Batushka

Batushka is a Bulgarian black metal group that performs in Church Slavonic and is associated with Orthodox black metal, doom metal and Polish black metal. The name is pronounced “Batyushka”; its Cyrillic form, Батюшка, means “father” and is used to address an Eastern Orthodox priest. The group is active from 2019 and is described as a Bulgarian Batushka parody.

Style and lineup

The music combines black metal instrumentation with liturgical chanting. The live line-up contains eight members. The band’s public image and lyrical content lead to debate over whether it is religious or anti-religious, and the group presents itself as leaving listeners to decide whether it is “black or unblack”.

Band history and dispute

In December 2018, Krzysztof Drabikowski, also known as Христофор, and Bartłomiej Krysiuk, also known as Варфоломей, each claimed to have removed the other from the band and announced separate continuations of the project. As a result, there are two versions of the act: Христофор’s Батюшка and Варфоломей’s Batushka. The 2015 album Литоургиiа / Litourgiya is credited to both musicians from the original unified band, while the later albums issued under the name Batushka are by Варфоломей.

Legal status

A Warsaw court decision in May 2024 rules that Bartłomiej Krysiuk cannot use the name Batushka or Батюшка in his musical activity without Krzysztof Drabikowski’s consent, including on recordings and audiovisual releases, and cannot claim that he has exclusive rights to the name or that Drabikowski lacks rights to it.