Botanist (band)

Musical characteristics and lyrics

In a departure from traditional black metal instrumentation, Botanist uses distorted hammered dulcimers and no guitars (aside from bass). Otrebor states he does not digitally edit his drumming recordings, in which he is purposely "playing as close to the edge of my ability as I can," to "hear the warts in my playing."

Botanist "entity"

According to Otrebor, "When Botanist music gets recorded, I channel an entity within me that's been named 'The Botanist', a character whose perspective dictates the content of the music and lyrics." The Botanist holds a "romantic worldview in which plants reclaim the earth after humanity has killed itself," and he is "trying his damnedest to bring about the end of humanity because humanity is destroying the natural world and the natural world must prevail."

Influences

Black metal band Ulver piqued Otrebor's interest in "black metal that's grown out of the worship of the forest." Dictionary-reading inspired Otrebor's use of complicated plant and insect names in lyrics and song titles, which he calls "in a way ... a tribute" to the extreme metal band Carcass.

An interview on Botanist's website states, "influences can differ from album to album, but artists that seem to consistently shape or inspire Botanist are The Ruins of Beverast, Stars of the Lid (and side projects), Ulver, Immortal, Pagan's Mind, Antonio Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Arvo Part, Edenbridge, Helloween, Angra, Martyr (Canada), Bolt Thrower (Whale era)."

Reception

Botanist received spotlight coverage from NPR, wherein journalist Lars Gotrich praises the albums I: The Suicide Tree and II: A Rose from the Dead as "surprisingly dynamic and hypnotic. The hammered dulcimer rings out and cuts like a blast-beated piano pounding paradiddles in some kind of black-metal drumline. ... Botanist has created an alternate world where black-metal tropes — buzzing sound, croaked vocals, bleak aesthetics — exist, but are sonically limitless."

The Awl's Noah Berlatsky describes VI: Flora as a "long, sweeping, chthonic drone as Otrebor growls about his beloved plants ... he chokes and spits and whispers with all the reverent bile that black metal bands usually reserve for paeans to Satan."

Band members

Discography