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Krzysztof Drabikowski's Батюшка - Panihida review



Reviewer:
7.5

187 users:
7.97
Band: Krzysztof Drabikowski's Батюшка
Album: Panihida
Style: Black metal
Release date: May 26, 2019
A review by: ScreamingSteelUS


01. Песнь 1
02. Песнь 2
03. Песнь 3
04. Песнь 4
05. Песнь 5
06. Песнь 6
07. Песнь 7
08. Песнь 8

In the wake of the original Batushka’s implosion (explosion? violent rupture?), both Krzysztof Drabikowski and Bartłomiej Krysiuk scrambled to seize the momentum and hurriedly announced their own respective sequels to Litourgiya. The first album to surface was Panihida, the “debut” of Drabikowski’s Batushka.

As the courts have since determined, the roles in the original Batushka were not exactly evenly split: Drabikowski was the songwriter and lyricist, and aside from drums and vocals, to both of which he was still credited with contributions, he played every instrument on Litourgiya. Thus it is to be expected that Panihida would follow the style of Litourgiya quite closely. And so it does – Panihida is very similar compositionally. You’ll hear the same bouts of groaning distortion from an unusually bass-heavy foundation, Drabikowski’s seven- and eight-string guitars bending into depths that black metal rarely explores. You’ll hear the metalgaze-adjacent breakaways into the angelic realm, contrasting those dirgey chugs with bright tremolo-picking. Obviously there’s no claim to the Batushka name without that monastic singing style: Drabikowski makes a respectable effort in taking over for Krysiuk, utilizing the same mixture of clean and chanted vocals to elevate the mood to a liturgical stratum.

While it stood as convincing support for Drabikowski’s claim upon its release, Panihida trails behind its predecessor in several respects. Though produced by the same person at the same studio, Panihida’s production doesn’t stand up to that of Litourgiya. The rich low end is tattered: thinner, flatter, lacking the distinctive Batushka luster. The earthiness, volume, and almost doom metal sound of Litourgiya’s slow, chugging passages recede into mere approximation. A somewhat disappointing presentation is exacerbated by a relative dearth of interesting material; few of the songs on Panihida capture the same splendor and vivacity as the original batch. Furthermore, Drabikowski sounds less comfortable in front of the microphone than Krysiuk; his growls are more ragged and erratic, which is why his voice tends to fade into the mix. The same can be said for the clean vocals – thankfully still present, vital as they are to the mission, but less resonant, less abundant, and incomparable to Krysiuk’s weight and presence. Whatever can be said about Krysiuk, he clearly possessed training and technique that Drabikowski seems only to be imitating. The resulting sound is too symptomatic of traditional black metal’s sonic rudiments to suit the idea quite as well as Litourgiya, and Panihida loses some of its complexity.

Nevertheless, Drabikowski is passable as both a harsh and clean vocalist, and Panihida does replicate the vision of the original band in a broadly successful manner. This iteration of Batushka contains most of the elements that made the band what it was to begin with, and while Panihida is not in the same league as Litourgiya, it is still a conceptual rarity.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 9
Production: 7





Written on 23.01.2025 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct.



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