s
Saturday 12 December — Sydney
Manning Bar
Sunday 13 December — Brisbane
The Princess Theatre
Tour information and tickets: Soundworks Direct
