Batushka - Hospodi Review // Metal Blade Records

Following months of controversy, Polish Black Metal band Batushka mark their return with their new album Hospodi. Without going into too much detail, all that information is online anyways, this is a new era for Batushka, and it's easy to see that the band jumped in feet first. "Hospodi" kicks off with an intro of chants and a slow crawling riff that leads into the aggression of "Dziewiatyj Czas" that will set the tone for the rest of the album. 

Hospodi is pumped full of incredible musicianship, "Wieczernia" has some of the catchiest riffs and most consistent blastbeats available. Above that though, this is also an album full of emotion. Following everything, Batushka came back more pissed off than ever and it translates throughout this album. Alternating between melodic influenced sounds and pure destructive force, it's easy to get lost in this album. The only thing to pull you back into reality is the interludes of chants and sermons present between some of the tracks.

One thing that is never truly appreciated in music, especially in albums that tell a story is transitions. It's easy to lose focus and stop paying attention to an album when the songs don't blend well together. This is something that Hospodi does incredibly well though, each song is a continuation of the last. Batushka set out to tell a story and infuse it with emotion, and they did just that. Even without understanding the lyrics, even without knowing the language, the feelings translate through the music.

There may not be a particular stand out point to this album, there may not be anything particularly jaw dropping in the music, but Batushka are masters of their craft. Hospodi is an emotional ride and a very unique sounding Black Metal album. This is a journey that any Extreme Metal fan should experience.

8/10

Rhine "An Outsider" Album Review

                Progressive Extreme Metal is nothing new anymore now that Opeth did it, made it famous and moved on and Enslaved are doing it a lot more instead of being straight Norwegian Black Metal. Now Rhine want to do it too and with their new album “An Outsider” coming we can discuss whether they take a step in the right direction or not.

                This is a 10 song, 72 minute long album. So needless to say, most the songs are longer than average length just like the aforementioned bands. In the style if their instrumentals I hear a lot of Opeth, specifically from “Ghost Reveries” with the fact that they’re fairly complex and pretty catchy. Vocally, this band is a mix of Enslaved and Opeth with their clean singing, generally used in slower sections much like Opeth do with their music. Take this with a sprinkle of Cradle of Filth in the Extreme vocal style,  Vocalist, Gabe Tachell, has a better way of pronunciation in his voice making his words easy to understand.

                “Dreaming of Death” opens the album entangling you with everything you could need to learn about this band. Both vocal styles, catchy and slightly complex tapping riffs and a mix of Extreme Metal and Prog Rock, but it’s more in the second track “The Spell of Dark Water” that catches my attention. The song starts off soft and clean before jumping into an Opeth style of Death Metal, after a minute or so the song enters an elevator type music portion to throw you off and jump back into the extreme. The final segments are a mix between Opeth with keyboards in the background and almost upbeat riffs and Enslaved in extremity and galloping riff styling before closing out.

                Every song has its own personality, emotion and destructive power. Every song mixes and most the time you don’t know when one song end and the next song starts. Portions of this album don’t exactly hold my attention as I am personally more of an Extreme Metal fan than I am a Progressive Metal fan, but in the end even not having the interest in Progressive Metal this is still an album I would recommend to any fan of Opeth specifically mixing their new Alt-Prog Rock sound with their old “Blackwater Park” and “Ghost Reveries” extremity, I believe if you’re anything like me and only really a fan of the Extreme Metal portions of this album, there is only a couple songs you would skip.

70/100

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