Batushka - Litourgiya (2015)^{Release ID: 2726}

I've really enjoyed this week's revisit to one of the more popular black metal releases of the 2010's. "Litourgiya" is essentially made up of some fairly traditional & simply structured but very well executed Polish black metal with the ground-breaking addition of some church-style chanted male vocals as a clear point of differentiation. This certainly making for an interesting combination but if I'm honest I'd have to suggest that it's not that component of Batushka's sound that I find most appealing. In fact, the weakest moments on the album generally match up with the less inspired chant sections. The best elements at play here are the searing black metal screams & the incredibly precise blast beats. For the record, I actually had to check I wasn't listening to programmed drums when I first encountered this album, such was the sheer confidence & control on display. The riffs aren't anything all that different to what you would usually expect however the guitars appear to be down-tuned which gives Batushka a slightly different tone to most of the competition. Closer "Ектения • VIII • Спасение" is the only track that I find to be a genuine classic but there are no weak tracks included which makes "Litourgiya" a very professional & high quality release with enough accessibility to appeal to broad cross-section of extreme metal fans.

For fans of Cult of Fire, Mgła & early Uada.

We are all now familiar with the farcical goings-on surrounding Polish black metallers Batushka and their ridiculous legal wranglings, so I won't dwell on that any more than to acknowledge that they are happening. Anyway, going back to (presumably) happier times for the band, Litourgiya was released at the back end of 2015 to much critical acclaim. The reason for the album garnering so much attention was it's combination of clashing orthodoxies, savage black metal and Byzantine liturgical chanting. The question of the time was whether the band were believers combining their faith with black metal, or a black metal act committing an act of blasphemy by incorporating Eastern Orthodox devotions with unholy black metal. Unfortunately the band copped out and refused to elaborate, saying the album meant whatever the listener wanted it to mean, which is obviously bullshit as it's hard to conceive of the album being written without a definitive standpoint. Of course, there is a third explanantion that it was merely a novelty and a gimmick to garner attention, but personally I dismiss this idea.

The black metal on offer here is quite straightforward, with some variation of pacing and a number of damn good blasts, but if that was the sum total of this album then, in truth, it wouldn't stand out especially from the crowd. What does set it apart then is that one half of the dual vocals utilises Russian Orthodox chants which gives the music a dimension that sets it apart from the BM herd. It's effect is a little like The Omen using Orff's Carmina burana or The Exorcist and Tubular Bells, taking a benign and gorgeous musical idea and repurposing it by using it in a satanic setting to give it a more sinister dimension.

I was initially blown away by this, but time and subsequent listens have dulled the effect of the chants and what that leaves is a very good, but not great, albeit unique black metal album. It is, however, still much better than either of the Batushka's subsequent albums, but that is a story for another day.