BATUSHKA / БАТЮШКА (Live at Hammersonic Festival Open Air 2023 // Jakarta // Indonesia)

Introduction: Batushka (stylized in Cyrillic as БАТЮШКА) is a Polish black metal band formed by Krzysztof Drabikowski. Their music and lyrics, which are written exclusively in Church Slavonic language, are inspired by the Eastern Orthodox band members wear habits and Eastern Orthodox schemas during live performances to conceal their identities. In contrast with many other black metal bands, they use eight-string guitars. A falling out between Drabikowski and vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk in 2018 led to Krysiuk starting his own version of Batushka, which released its own recordings and performs separately from the original band. Drabikowski protested the move and does not consider Krysiuk’s band legitimate. About Naming: The word Batushka (Russian Cyrillic: Батюшка), meaning “father“, is the titular equivalent of a hieromonk in Eastern Orthodoxy or, broadly, of any Orthodox priest. The transcription used by the band is improper, another possible transcription of Батюшка into Latin would be Batyushka Short Historical: Batushka was founded in Białystok in the spring of 2015 by multi instrumentalist Krzysztof “Derph“ Drabikowski at his home studio, Sphieratz Productions in Sobolewo; he came up with the idea of combining black metal and traditional liturgical songs of the Orthodox Church after reading comments on YouTube videos of Orthodox music, saying how “God’s hymns are more metal than any satanic black metal music out there“. Throughout the first quarter of 2015, Drabikowski proceeded to compose and record the music, write the lyrics, paint the artwork for the album and create the band’s overall concept by himself until deciding to bring Marcin Bielemiuk to re-record the drum parts in acoustic percussion. Drabikowski originally invited his friend and former Heuresis bandmate Lech to do the vocal parts but dropped out of the project because he didn’t know how to write old Church Slavonic. In July 2015, before adding the finishing touches on the album, Drabikowski recruited Hermh vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk to record the vocals. The album was completed in the following months and Drabikowski convinced Krysiuk and Bielemiuk to make Batushka an anonymous project; according to Drabikowski, this was decided in order for the listeners to focus on the musical experience itself, as such and for the next year the band’s line up remained unknown to the public and started using monikers in Cyrillic to further conceal their identities. The group released the single “Yekteníya VII“ in November 2015, prior to their debut album Литоургиіа (“Litourgiya“) (“Lithurgy“) in December. Both recordings were released through Witching Hour Productions, owned by vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk. The album was critically acclaimed, with various sites naming Litourgiya one of the best metal albums of 2015, it also became a commercial hit in the Polish metal scene. The album’s overwhelming success prompted the band to start touring due to massive demand from various European festivals. The band’s live line up featured a total of 8 performers: Drabikowski on lead guitars, Krysiuk on lead vocals, and Bielemiuk on drums alongside 3 backing vocalists, a bassist, and a rhythm guitarist. Following some regional touring, concerts in Russia and Belarus were also planned, but were canceled due to protests and alleged death threats made against them. This incident also ended the public anonymity of the band’s core line up since Drabikowski started doing interviews explaining the situation. In 2016, together with Behemoth and Bölzer, the group embarked on a concert tour in Poland called Rzeczpospolita Niewierna (“The Republic of the Unfaithful“). In 2017 they performed at Wacken Open Air and Brutal Assault. In October 2017, the band were signed to Metal Blade Records in the US and rereleased Litourgiya worldwide in both physical media and digital platforms, the signing of the band, however, was done without the knowledge and involvement of founder and main composer Krzysztof Drabikowski. In April 2018, Marcin Bielemiuk left the project for undisclosed reasons. A year later on 24 May 2019, he stated on a Facebook post that he was fired by Drabikowski after he criticized his attitude and behaviour toward him, Krysiuk and the rest of the band’s live performers.