Emerging from the shadows of eastern Poland back in 2015, black metal band Batushka have established themselves as one of the modern era’s most powerful and evocative bands. Harnessing the fire and fury of arcane black metal and channeling it through the reverberant grandeur of ancient rituals of worship, the band’s debut album Litourgiya stood apart from the extreme metal hordes: a monument to originality, depth and dark mysticism that swiftly cast its spell over the metal underground and beyond.

The band will release its sophomore album Hospodi through Metal Blade Records on July 12.

Named after an Old Church Slavonic word for “God,” Hospodi enhances all the unique qualities that made the band such an instant phenomenon, while offering an entirely distinct and fresh sensory experience. The album boasts the most ferocious and bewitching songs the band has penned to date – along with a newfound sense of rock swagger.

The band has shared the first new track and video for “Polunoszcznica.” Listen and watch below.

“The whole album is a concept based on the Liturgy of Death, the prayers for the dead, and Orthodox funeral rites and dirges,” said the band. “It’s all about a ritual that involves the dead and the mourners. We also used a lot of old folk songs and elegies from our homeland. These are sung during the wake, around the casket, in the deceased person’s home. Nowadays only a few older people know them and still sing them accordingly in our region. We decided to cherish that tradition and I’m glad that with our album these songs and rites will survive.”

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