Batushka is a fascinating Polish doom/black metal/post black/post metal band, who released a pretty innovative and unique album back in 2015. The album is titled ''Litourgiya'' and it packs a completely innovative mix of atmospheric black metal/post metal/doom and Russian or Eastern orthodox church prayer style vocals. This is of course something that no-one has ever tried before. At least as far as I am aware of. Thus the album packs a unique eerie Eastern orthodox feel.
The album packs a total of 8 tracks with the tracks all being titled ''Yekteniya'' and numbered from one to eight accordingly. The first track ''Yekteniya 1'' also happens to be one of the best tracks on the all-round great album as it mixes the Eastern orthodox style vocals with some black metal growling vocals, as well as packing a heavy and memorable instrumental black metal section. The same can be said about the next tracks as well, only that perhaps the black metal vocals are more dominant over the orthodox vocals. Nevertheless the slower parts of the track tend to work almost perfectly with these fascinating vocals. Instrumentally the track is obviously pretty good as well, and so is the entire album really. One of the best tracks instrumentally is perhaps ''Yekteniya 3'' - a track with a thoroughly epic post black metal feel to it. While saying this then the album is pretty solid from start to finish and there aren't really many weak tracks, with the likes of ''Yekteniya 6'' and ''Yekteniya 8'' perhaps standing out more. The latter also tends to have more of a post-metal/doom vibe to it, which is enjoyable for me.
All in all Batushka have achieved something innovative and awesome with ''Litourgiya'', and the band is like a breath of fresh air when black metal/post-black/post-metal is concerned. The album is definitely worth checking out for anyone who is into some fine epic and atmospheric post-black with Eastern othodox church liturgy style vocals. The album really does work wonders.
Some related links:
Bandcamp: https://witchinghourproductions.bandcamp.com/album/litourgiya
