DYMNA LOTVA unleash a fierce battle cry for freedom with their new non-album track ‘Live!’ (Жыві!) and the accompanying video. The duo was first forced to flee their native homeland Belarus from political persecution by the dictator Lukashenka. Shortly afterwards vocalist Nokt Aeon also had to leave her Ukrainian exile when the Russian bombs began to fall with Putin’s continuing invasion.
This track and video are a tribute to those brave men and women risking their lives in the fight for freedom. In the words of the band: “This is a song for our homeland and those who are ready to defend her and fight for her freedom”, DYMNA LOTVA write. “Now they are defending her honor by helping Ukraine fight against the invaders.”
The first half of the video includes a solemn oath sworn by the Kastus Kalinoŭski Regiment, which is a military formation within the Armed Forces of Ukraine that consists of Belarusian volunteers.
For more information about the video content, please read below the video box.
The video ‘Live!’ (Жыві!) is now streaming at the link below:
https://youtu.be/GdiCD8yQcZw
Furthermore, DYMNA LOTVA have release a number of live dates, which can be viewed below. The Belarus band will be performing to support their current album “The Land under the Black Wings: Blood” (Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў), which is streaming in full at the link below:
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLToXWne2Bk-dnrZC9C03D7BDU7pa05U-8
Please see below for cover art, tracklist, and further details of “The Land under the Black Wings: Blood“.
Shop link: http://lnk.spkr.media/dymna-lotva-blood
Video Credits & Information
Video by Dymna Lotva
Music by Yauheni Charkasau
Lyrics by Katsiaryna Mankevich
Solemn vow by The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment
Mixing & Mastering by Yauheni Charkasau
The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment (until May 21, 2022 under the name the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion) is a military formation consisting of Belarusian volunteers within the Armed Forces of Ukraine that has been created in March 2022 to defend Ukraine from the Russian invasion.
The Regiment took its name in honor of Kastus Kalinoŭski, the head of the national liberation uprising of 1863-1864 in the Belarusian-Lithuanian lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian domination. He is seen by many of his compatriots as a national hero of Belarus.
On June 26, 2022, the regiment suffered tragic losses in the heavy fighting around the Lisichansk area. Commander Ivan ‘Brest’ Marchuk, who is reading the oath in the video was killed, several fighters went missing, and at least two Belarusians were captured. Both Sergei ‘Klesch’ Dziogceu and Jan ‘Trombley’ Dziurbejko remain in Russian captivity, which is well documented to severely breach international law.
The mission statement of the Kalinoŭski Regiment is: “Liberation of Belarus through the liberation of Ukraine.”
More about the Kalinŭuski Regiment: https://kalinouski.org/en/about
In the video Nokt Aeon is wearing a bracelet with the white-red-white colours that Trombley, one of the captured soldiers, had made for her. These colours appear throughout the video and represent the historical flag first used by the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918. They are now employed by the resistance against the Lukashenka regime, which is allied and subservient to Putin’s Russia. The video also features the ‘Pahonia’, which is another symbol used by the Belarus opposition. The ‘Pahonia’ emblem features a knight on a prancing horse, and it was originally used by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This emblem in the colours red and white became the official Coat of Arms of Belarus from 1991 to 1995, until the dictator had it replaced with a Soviet style image through a fake ‘referendum’ alongside the flag.
Former soldiers of the Kalinoŭski Regiment participated in the creation of the video.
LIVE
22 MAR 2024 Szczecin (PL) Krzywy Gryf
24 MAR 2024 Gent (BE) Asgaard
30 MAR 2024 München (DE) Backstage, Dark Easter Metal Meeting
23 APR 2024 Warszawa (PL) VooDoo Club
27 APR 2024 Kraków (PL) Garage Pub
10 MAY 2024 Chorzów (PL) Leśniczówka
26 OCT 2024 Mannheim (DE) Atmospheric Arts III
02 NOV 2024 Wels (AT) The Sinister Feast
Tracklist
1. Come and See (Ідзі І Глядзі)
2. Buried Alive (Пахаваны Жыўцом)
3. Death Kisses Your Eyes (Смерць Цалуе Ў Вочы)
4. Hell (Пекла)
5. Ashes (Папялішча)
6. The Pit (Яма)
7. Cruelty (Лютасць)
8. Night Witches (Nachthexen)
9. Till the End (Да Скону)
10. Dead Don’t Hurt (Мёртвым Не Баліць)
11. Unquenchable (Нязгаснае)
12. To Freedom (Да Волі)
13. Blood (Кроў)
Metal has always had a rebellious streak. And while it has lost some of its revolutionary energy – with the notable exception of black metal – in its Western European and American centres, metal very much remains a source of empowerment and an expression of dissent in most other parts of the word.
DYMNA LOTVA have many reasons to carry the torch of rebellion. The duo had to flee their native Belarus due to political persecution and attempts by the Lukashenka dictatorship to censure and suppress their art.
On their third album, “The Land under the Black Wings: Blood” (original, not transcribed tile: “Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў”), DYMNA LOTVA continue to sing songs filled with grief and pain. The Belarusians have beautifully and powerfully enhanced their very personal style. With a solid base in black metal, but also taking many elements from doom as well as traditional music, the duo has moved beyond the post-black metal tag and created melancholic, haunting melodies that bear their unmistakable trademark and results in a unique emotional sound.
