PATRIARKH – ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ
Release Date: 3rd January 2025
Label: Napalm Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Orthodox Black Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Doom Metal.
FFO: Batushka, Gaerea, Grima, Kanonenfieber, Drudkh, 1914.
Review By: Rick Farley
First, I’ll start by saying, to absolutely no shock to anyone with a pair of speakers, 2024 was an insane year for music. The quality and variety of metal was second to none. So just a quick Happy New Year to you all and let’s hope 2025 is even better.
As my first review of 2025, and also no shock to anyone that actually reads my reviews, I chose black metal. It’s a sickness, I know. Enough of this nonsense, on to the record.
Five years after their acclaimed album Hospodi, formerly known as Batushka, black metal titans, PATRIARKH return with ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ, which translates in English to (Prophet Elijah) releasing January 3rd via the mighty Napalm Records.
By now, I would hope that everyone is aware of all the controversy surrounding the Polish black metal band, Batushka and all the opposing band member stuff that has happened. I realize there are two sides to the fence, but this review is for PATRIARKH, so put away any preconceived notions you might have if that is the side you are on and let us journey into the unknown together.
ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ is a concept album that tells the true story of Eliasz Klimowicz, a self-proclaimed prophet during the 1930s and 40s who was the leader of the Orthodox Grzybowska Sect. An illiterate peasant from the band’s home area of Podlasie, he worked miracles, told the future, and cast demons from the possessed. His fame grew, and his followers and apostles deemed him as Christ reborn. An interesting piece of history worth checking out.
Musically, ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ is an evolved melting pot of extreme metal shaped with spiteful black metal and a huge dose of orthodox music. Which essentially is huge sounding choral singing and monodic chanting. Paired with epic, triumphant black and doom metal, the union is magical in the darkest sense of the word. The spectrum of orthodox music is explored by way of Byzantine monody, liturgical chant, and Russian polyphony. The band also uses various folk instruments to enhance their arcane form of black metal with the use of tagelharpa, mandolin, mandocello, hurdy-gurdy, and stringed dulcimer. The scope of this album is mammoth. Heavy, dark, and utterly nasty in parts and soothing, entrancing and mesmerizing in others. The music will inhale you in from the frigid air, adding warmth and embrace, only to suffocate you with fiery smoke and searing flames. It feels eerily inviting and menacing at the same time.
After a brief instrumental that starts the record, track two WIERSZAKIN II kicks off with a bouncy heavy riff and chanting in the background. It leans less on the black metal side of things, but is no less dark in its intent. It feels like a subdued introduction to the viciousness yet to come. The screechy harsh vocals mixed with choral vocals are spine tingling.
A beautifully played stringed instrument passage with soothing female vocals on WIERSZALIN IV that leads to harsh growls and blast beats, ranges the whole experience that you will have with this record. Balancing aggression and melody like the two could not exist without the other.
WIERSZALIN VII is pure ominousness from the initial spoken word, uneasy melody and wrathful black metal that erupts from the depths of hell. Sections of the track are hypnotic, leaving you paralyzed, while you are only a few measures away from being brutalized. A disgusting clean toned, low tuned guitar hulking in the background between blast beats, horrific growls, and fits of rage sounds purely diabolic, leaving a real mark of evil within the track. Without going much further, this is a record you will feel and experience. Beautiful, heavy, violent, and mystic.
I told myself that I was going to shorten up my reviews a tad this year, and here we are exactly where I usually am. So, in short, ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ is an outstanding record that offers up accessible black metal without sacrificing any aggression. Make PATRIARKH the first band you get in your ears in 2025. 
(4 / 5)
