54 KERRANG!
“WE KNOW THAT THIS
IS OUR TIME, AND WE
WANT TO SEIZE IT”
BARTŁOMIEJ KRYSIUKhowever, through Bart’s Witching Hour
Productions that those interests in folk tradition,
religion and heavy music truly converged.
The blend of blastbeats, ethereal guitar
lines, droning chants and multilayered vocal
harmonies felt intoxicatingly exotic and ebbed
with unfamiliar mystique. When married to a live
‘liturgy’ that felt closer to an Orthodox Church
service than the sort of campier ‘ritual’ Ghost
have popularised, the metal underground quickly
bought into their communion.
“You need to know that in our region of
Poland, cultures permeate one another. It’s a very
specific mix. You have Orthodoxy, Christianity,
Judaism and Islam – represented by scions of
Tatars. It’s a cultural melting pot, whose elements
are inseparable to me.”
Alongside that blend, the band’s specific
theistic stance has been left tantalisingly
ambiguous. “It’s important for us that we don’t
go straight down the religious side or the
blasphemous side,” Bart nods. “We’re telling
people that it’s okay to check out both.” We
wonder aloud whether it’s better to believe
there is something there than nothing. Another
trademark pause. “It’s always better to believe
that you live within something,” he eventually
replies. “To say that we turn to dust and that is
the end can be very hard. People listening to our
liturgy should remember that it’s their choice.
“Of course, when we go home we are seen
as heretics,” he smiles, darkly. “Our home city
[Białystok] is a very Orthodox place. We can’t
play there, because there will always be some
interference from one of the churches. There
is a ‘brotherhood’ whose approach is basically
‘Orthodox or death’. Our friends understand the
theatrics, though. They get that we are artists and
this is our interpretation. People will say, ‘You are
a blasphemer!’ But that’s not a problem.
“I don’t mind being hated...”A
s of December 2018, it’s been a useful
disposition. It’s almost too fitting to be
true that an act upending Orthodox
imagery should suffer their own schism, but when
founding guitarist Krzysztof Drabikowski took to
social media to announce the band’s acrimonious
‘break-up’, it was deadly serious. Although legal
wrangling continues, Drabikowski’s release of
his own funeral-themed second LP, Panihida,
under an alternate Batushka banner has severely
confused matters. The hardcore fan base is split.
Any kind of outcome is, frustratingly, yet to be
settled upon.
Characteristically, Bart’s focus is one of calm
purpose on the road ahead.
“We’ve been talking about this album for the
last two years,” he gestures. “We didn’t want
to do the same thing again. That’s not good for
fans, nor is it good for us as artists. We wanted
to go deeper, right to the roots of Orthodox and
Byzantic music, looking at those old approaches
where they considered the use of instruments to
be a type of [idolatry].”Musically, dedicated research and work with
renowned theological musicologist Marcin Abijski
has borne much fruit. There needs to be purpose
behind the pageantry, however. That led to the
confrontation of haunting childhood memories.
“My grandma’s death was a terrible blow to
me,” he says, casting his mind back to the late
‘80s. “She raised me, and she was my mentor.
For her generation, going to hospital meant
she knew she would leave this world soon, and
before she died, she demanded the proper
parastas – three days of mourning. It was June,
but they put her body on the table where we
usually dined for those days before it would be
taken outside and put in the coffin. People would
bring small branches of fir to kill the odour. I can
still picture them singing folk tunes around that
table. That was my biggest influence here.”
In a modernising world, Hospodi will keep
those rites and traditions enshrined.
“We lead our lives as though there is no
death,” he nods. “But [when the time comes],
those simple, archaic rituals are there to help
you cope with the reality of it. They help you
understand the metaphysics of it.
“It’s not just about that last sacrament,” he
continues, “but the very personal sense of
emptiness there. I wanted to get back to those
emotional memories, and to go through it
all again. I wanted to get back to the village
to feel that atmosphere.”
In recapturing the intense experience,IT’S ALIVE!
ALIIIIVE!
Seeing BATUSHKA in the
flesh is a live experience
quite unlike any other...As anyone who witnessed their
astonishing recent performance
at Download Festival can attest,
Bastushka’s live show is a sight to
behold. And it’s all part of their
fascinating, mysterious plan.
“When we decided that we
wanted to step forward as a
band,” says Bart, “we understood
that it would be natural to play on
the biggest stages possible.“The stage we are working with
at the minute has a very ‘Greek’
feel, with a lot of gold on show.
The concept of the funeral rite
means there is much going on,
too – inside and out. But
we understood that we
could not forget about
the mystery, because
that’s such a part of
what we do.“One of my favourite memories
was on tour in South America,
where we’d sold out shows of
500 people. Yet in Columbia we
played an aftershow to 80 – we
were so close to them, and
they were going crazy.
“The memory of how
I felt that night is so dear,
I will always carry it
with me in what we do.”That’s the last time we trust
Gumtree for our children’s
entertainer needs...Batushka recorded a 30-minute film, split into five
shorter clips.
“I wanted to show the folk part of the
ceremony,” Bart explains. “The meeting, the
farewell, and the chants sung by those people
who knew the deceased. I was inspired by
[instrumentalist, ethnomusicologist, poet,
songwriter and composer] Adam Strug’s
masterpiece Requiem Ludowe. Although our
music is extreme, and his is more lyrical, I believe
that we’re closer to actual folk rituals than many
people think.”
One can’t help but picture the scene; the body
laid out in a spartan domestic interior, before
being transported to the gold-leafed excess
of the house of worship – the absurdity of the
contrast likely fully intentional. That tension – a
sort of fragile equilibrium, perhaps – between
traditionalism and spiritualism is part of what
makes these rituals so compelling.
‘Hospodi’, Bart explains, may be the Old
Church Slavonic word for ‘God’, but whether
that God is to be worshipped or resented is
tantalisingly open to interpretation.“Hospodi is
God that takes life – the most precious thing that
one has and will ever have. Looking at that, there
are two sides: Sacrum [the sacred] and Profanum
[the profane]. I stand somewhere between the
two, still searching for my place.”
How far, you wonder, will that search take
Batushka? Having already diversified into folkier
territory, and even toyed with more mainstream
metal sounds on Hospodi, might they eventually
move towards the narrower end of extreme
metal, or step away from it entirely?
Bart ponders the question for a moment, then
answers with absolute commitment.
“We are a metal band. We’ve grown up in
the metal scene. This album has been a big step
for us, and although I mightn’t say that we are
getting more mainstream, I do think Hospodi
is more melodic, and perhaps more accessible.
Still, we will always acknowledge our roots in
orthodox music and culture. We have no need to
go looking for something new. We already have
something special. We are happy here.”
And, now that Batushka have broken out of
the underground, just how far can their dark
gospel spread?
“I wouldn’t say there has been any kind of
breakthrough... yet,” Bart asserts, fixing our
gaze as, again, we half-expect a blessing while
we prepare to take our leave.
“There was only hard work at the grass roots.
Everyone around me knows it. We know that this
is our time, and we want to do everything to seize
it. It will take a few years, but I know this band will
bear real fruit in the future.”
The priestly demeanour slips for just a
second as a flash of ravenous determination
spills through for once.
“Our goals will be achieved.” K!BATUSHKA’S NEW ALBUM HOSPODI IS OUT
NOW ON METAL BLADEPHOTO:NAT WOOD