Batushka - Litourgiya Review

During our decade, it seems that Poland is for black metal what Norway was in the 90s and France in the 00s. Hoodies have replaced corpse paint and with bands such as Mgła, Cultes Des Ghoules, Furia (POL) and now Batushka, this eastern European country is out to become the leader of the pack for the extreme genre. Litourgiya is hands down the best debut of 2015 and is battling with Mgła's Exercises In Futility for the title of black metal album of the year. And it probably beats it.

Litourgiya is the vision and the musical child of Кристофор, who is responsible for all the compositions and created everything in his own studio. He then recruited Мартин to play the drum parts and when this was finished, Кристофор wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals with Варфоломей. In the end, they designed the cover art in the traditional way; tempera with egg and paint on wood and the result is exactly what the word "art" suggests.

Musically, Litourgiya grabs you from its first notes; you realise that you're in for a real treat by something truly unique and original. The orthodox chanting, chimes and bells that capture the attention in the beginning are present throughout the album's duration. In addition, you have everything that you expect in a black metal release that respects itself: tremolo picking and heavily distorted guitar riffs, occasional blastbeats, low and thick basslines, shrieking vocals and unpolished production. The chanting though is what makes the album extra special, being present in the slower as well as in the faster parts and creating a mystic and theatrical atmosphere that is rarely encountered.

I am not sure what message this album wants to convey, if it is a blasphemous release that mocks orthodox Christianity or if it's the exact opposite, that is a christian black metal album (now this is an oxymoron!). In my opinion there is no clear underlying message and the band just decided to weave the two together in a way that no one had done it before in such an astonishing manner. I also haven't read any interviews from Batushka clearly taking one side or the other. Instead, they seem very preoccupied to preserve the mystery of their anonymity and they are successful at this so far, although there are rumours that they are members of other well-known bands.

It's natural to be a little suspicious when a band or an album is surrounded by so much hype, but let me tell you that in this case it is completely justified. Litourgiya is insanely good, it is original, it has song structures that most bands would be jealous of and it contains no fillers whatsoever. I am very curious as to how this particular style can be evolved and remain interesting in future releases, but for now this opus here is nothing short of brilliant and Batushka put it out there for all of us to enjoy it.