Koldovstvo - Ни царя, ни бога (Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga)

There are few genres of music that contain so many anonymous bands. But in black metal, it is an accepted and normal thing that you may not know who is in a band you like, or where they are from, or if "they" are actually a "they" or a single person.

Removing these tangible people from the music allows the listener unprecedented latitude to experience the music and engage with it in any way they see fit. Freed of the preconceptions of spurious comparison (to previous albums, to different personnel, etc.) the music as presented can be experienced more directly.

While it would be silly to say the band were from Russia, there is definitely a serious Slavic and Russian history and folklore vibe going on here.

The name of the band, Koldovsto, is the Russian word for "witchcraft" and the album title is the Russian for No King, No God, a sublte play on the phrase every good Russian anarchist knows - Нет богов, нет мастеров (Net bogov, net masterov) No Gods, No Masters.

Couple that with the cover of the album - An 1864 painting by Konstantin Flavitsky depicting the legend that Princess Tarakanova, a pretender to the throne, was killed by a 1777 flood, and you have some fertile fields in which to grow any number of theories about the band, their origin, and their motives/politics.

It also helps that this is grade A Prime atmospheric black metal of the enigmatic Slavic nostalgia type - a thing that I am really in to.

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Trumpet of Amdusias

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