The “Faketushka” Version of Batushka is Getting Slaughtered on the Internet
The version of Batushka fronted by vocalist Bartłomiej “Bart” Krysiuk and signed to Metal Blade Records — which internet punters have dubbed “Faketushka” because it doesn’t include Krzysztof Drabikowski, band founder and sole writer of Batushka’s much-lauded debut album, Litourgiya — announced a North American tour earlier this week set to take place this coming fall. The tour is ambitious in that it will play bigger venues than any outfit labeled “Batushka” has ever headlined before, and filling those rooms relies solely on folks not knowing or caring who is in this version of the band. As one friend of mine put it, these are people who will “show up for the hoods.”
So: will people actually show up for the hoods? Or has word about the lawsuit and membership of Batushka gotten out to the extent that the tour is going to be a massive financial flop?
I do not have the answer to that question. It’s really a “wait and see” thing. Bart’s Batushka released a decent enough album, although I’d argue it’s not as good as the one Krzysztof put out, nor does it sound as much like Litourgiya. And it’s the legacy built by Litourgiya that folks are most interested in.
But here is what I do have: internet comments reacting to the tour. LOTS of them. And they are far and away not favorable for Bart’s “Faketushka.”
I have chosen to highlight the comments from a recent Facebook post promoting the tour’s New York City show at Gramercy Theater for no other reason than it’s the one that popped up in my feed while I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday (presumably I met the targeting criteria set by the advertisers). I do not mean to single out this show in particular, as friends and business associates of MetalSucks are involved with it. I’m just using it as one example, as I doubt the reaction is much different on the tour’s other dates. I have to wonder the extent to which even the folks involved directly with these shows knew exactly what they were booking and/or were aware of all the baggage that came along with it.
In the interest of proving just how overwhelmingly negative the comments are, I’m posting the entire thread in the order it appeared in my feed (with one reply thread expanded as an example) — in other words, rather than cherry-pick negative comments, I’m posting the entire thing so you all can see just how bad it is. That includes a few positive comments, too, but those are few and far between, as you’ll see.
Like I said… not good, right? Even the positive comments are mostly not all that positive and very much in line with the “for the hoods” mentality, such as the one person who tagged a friend and invited them winkingly to “the black metal function” — definitely a person who is unaware of the split. And the guy who said “don’t know who they are but they look awesome” — definitely for the hoods.
That said, I really have no way of knowing what the rest of the hoi polloi think about Batushka right now. And no one reading this post is really a part of that hoi polloi by nature. Still, I ask you, loyal MetalSucks readers and fans of Batushka (no matter which version): do you think the general metal populace will come out to these shows? Why or why not? Opine in the comments section.
