Batushka & Houle concert report, 28/09/2025

Salted Wounds and Incense; or, a Black Metal escapade

Besides getting to know a place like the back of your hand, I’m a firm believer that you’ve truly made yourself at home somewhere when you start participating in the area’s local artistic events, which, for a guy like me, tend to begin and end with attending concerts of artists passing through the area. It’s a great way of meeting people with similar interests as you, and as we all know, shared experiences foster connection between people, through reminiscing and simply “being in the moment”. It’s always been the little things that stuck with me at shows, and a city as small as Thessaloniki is proud to boast of a very tight-knit metal community, where everyone’s a regular at the same few places, and tends to show up in the same shows as you do. You get to see some people you’ve talked to in passing, and perhaps even share an awkward “Were you in [X] show? Wasn’t it cool?” moment. There’s a charm to such interactions that is hard to find in bigger places, unless you become a regular at small bars, something that isn’t always easy to do. 

“Trust me guys, we’re gonna be emanating so much aura if we stand completely still”

Although this preamble has little to do with the actual subject of this post, it is important to me to discuss, as getting to see Houle and Батюшка (Batushka) live on September 28th is to me one of the most important signs of my repatriation in Greece after spending a year abroad, which was for the most part bereft of concerts. As a fan of heavy music, the live experience is integral to how I interact with the artform besides listening to albums, and after having already spent 5 years attending shows in Thessaloniki, it was nice to come back to the things I was (mostly) used to. The people who always wear the same handful of shirts bought from the Nephilim store or from shows that I too attended at some point in time, those who are trying way too hard to look cool (though that’s a topic for another time), and I’d be remiss to forget the fact that the venue obviously reeked of cigarette smoke, the law be damned. There’s no place like home, and the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Except for one thing that did change, that being the venue where the event was held. Block 33, although it has been around for a good while, was a venue whose existence I was unaware of before this show, and it’s safe to say that it left a good impression. A small-to-mid-sized venue, it definitely caters to smaller bands, and the absence of a barrier (at least in this instance) makes for a very intimate and physical experience, nevermind the fact that I hung out in the back. As much as I love the chaos and racket that define being at the front or near the pit, not every show calls for it, and this was one such instance.

As for the bands themselves, the bill said that Spain’s Noctem was supposed to open up the show, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, had to drop out of the Thessaloniki date. Was it time constraints, travel issues, scheduling conflicts? Who knows. It’s not like the show started on time to begin with, so who knows when it would’ve ended had all three bands taken the stage. I had to go to work the next day, and two bands ending at midnight was already pushing it in regards to how much I’d regret going the next day.

This lineup change resulted in the Parisian quintet of Houle kicking things off for the night. Their debut record, Ciel Cendre et Misére Noire is an energetic, if somewhat rote, slab of melodic black metal with a wild vocalist raving on top of searing tremolo riffs. To my partial surprise, the band brought the heat on stage, and the songs that I found to be “good, but not outstanding” turned into blasts of kinetic energy that whipped the audience into a frenzy. Vocalist Cafard was somehow even more unhinged on stage than on record, and her manic vocalisations and shrieking truly brought the experience to another level. Tracks like “La Danse du Rocher” and “Sur les Braises du Foyer” came alive on the stage, especially when the tracks descend into those delightfully crunchy mid-paced rhythms, which are always a good time to get the crowd going. 

 

 She’s so girlypop

The 12-minute epic “Née des Embruns” capped the set off, and it did nothing short of sweeping me off my feet, its immense nature coming not only through its length, but also by how the quiet acoustic passages translated into a live setting, especially in conjunction with the cool lighting. My partner has oftentimes joked about the pictures I take from shows always looking the same due to the lighting always being either blue, red, green, or purple, and although this rings true here as well, it felt much different within the context of the music, the blue and green hues evoking the boundless and untameable sea that takes up 70% of our planet’s surface. It’s one of those things that you only “get” through the live experience, and as such no description of mine will suffice. “Fire and brimstone”-type lighting will always have a place in my heart, but bands using it to add to their ambience shows an extra degree of care going into the performative aspects of being on stage.

Respect to these dudes for shredding their hearts out as hard as they did.

Like many other bands today, Houle does have a theme, and by extension, a visual gimmick, albeit a relatively novel one, and that is their obsession with the sea. From dressing up like drowned sailors, to the stage props ranging from nautical lanterns to harpoons (and a bottle of wine, the band is French after all), they almost felt too big for the stage they stood on. Not only in the sense that there wasn’t much space for five people, but also that their energy and conviction to the theme was enough to the point where it elevated it beyond something that is needed to stand out in today’s metal landscape, where visual gimmickry oftentimes takes precedence over the music. If anything, I do wish that the nautical feeling seeped into the music more besides the sea shanty interludes, as it would add something more novel to their sound.

