MATT Dymna Lotva announce reissues

DYMNA LOTVA have announced will reissue their first two albums „The Land Under The Black Wings: Swamp“ („Зямля пад чорнымі крыламі: Дрыгва“) and „Wormwood“ („Палын“) that were originally released in 2016 and 2017, on February 7, 2025.

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.

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“.

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 this music 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.

“Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Дрыгва (The Land Under The Black Wings: Swamp)” has been repressed on dark green vinyl and CD. Meanwhile, „Wormwood“ („Палын“) has been repressed on red/brown vinyl and as a CD digipak.