There is Now a Third Version of Batushka!

You can be forgiven if you haven’t kept up with all the ins and outs of the Batushka drama, but for the purposes of this post all you really need to know is this: there are two versions of the band currently competing for the name Batushka, one featuring the founder / guitarist / primary songwriter, and the other featuring the vocalist / former label head and some other dudes. The vocalist’s version has the backing of some industry giants in 5B Management and Metal Blade Records, but fans have largely sided with the guitarist’s version because his new music is better and fans feel allegiance to the debut record he wrote.

So: now there is apparently a third version of Batushka, calling themselves Batyushka! It’s entirely possible the whole project is a goof — I can’t tell, and precious little info is available — but whoever’s orchestrating it has gone to the trouble of recording an entire album and releasing it. A sarcastic statement from the band, posted by Metal Addicts, lends further credence to the idea of Batyushka being an elaborate clown job… but here, have a look:

“A true БАТЮШКА band formed by the orthodox priests from Russia. We are not some bunch of larping posers, but true christians comparing to some fake larpers who can’t even spell the name correctly. We stand against satatanism or mockery of our christian religion in any form.”

The resulting album sounds vaguely Batushka-ish although not specifically like either of the other two versions. It was recorded using a drum machine and hardly has any vocals… but still, effort clearly went into this thing. Perhaps someone already had an album recorded under their own band name and then decided to perpetrate this “Batyushka” thing as a PR stunt, in which case, bravo! But that’s pure speculation.

Stream the album below and purchase it via Bandcamp (where the band has already blown through the allotted 200 free downloads, so it is now posted for $1).