DYMNA LOTVA base their lyrics on true tales from Belarus, which is filled with accounts of sorrow gleaned from historical archives or folklore, while new horrors are committed in their country every day.
The name of the band, DYMNA LOTVA, means ‘Swamp in Smoke’ and relates to the atrocities surrounding the burned villages of Polesie – a marshy region along the River Pripyat that is now divided between the modern-day states of Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, which has endured bloody massacres and brutal conflict in the past.
Composer Jauhien Charkasau and vocalist Katsiaryna “Nokt Aeon” Mankevich date the inception of DYMNA LOTVA to November 8, 2015. The spark that ignited their musical fire was the news of Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. On the same day, the duo created their first song based on quotes from Lyudmila Ignatenko, the widow of a Chernobyl liquidator. Her account of her husband Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko largely inspired the main character of the HBO series “Chernobyl”.
DYMNA LOTVA base their lyrics on true tales from Belarus, which is filled with accounts of sorrow gleaned from historical archives or folklore, while new horrors are committed in their country every day.
The name of the band, DYMNA LOTVA, means ‘Swamp in Smoke’ and relates to the atrocities surrounding the burned villages of Polesie – a marshy region along the River Pripyat that is now divided between the modern-day states of Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, which has endured bloody massacres and brutal conflict in the past.
Composer Jauhien Charkasau and vocalist Katsiaryna “Nokt Aeon” Mankevich date the inception of DYMNA LOTVA to November 8, 2015. The spark that ignited their musical fire was the news of Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. On the same day, the duo created their first song based on quotes from Lyudmila Ignatenko, the widow of a Chernobyl liquidator. Her account of her husband Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko largely inspired the main character of the HBO series “Chernobyl”.
The song was released as a single entitled ‘Самотны Чалавечы Голас’ (“A Solitary Human Voice”) in 2016 and was followed by DYMNA LOTVA‘s first full-length “The Land under the Black Wings: Swamp” (Зямля пад чорнымі крыламі: Дрыгва) in the same year. The debut album also formed the first part of a conceptual trilogy based on the duo’s homeland.
Also in 2016, the duo assembled a live line-up and quickly became one of the most active metal acts in Belarus while also gaining followers in neighbouring countries such as Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia.
With their sophomore album, “Wormwood” (Палын), which is not part of the planned trilogy, DYMNA LOTVA returned to the topic of Chernobyl in 2017, for which the duo also referred to the works of Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich.
In 2020, DYMNA LOTVA openly supported the protests against their country’s dictator Lukashenka. In 2021, following a politically motivated trial of singer Lesley Knife, who was the guest vocalist on the latest single ‘To Freedom’ (Да Волі), all the band’s scheduled concerts were officially banned and they had to disband the live line-up. Vocalist Nokt Aeon was forced to leave the country to avoid arrest. The duo intended to reunite in Ukraine, but then Russia invaded the country. Two weeks after the outbreak of war, the singer finally escaped from the heavy fighting around the city of Irpin. Both musicians were later able to meet again in Poland.
For DYMNA LOTVA the release of “The Land under the Black Wings: Blood” (Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў) is also an act of defiance. Their music can be read in more than one way. By itself it is an extremely beautiful yet also a very painful piece of contemporary metal on the dark end of the spectrum with an audible Belarusian sound. Yet in a wider artistic context, DYMNA LOTVA unleash a furious and mournful cry for freedom and justice with “The Land under the Black Wings: Blood” (Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў).
Release date: August 4, 2023
Style: Post-metal (with influences from black metal, doom, and traditional music)
Label: Prophecy Productions
Line-up
Katsiaryna “Nokt Aeon” Mankevich – vocals, traditional flutes, lyrics
Jauhien Charkasau – guitars, bass, all music
Guest musicians
Forladt (ABSENCE OF LIFE) – backing vocals, music on ‘Ashes’ (Папялішча)
Déhà (WOLVENNEST, SILVER KNIFE, SLOW) – drums
Lesley Knife (GODS TOWER) – guest vocals on ‘To Freedom’ (Да Волі)
Artur Matveenko (DZIVIA) – saxophone on ‘To Freedom’ (Да Волі)
Fiodor Malikin – saxophone on ‘Hell’ (Пекла)
Ivan Kuznetsov – piano
Nat Nazgul – accordion
Yegor Baranov (ELYSIUM, COSMOCATS) – cello
Ulyana Sborshchikova – child clean vocals on ‘Hell’ (Пекла)
Demyan Sborshchikov – child extreme vocals on ‘Hell’ (Пекла)
Anonymous Belarusian teenage girls choir on ‘Ashes’ (Папялішча)
Please note that due to safety concerns and ongoing political repression in Belarus not all names and locations involved in the production of this album can or will be disclosed.
Instruments recorded by Jauhien Charkasau at Hata Studio
Vocal recording by V01D at SoundStudio9
Mix & mastering by Alexei Stetsiuk
Cover art idea by Nokt Aeon
Cover artwork editing by Olga Kann
Cover photo by Alina Mazovets
Cover models: Stefania Burak & Nokt Aeon
Costumes and props by Nokt Aeon & Katsiaryna Vadanosava
Layout by Olga Kann
Links
www.facebook.com/dymnalotva
www.instagram.com/dymnalotvaband