In 1378 there were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon; they moved to Poland and together started an Eastern Orthodox metal band called Batushka. Of course they couldn''t get along and split the band name, so after there had been two Batushkas and many lawsuits for several centuries, the second pope, Bart, started calling his band Patriarch, and here's its new album. Is that clear?
Bart is good at a number of things including self-promotion, pageantry and appropriation. The recorded evidence (the albums "Litourgiya" and "Requiem") from his severed counterpart, Pope Krzysztof, suggests that Bart's skills as an overall musician run a distant second.
The album "Prophet Ilja" purports to tell the story of its title character, a pre-WWII self-proclaimed sage in rural Poland. The dark mutterings that precede most of the tracks are perhaps useful if you know Polish. Otherwise you have to rely on the vocal/instrumental impact rather than the words. That's rarely a problem with black metal (which this resembles despite layerings of balalaika, hurdygurdy, etc.). Here, though, the structures stack up painfully simpleminded, consisting mostly of a slow riff repeated over and over -- but hey, NOW IT'S LOUDER, (now it's quieter), now the drums are doublekicking, now they're plodding, now it stops for a couple of seconds . . . To disguise the loopery, Bart leans on the reverb knob -- so we'll feel as if we're in a big ol' cathedral?
The melodic content bounces from churchy to metallic to folky, giving us a taste of Blackmore's Night at times. No doubt Patriarch shoots for a certain Gregorian dignity, but chants tend to be a ticket to snoresville. The best moments arrive with the greatest contrasts, as with the low/high vocals and attractive male harmonies of "Wierszalin III" and the leaping female singing followed by doublekick torrents on "Wierszalin IV." Yes, Bart happens to be a singer.
On first listening, this writer thought "Prophet Ilja" gave him a headache because a surgeon had just scraped the inside of his skull. Three weeks later, it still gives him a headache.
It was Krzysztof, not Bart, who flashed the original lightbulb of combining metal with Polish liturgy, and when you hear his own work, much of it self-multitracked, what comes across is not only a multidimensional, dynamic musician, but a man full of mournful passion, probably a believer. On the other hand, when we saw Bart's Batushka in 2023, it was entertaining, but it seemed like a goof. The Patriarch album follows suit, but feels worse because of its fake historicity.
What's the deepest divide between Krzysztof and Bart? One's a Christian, the other's a true black-metal blasphemer whose favorite albums are by Baphomet and Morbid Angel (and Adele). Too bad they can't work together -- a satanic huckster is a huge asset to any band. He just can't BE the band.
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Krzysztof Drabikowski won the legal battle but lost control of his music. Compensate him by buying some here.