Author: Kristijan Matjašič
Photos: Kristijan Matjašič
Location: Štuk, Maribor
Concert date: 01.12.2017
Ticket price: €20 presale, €24 on the day of the show
At the beginning of December, on the 1st to be exact, which more or less kicks off Advent, Polish black metallers Batushka came to hold mass for us. Advent is just the right time for a gig like this. Surprisingly, the show went down in Maribor’s Štuk and not at some bigger, better-known club in Ljubljana.
The atmosphere was first conjured up by our own black metallers Srd, who play mostly in Slovenian, and it’s pretty interesting to hear a demonic »growl« in our mother tongue. When the support band is on, people usually hang around outside rather than in the hall, but that wasn’t the case here, as the hall was already pretty full during Srd’s set. A few people were even singing along to their lyrics, which shows that Srd are a well-known and well-loved band among Slovenian listeners of the genre.
Before the Polish metal priests arrived, we could smell the incense in the hall, the same kind used in our Christian churches. I grew up in a God-fearing family on my grandmother’s side and even served as an altar boy, so I know exactly what it smells like. Even before the show began, they signaled that we were attending a mass, though the opposite of the one we’re used to. Then they launched into playing their one and only album, Litourgiya. The album has 8 songs, so 8 parts, called Yekteniye. The whole album is sung in Polish/Russian. Even though the language is foreign to us, it takes us into the cold, gloomy churches of Russian priests.
All the band members wear masks and robes reminiscent of RUSSIAN priests, not Polish ones. Their faces are hidden behind masks with no eyes and no mouth. Kind of like Ghost, but somehow more realistic and serious, not so »poser-ish«. The whole band acts as if they’re envoys or enforcers of the word of God, in metal form. All of this is emphasized even more by the three backing vocalists, whose choral, almost Gregorian voices cut through the blast beats and the growling of the »parish priest« who leads the entire mass/ritual.
In front of the altar they have an image of a woman with a child, which probably represents Mary with Jesus. Toward the end of the show, the singer takes this image in his hands so the whole band can bow to it. During the show, the lead singer also blesses us and honors us with his gestures. At the end, some people wanted at least one more song, but unfortunately the band had nothing left to play, since they only have one album.
Luckily, the crowd was civilized, as is only fitting for a black metal show. Still, there’s always one character who ruins the vibe of a »proper mass« with shouting and inappropriate comments. The biggest problem at the end of the show, though, is when you want to go get autographs from the band members but you don’t actually know who they are, since they’re masked the whole time they’re on stage. Only the singer was easier to figure out, since he’s not exactly skinny.
Word has it that Batushka is made up of members of Poland’s Mgła and Behemoth. Some people even think one of them is Nergal, Behemoth’s frontman. But that’s not possible, since he’s banned from entering Russia, and Batushka have played a few shows on Russian soil.
Setlist
1. Yekteníya 1
2. Yekteníya 2
3. Yekteníya 3
4. Yekteníya 4
5. Yekteníya 5
6. Yekteníya 6
7. Yekteníya 7
8. Yekteníya 8
