As civilization continues to eat itself, heavy music's dark spiritual quest has never seemed more vital. Emerging from the shadows of eastern Poland back in 2015, Batushka have already established themselves as one of the modern era's most powerful and evocative bands. Harnessing the fire and fury of arcane black metal and channeling it through the reverberant grandeur of ancient rituals of worship, the band's debut album Litourgiya stood apart from the extreme metal hordes: a monument to originality, depth and dark mysticism that swiftly cast its spell over the metal underground and beyond. More than four years on from Litourgiya's extraordinary opening statement, the second Batushka album is destined to be 2019's most transformative metal release. Named after an Old Church Slavonic word for God, Hospodi enhances all the unique qualities that made the band such an instant phenomenon, while offering an entirely distinct and fresh sensory experience, replete with the most ferocious and bewitching songs the Poles have penned to date and a newfound sense of rock swagger. Batushka prove to be the perfect antidote to modern music's vapid superficiality here. As Hospodi exerts its enigmatic allure, the only sane response is to surrender and succumb. Let the ritual begin!