They 100% earned the standing ovation they received here.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Batushka, specifically the one that has legal ownership over the name and 2015’s Литоургиiа (Liturgiya). I had the opportunity of seeing them before the legal battle that led to the band’s split back in 2018, where they played their debut in full, and this time it was 2019’s Панихида (Panikhida) that I got to see, in a venue that was a mere 500 metres from where I originally laid eyes upon them.

Like Houle, Batushka too have a gimmick, albeit one that plays with black metal convention, and that is the appropriation of Orthodox Chrisitan imagery, a peculiar choice when considering that they hail from Poland, a majority Catholic country. That being said, their gimmick also seeps into the music itself, as there is no shortage of Orthodox chanting in Church Slavonic, in addition to the clinking and rustling of censers, all of which is in service of the band’s ritualistic atmosphere. It’s much more tastefully implemented than one would expect, although in the case of Panikhida these traits are comparatively scaled back, the band instead focusing on what is some surprisingly bone-crunching riffage by black metal standards, especially due to the usage of 7 and 8-string guitars.

That being said, although the aforementioned guitars do play nicely in a studio setting, when the band hits the big chords, it resulted in a massive booming sound that smothered some of the more chilling melodies that feature on tracks like “Pesn’ 1” and “Pesn’ 5”, as the sustain they provided bled over the rest of the riff. Nevertheless, it was something that was ironed out as the show went on (the dudes behind the mixing board are unsung heroes of the live show), and it made for a rather mesmerising experience. The addition of crowd pleasers off the debut, such as “Yekteniya 1” and “Yekteniya 7” was also nice, and they made me wonder what it’d be like had the band played both records back-to-back. Upon conferring with myself and my partner though, the verdict seemed to be that it would make for an exhausting experience, especially since the two albums are awfully similar to anyone who isn’t intimately acquainted with them.

At least bro was moving his arms about every once in a while.

The visual aspect of the show has scarcely changed in the 7 years since I last saw them, the defaced icons used as the covers of both their albums taking prominence on the stage, with the band also keeping their presence lowkey, the instrumentalists hanging in the background behind the choral vocalists and the single harsh vocalist the band has. Unfortunately, the “too big for this stage” issue affected Batushka as much as it did Houle, as instead of having the choir stand as a single unit, they were spread across the front of the stage, which frankly took away from the experience, as seeing them stand as a singular unit back in 2018 on the side of the stage was a very striking image that added a lot to the liturgical vibes. That being said, the fact that the censer they brought out in between songs was actually lit and spreading the smell of incense across the venue is a definite plus, as it helped break the smell of cigarette smoke a little bit, so perhaps it wasn’t all bad.

As we live in a society defined by consumerism, I would be remiss not to bring up the fact that I did indulge in buying some merchandise from both bands, although I take solace in the fact that at least the proceeds go directly to the band and the crew involved in putting these shows together, rather than some record label executive’s pocket. After being struck by the dichotomy between Western and Eastern Europe in Houle’s merch booth featuring a card reader, and Batushka’s requiring cash that I had to get out of an ATM in the rain, my partner and I got our hands on Houle’s Ciel Cendre et Misére Noire and Batushka’s Panikhida respectively. I have way too many shirts and not enough records to spin, so getting to buy some directly from the artists is always a plus for me, slow as the collecting process might be.

Consumerism, figure 1.

Consumerism, figure 2.

Consumerism, figure 3.

In all, my return to Thessaloniki as a concertgoer can safely be deemed a success, with everything I loved about shows here being just as I had left it in 2024. Familiar faces, good music, and a feeling of community that I didn’t get to indulge much abroad. It feels good to be back, and I can’t wait to visit the spots I had been so fond of in the past, especially with some of the shows that are coming up. So far the vibrancy of the live experience remains untouched by the passage of time, and one can only hope that continues to be the case as time goes on. I’ve long since turned in my “pit fiend” badge, but the excitement that seeing an artist give it their all on stage excites me regardless of where I’m sitting in the venue. Who knows, perhaps further down the line I’ll be the guy who hangs out near the mixing console for the sake of having a better sonic experience instead of actually watching the show. Only time will tell.

P.S. I would like to thank anyone who took the time to read this article, as writing about music in all its forms is a labour of love on my end, and having a space where I can indulge these tendencies beyond writing reviews on music means the world to me. Besides reviews and concert reports, expect also the occasional “essay” on whatever was on my mind at the time, or whatever project I decide to tackle next. There are no big things coming yet, but expect “medium-sized” things if you plan on sticking around. Cheers!