If you haven’t been keeping up with the Batushka drama…where have you been since 2015?  And what drama there has been: multiple lawsuits, shots fired on social media, separate projects, alleged documentaries “exposing” the rival member…the saga seemed never ending.  And it’s probably not done yet, either, but at least Polish courts have ruled that Krzysztof Drabikowski rightfully owns the Batushka name and Bartek Krysiuk needs to rebrand as Patriarkh, to the delight of many.  Couple that with the fact that the project is moving labels to Napalm Records, and perhaps ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ (Prophet Ilja) might just be a chance for the fresh start Patriarkh desperately needs.

To know the Batushka drama is to take sides on it.  There really weren’t any middling opinions on the matter, but regardless of which member you supported, the music was the one thing that suffered the most.  Everything that came after Litourgiya from either party ranged from just…fine (sorry Panihida) to uninspired and mediocre (not sorry, Hospodi).  And that’s kind of how it’s been for years.  There hasn’t really been anything worth mentioning besides the drama.  Now that that’s (hopefully) behind us, maybe ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ will be the album that finally gets me interested in what Krysiuk is working on.  It does seem to be the most concerted effort put forth by Krysiuk and company in a while.  The concept album is based on the life and times of Eliasz Klimowicz, a real person from Krysiuk’s area of Poland, who rose from illiterate peasant to self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Orthodox Grzybowska Sect.  Musically, ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ takes the familiar black, doom and Orthodox chant music one would expect and incorporates a whole lot more folk into its veins.  Hurdy gurdy, mandolin and mandocello, tagelharpa and dulcimer go right along with the liturgical chants and blast beats, lending a theatrical element to the music that elevates it quite nicely, especially considering the lyrics draw from an actual theater play about Klimowicz’s life.

ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ immediately hits with some of the classics of what made this particular niche style of music so great, albeit with a lot more impact.  If you’re expecting chugging, 8-string guitar riffs, shrieks and bellows, blast beats and thundering bass, you get all that and a bag of chips.  The riffs you know and love are all there, the soaring melodies are all there, the choral chants are all there, only everything seems to have much more thought and care put into it, and I think that has a lot to do with the close, personal nature of the story of the album.  When there’s a central focus for the music everything comes together so much more cohesively and sticks the landing much more efficiently.  Similarly, the folk instruments do a lot of heavy lifting, especially in the middle of the album.  Diversity of instrumentation is the key to making ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ stand out, and the way the folk instruments break up and blend with the black metal is really genius.  Oh, and the fact that there are female vocals all over the album also really elevates and enhances everything, making the album feel like a capital-P Production.  Everything gets to breathe more, and it allows ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ to be taken in in one concerted sitting, the way it was meant to be.  Honestly, this album makes me want to do more research about the subject matter, because I’ve never heard of this guy or his sect before, but ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ makes a compelling case for his legacy, even if it’s hyper local.

Well, there goes any ideas I had about easing into reviews for 2025.  But then, what would be the fun of writing for a music site if I never, you know, wrote anything?  Plus…I’ve been cautiously optimistic about ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ since the first singles debuted, and I gotta say…I’m finally impressed.  It finally feels like Krysiuk is making his own music and not trying to capture lightning in a bottle all over again by churning out pale imitations of what worked in the past.  ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ really could be the turning point for the future of the Patriarkh project, and I’m gonna keep being cautiously optimistic about what comes next.  Now if only there was a new Batushka album on the horizon…

— Ian

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ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ is available now on Napalm Records.  For more information on Patriarkh, visit their official website.