Hospodi

Emerging from the shadows of eastern Poland back in 2015, black metal band Batushka have established themselves as one of the modern era's most powerful and evocative bands. Harnessing the fire and fury of arcane black metal and channeling it through the reverberant grandeur of ancient rituals of worship, the band's debut

album Litourgiya stood apart from the extreme metal hordes: a monument to originality, depth and dark mysticism that swiftly cast its spell over the metal underground and beyond.

Fiercely conceived and audaciously executed, Hospodi takes the epoch-shattering essence of Batushka's debut to a new level of idiosyncratic intensity. From the mesmerizing chants of the opening "Wozglas" to the blazing bombast of "Dziewiatyj Czas" and the pulsing, dark rock melodrama of "Wieczernia," this is an album full of wildly dynamic, divergent moments, wherein the band's otherworldly, inspirational fervor meets the whip-crack precision of 21st century brutality. Perhaps most importantly, Batushka's deft conjuring of religion's synaptic shock 'n' awe looms large over every scything riff and bellicose scream. By the time fans reach the overpowering

climax of the closing Liturgiya, a true Damascene conversion is practically guaranteed.