Land Under The Black Wings: Swamp

When DYMNA LOTVA infused new bood and a particular Belarus element into black metal with their debut full-length "The Land Under The Black Wings: Swamp" ("????? ??? ??????? ???????: ??????") in 2016, the founding duo started out with an elaborate concept. The lyrics on this album are based on the main events in the course of their country's history and it's legends, while also containing many references to classic Belarusian literature. The musical fire of composer Jauhien Charkasau and vocalist Katsiaryna "Nokt Aeon" Mankevich was lit by the news that Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The duo created their first song based on quotes from Lyudmila Ignatenko, the widow of a Chernobyl liquidator, whose husband Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko largely inspired the HBO series "Chernobyl". With their sophomore album, "Wormwood" (?????), which is not part of the trilogy, DYMNA LOTVA returned to the topic of Chernobyl in 2017. Following the release of the second full-length, both founding members had to flee their native Belarus due to political persecution and attempts by the Lukashenka regime to censure and suppress their art. The trilogy was continued with the third album, "The Land under the Black Wings: Blood" ("????? ??? ??????? ???????: ????"). DYMNA LOTVA. Beautifully and powerfully expanded their style, which is based on Nordic black metal, but also takes 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 an emotional sound. 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.