
Patriarkh as a band is mired in controversy. For the uninitiated, their original name was Batushka, or at least vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk tried to claim it was. Back in 2019, Krysiuk got impatient waiting for the creator and visionary of the original Batushka, Krzysztof Drabikowski, to finish the follow-up to one of the greatest albums of all time, Litourgiya. So Krysiuk gathered his own group of musicians to quickly record and release the terrible Hospodi while wearing the Batushka with dubious claim. This also started a legal battle for the rights to the name Batushka, and spanned for five years until Krysiuk lost in 2024, being forced to rename his incarnation of Batushka. Now continuing as Patriarkh with first under its name Prorok Ilja with Napalm Records, the story has a next chapter. I couldn’t have been the only one to think that Patriarkh would frustratingly attempt to sound like Batushka. Thankfully, though, Patriarkh isn’t completely a Batushka clone.
Prorok Ilja sees Krysiuk and the gang at their folkiest, bringing in traditional Russian instruments to their monastic sound. Coupled with Patriarkh’s heavy use of chanted vocals, this folk leaning along with spoken word brings a heavy sense of atmosphere to tell the story of Eliasz Klimowicz, a Messianic figure in the Eastern Orthodox faith. I’m a sucker for chanted vocals, and songs such as “Wierszalin III” and “Wierszalin IV” are the highlights here, with fierce black metal interplaying alongside the choral backings, giving Prorok Ilja a wonderfully hypnotic mood. Each song flows seamlessly into the next which also grants Prorok Ilja the unbroken storytelling aspect that works wonders with heavily chanted black metal. While this is Krysiuk’s best work since trying to pilfer the Batushka name, it’s not perfect. Prorok Ilja doesn’t get going until “Wierszalin III” with the first two tracks showing off little of what the rest of the experience holds. The final track too disappoints, nearing eight minutes and holding a heavy-handed repetitious nature. The other main point against this is that I’d rather just listen to Batushka classics like Litourgiya and Panihida, both of which blow Prorok Ilja out of the water in terms of total quality via a similar sound. I don’t hate Prorok Ilja though. It’s a solid step in the right direction to display that Krysiuk can tell his own story. And as a debut, I will cautiously await what’s next in Patriarkh‘s future.