Toward a post-satanic black metal: The deconstruction of the divine/demonic binary in Batushka’s Litourgiya

Abstract

This article analizes the LP Litourgiya (2015) by Polish black metal band Batushka (commercially stylized as Батюшка). The text focuses on the band’s spiritual approach to the topic of satanism, one which has conditioned the history of this subgenre of metal music from its very beginnings. After a brief introduction to the basics of this genre, the article contextualizes the use of satanic spirituality in black metal lyrics using different studies dedicated to the study of the genre. Later, the text illustrates the way in which Batushka breaks the traditional binary divine/demonic established in the black metal. First, the band’s lyrics show an approach to “the satanic” that does not fit in the oppositional and reverse logics argued by some critics, since these do not reference the figure of Satan and, in fact, appropriate texts and hymns from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy. Additionally, the band makes use of themes uniquely present in Orthodox theology, specifically the idea of theosis, which, differing from the Catholic/Protestant theological bases of black metal, enable a poetical escape from the divine/demonic binary that nurtures the genre’s lyricism.