Панихида

What do you expect from a second album? Judging from the onslaught of Batushka-related discussion on the Internet, most listeners expect a copy of the debut and this is basically what they get with “Панихида”. Or do they?

A cursory listen to this collection of songs does indeed leave the impression that here we have a worthy successor to “Litourgiya”. Further listens, however, reveal aspects of the album that produce a growing feeling of general disappointment. Not huge disappointment, but still.

First of all, the vocals on the album are extremely uneven, haphazardly mixed, and the lack of Bart’s vocalisations is generally detrimental to the music. The chants sound either sampled from Orthodox choir recordings or sung with a certain shyness and thus placed low in the mix. There are also several places where out of tune notes appear. The harsh vocals, on the other hand, are quite powerful. The guitar playing is good if not exceptional and I am pretty sure that the drums were actually recorded by Martin, as they sound pretty much as they did on “Litourgiya”.

Then there are production issues. The album sounds a bit off in general. The main problem are the aforementioned vocals, mixed inexpertly and in a seemingly random manner at times. Also, while the 8-string guitars give the music its characteristic feel, the bottom frequencies sound muddled and would have been more adequate with more definition. What is more, the drum sound is marred with strange EQ choices and lack of clarity (plus a slight ‘rustling’) in the cymbals. Still, the low compression and the fact that mid-frequencies are cut gives the album the characteristic ‘open’ feel, which has been, in my opinion, one of the key features of the band.

To the point now: the compositions. This is where things get a bit tricky. Two compositions on the album are examples of those aspects of Batushka’s music that are realized excellently. “Песнь 1” is a slow, atmospheric piece of Orthodox music translated into metal and it works amazingly well. Why? Because of the harmonic content and the clever use of transitions between riffs (or rather chord progressions in this particular song). As it was released as a single, this probably gave people a slightly wrong impression of the album as – and here I’m saying it – it actually LACKS much of the expected Orthodox component.

The second excellent composition is “Песнь 4’, where furious stop/start blasting, a post-black metal feel, and the generally engaging pacing make it a great listen. An excellent song all around, but not due to any Orthodox leanings. And this is pretty much the case with all the songs on “Панихида”: “Песнь 3” has some cool pauses and a generally inspired compositional approach; “Песнь 5” and “Песнь 6” are largely forgettable and sometimes even cringey due to their unfocused pacing, awkward mixing, and off-key chants; “Песнь 7” and “Песнь 8” are a big improvement with better realized choral parts, to the point that when they actually appear, the listeners realizes that the Orthodox element has actually been missing from the album for some time. I have a feeling that for some reason Krzysztof restrains himself from using Orthodox harmonies too much (which is a mistake) and the comparably poor-quality choral parts unfortunately do not succeed in ‘batushkizing’ the music strongly enough.

So yes, the music is not a copy of “Lituorgiya” and despite some intriguing new compositional elements, many of the differences – compared to the debut – consist of shifts into more commonplace territories, which is – ironically – the argument most commonly directed at Bart’s Batushka by Krzysztof’s fans (let us not dwell on the pathetic extra-musical arguments spread by people with no real knowledge of the issues within the band).

So what’s the verdict? In my opinion “Панихида” is a good, at times exceptional, but sometimes also deeply flawed follow-up, which only goes to show that strife in a band is detrimental to the music. This is in fact really sad and no amount of publicity and taking sides in the conflict will change it. Now I’m waiting for the other Batushka’s album.