I have a rule with covering music that I’ve held sacred ever since I started writing for ARDENTLY: I will never review a record that I believe has already found its niche audience. However, the rules for metal are different. Even if a band is totally obscure to a wider audience, there’s typically already a clandestine inner circle of fans that have already found it, listened to it a million times, and have started their own one-man cover band. Today, I’m going to break my own rule: I’m going to cover an album that is already incredibly popular within its niche: Литоургиiа (Litourgiya) by Батюшка (Batushka).

Extreme Metal has an insular audience, mostly because the music is typically so abrasive within its own subculture that the majority of the people listening are already super familiar with their preferred sub-genre. This goes double for Black Metal, which seems purposely built to turn away anyone that isn’t ready to drown in its dreary atmosphere and lo-fi, distorted instrumentation. Perhaps it’s foolhardy to start discussing a record so prominent within the scene, but Litourgiya is different. I think this album is so popular relative to the rest of the sub-genre because it serves as the perfect gateway record for Black Metal.

For starters, Litourgiya does away with a lot of the genre conventions to craft a sound unique to itself. The typical elements of black metal: razor-thin and high-pitched tremolo picking, a lo-fi mix, and non-stop blast beats have been mostly traded in for a much more polished sound. Instead the record incorporates low and sludgy guitar chord progressions, mid-range melodic tremolo picking, moments of respite from the explosively powerful drumming and add a heavy dose of operatic Russian orthodox liturgical chanting and harsh vocals. The album sands off much of the rough edges that turn away other metal fans from the sub-genre, yet it still retains the style’s penchant for creating a ominous, harrowing, and occult atmosphere. The perfect example of which can be found on the album’s opening track “Ектения (Yekteniya) I: Очищение (Ochishcheniye)”.

The song starts with this ringing bell, a reverb-heavy-yet-clean guitar line, and this passionate chanting that sounds like we’re listening in on a sacred and arcane ancient ritual, only for the song to launch into these massive, heavy, and thunderous down-tuned guitars, which lay down the groundwork for a fantastic and triumphant chord progression that instantly gets your head nodding before the lead guitar even comes in. Thudding double bass drums come in along with the return of the orthodox chanting and set the stage for the fiery tremolo-picked guitar melody and throat-shredding screams. This is not only where the listener gets fully immersed in the rich ambience and the cohesive melding sonic palette that comes from mixing modern black metal and Russian orthodox liturgical music, but it’s also where the record gets the uninitiated-but-open-minded music fan hook, line, and sinker.

Litourgiya does a masterful job of leading the listener down a long, circuitous hallway as if it was carrying a carrot on a stick. Any ardent music fan with even the faintest interest in harsher music will be lulled into the album at first, with its curious atmosphere and irresistibly satisfying heavy, pounding guitars. Only after will Litourgiya deviously lock the door behind them once they get invested leaving them fend for themselves when the hellish soundscapes of black metal become increasingly more apparent.

It’s at this point in “Ектения (Yekteniya) I: Очищение (Ochishcheniye)”, when the ferocious higher-pitched tremolo-picking takes center stage in the song and we get lively back-and-forth between the chanting and the screeched, harsh vocals.

The next song “Ектения (Yekteniya) II: Благословение (Blagosloveniye)” wastes no time in throwing the listener into a whirlwind of monstrously heavy guitars, blast beats, and harsh vocals. The orthodox chanting we do get is so low that it sounds like it’s coming out of a giant or cyclops from a fantasy movie. Often, the chanting can be heard in the background, almost acting like bass as the voice hums away, buried in the mix behind the guitars, but still adding to the occult atmosphere. There’s a spare moment when the instrumental cuts out and it’s just the chanting, only for the guitars to come back in, but now with a slamming rhythm, which almost feels reminiscent of a breakdown you would’ve heard in a metalcore song in the mid-to-late 2000s. However, it doesn’t take long for the song to get back into it’s usual relentless onslaught of heavy thunderous guitars.

“Ектения (Yekteniya) III: Премудрость (Premudrost’)” directly follows the last song, and it’s the start of what I consider to be a truly impressive run of tracks for the record. Like the first song off the album, we open with this mournful and somber clean guitar, awash with an echo effect that gives it a church bell-like quality along with the metallic shaking of some sleigh bells. The intro, while lasting less than a full minute, feels crucial to the the song as it helps to build both atmosphere and tension as the listener waits for the explosive black metal instrumentation to commence. Right out the gate, we get a fiery eruption of blast beats and a fantastic lead guitar riff to match, not to mention the imposing chanting in the mix that provides the track with a really lofty and stunning sound.

After that track is “Ектения (Yekteniya) IV: Милость (Milost’)”, which is my favorite of the whole album. Beginning with this rumbling bass with some more foreboding chanting, only for it to launch into this vicious scream and thunderous hits from the the guitar and drums in unison, which seamlessly leads into one of the best main riffs I’ve ever heard in black metal. The chanting feels like it plays a much larger role for the song, as it serves as a bridge between the riff and the harsh vocals. There’s another section that, again, feels slightly inspired by the breakdowns of metalcore songs, with its pummeling double bass drum kicks, occasional snare hits, and down and slamming guitar down strokes – all of this is, of course, paired with the grand and menacing orthodox chanting, which makes for probably the most sinister sounding pair of the album. The track ends with last notes of song fading out as a soft ringing comes in which bleeds into the next song.

“Ектения (Yekteniya) V: Святый вход (Svyatyy vkhod)”, of course, begins with the usual atmospheric introduction laying the ground work for the occult ambience the whole record is draped in. It’s comparatively short, lasting less than a half a minute. The rest of the song tears right through the gloomy opening with one of the longest held screams I’ve heard in a metal record, plus a fantastic, exuberantly thrilling, and triumphant main riff to boot. The vocal performances on this track are probably the most impassioned – you can practically feel scratchy pain deep in your throat after each line screeched out of their mouth. It’s incredible just how formidable each chant is and their implementation in the track provides such a beautiful contrast with the harsh vocals that really fosters a strikingly fierce and yet surprisingly approachable sound. Towards the end of the song, we get these really majestic harmonized chants that remind me a bit of some of clean vocals from viking metal, maybe something that bands like Windir, Enslaved, Borknagar or Moonsorrow would do. On top of that, there’s some really fantastic melodic guitar lines that just stuck in my head after every listen, underpinning everything else in the song.

Litourgiya is one those rare few albums where its unshakable consistency in sound doesn’t take anything away from the listening experience. Despite how similar each track is to one another, it retains its rock-solid quality during the entire duration. Writing this review has been kind of difficult – it’s not easy trying to find something unique about an album that’s already a popular modern classic for its genre. However, I think its relative approachability is something has yet to be expressed adequately in the decade-worth of spilled ink for the record. Litourgiya manages to make a less daunting ask of the listener in a genre where a 15 minute long lo-fi explosion of muffled screams and brittle distortion is not entirely unexpected. I love those records too, Rain Upon the Impure, and the self-titled Paysage D’hiver album will always be some of my favorites in the genre. However, there’s something to be said about the ability Batushka has in retaining the character of something, while also allowing for a wider audience without the feeling of something be lost in the process.

If you would like to support Batushka, you can stream Litourgiya on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify, or you can purchase the album on the band’s Bandcamp page.