Molchat Doma

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From left to right: Pavel Kozlov, Egor Shkutko, Roman Komogortsev

About

Molchat Doma is a Minsk, Belarus-based post-punk band formed in 2017. The group received significant attention online in 2019 and 2020 after being featured in a number of Doomerwave playlists and gaining popularity within the Doomer subculture. In early-to-mid 2020, Molchat Doma's song "Sudno" was popularized by memes and TikTok.

Online History

In early 2017, Belarusian musicians Egor Shkutko, Roman Komogortsev and Pavel Kozlov formed Молчат Дома (Molchat Doma; rus. "Houses Are Silent").^[1] On April 24th, the band self-released their first album С Крыш Наших Домов (S Krysh Nashikh Domov; rus. "From the Rooftops of Our Houses"). On September 7th, 2018, the band released their second album Этажи (Etazhi; rus. "Floors") through Detriti Records. The group would eventually sign with Sacred Bones Records who would reissue their first two albums in 2020.

Starting in 2019, the band was popularized after being featured in a number of popular Doomerwave playlists on YouTube, ^[2] Spotify, ^[3] and other platforms, becoming one of the best-recognized bands within the genre. Most notably, on July 2nd, 2019, YouTube user JustMyFavStrangeMusic included several Molchat Doma songs in their video "Russian Doomer Music vol.3 (superior)" which received over 3.6 million views in one year (shown below).

In November 2019, Hugo Boss used Molchat Doma's song "На Дне" (Na Dne; rus. "At the Bottom") in a promotional video (shown below, left). On January 4th, 2020, Molchat Doma uploaded an interview with the Russian news site The Village to their YouTube channel (shown below, right).

Fandom

Following the initial recognition within the Doomer subculture, the band received larger outreach in the post-punk and new-wave community, gaining international recognition in the second half of 2019. The band has been praised by critics, drawing comparisons to The Cure and Joy Division.^[5]^[6]

As of July 17th, 2020, Molchat Doma's official Facebook^[7] page had over 40,800 followers, with additional 52,100 followers on Instagram.^[8]

Online, the band has been a subject of memes such as Album Cover Parodies of their second LP Etazhi (examples shown below). The album cover depicts an old photograph of a building currently occupied by Hotel Panorama Resort in Štrbske Pleso, Slovakia.

Sudno (Boris Rizhii)

Molchat Doma's September 7th, 2018 LP Etazhi included the song "Судно (Борис Рижий)"
(Sudno (Boris Rizhii); rus. "Vessel (Boris Rizhii)"), which was uploaded to YouTube on January 16th, 2019 by user TV-8-301 (shown below). The song gained over 5.3 million views in a year and a half, becoming the group's most popular song.

On December 24th, 2019, Sudno was posted to subreddit r/listentothis by user BertSacklin, gaining over 1,200 upvotes and 65 comments before being archived.^[9]

On January 20th, 2020 Youtube user slavtrash uploaded a video of a child crying and dancing to Sudno, gaining over 50,000 views in over a year (shown below, left). On January 23rd, iFunny user ChromosomieHomie reposted the video from Instagram user hehe_m8, receiving more than 7,800 smiles and 300 comments in six months.^[10]^[11] Notably, on April 14th, Facebook user Fer shared a video of a cat listening to Sudno with flashing strobe lights, gaining over two million views and 93,000 shares in three months.^[12] YouTube user GOTHICAT uploaded the video on April 22nd, gaining over 112,000 views in the same period (shown below, right).

In May 2020, "Sudno (Boris Rizhii)" went viral on TikTok,^[13] resulting in the song appearing on Spotify's Viral 50 Global playlist. On Spotify, the song has over 14 million plays.^[14] On TikTok, over 106,000 clips using the song have been uploaded. An analysis of the band and its appeal on TikTok would later be posted by Pitchfork.^[4]