Style: Free folk, drone (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Natural Snow Buildings, Anna Von Hausswolff, Wardruna (Skald)
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 30 May 2025

One of the most lamentably forgotten arts is giving attention to ‘boring’ things. A certain magic can emerge from focusing on an otherwise unremarkable space that gently invites instead of demands your attention. I recently glimpsed this magic while sitting by a pond with a friend—at first glance, it was a fairly still swath of lily pads accented by longleaf pines in the background. However, after staring into the mud for long enough, the mind becomes acclimated to the space and the pond suddenly bursts with life unseen. Damselflies skitter from pad to pad and myriad groups of frogs croak a call-and-response while the water ripples with activity below, tiny specks of detail that are missed by a cursory glance at the vista. Often, the depths of minimal music are reflected similarly, as the subtle changes in quiet and still pieces suddenly feel intense and stark once one is accustomed to their space. Such is the experience with Гільдеґарда (Hildegard), a collaboration between Ukrainian artists Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko which extends the emotions from a split-second reaction to traumatic wartime events into lengthy compositions. What sort of life emerges in their subtle, buzzing mix of drone and free folk?

Comprised of two twenty-minute pieces¹, Гільдеґарда is strikingly skeletal in design: the only instruments used are Heinali’s synthesizers and the vocal work of Saienko. Heinali’s previous work is dedicated to modern recontextualizations of Medieval musical tradition, and Гільдеґарда is no exception. The synthesizers at times possess a flute-like timbre, and intrigue is added to each track through Saienko’s performance of pieces by Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval polymath and composer. Saienko polymerizes the modern-ancient performance through Gregorian chants and Ukrainian musical tradition, often slipping into open voice and adorning the slowly-performed pieces with plentiful ornamentation.

The spartan instrumentals immediately draw attention to Saienko’s performance. Hildegard’s compositions are known for challenging performers through huge interval jumps, but Saienko makes the performance seem effortless as she glides from note to note. She particularly shines when utilizing open voice, adding a stunningly rich and contemplative color to the Gregorian chants through ornamentation. Heinali’s synthesizers lay the groundwork for a meditative state; Saienko’s vocals lift the music to ascension. The core of each piece is the droning keyboards that begin imperceptibly and are rendered inescapable by the end. On “O Ignis Spiritus”, gentle and quiet synthesizers replicate a subdued flute, pulsing in tandem with the rapturous vocal performance. Across the track’s runtime, the synths lose their woodwind sensibility and take on a crunchier feel. By the halfway mark, Saienko’s performance reaches a head with the intensifying thrumming; her sudden howling fades away to an extensive keyboard solo that itself gets swallowed in the inevitable wall of sound. Гільдеґарда’s pieces are monolithic glaciers, growing and evolving at an imperceptible clip, with enough force to scar the surface of the Earth as they move steadfast across the horizon.

“O Tu Suavissima Virga” utilizes a similar structure to “Spiritus” but with an even more understated and subdued approach. The electronics are almost inaudible whirring pulses that stubbornly maintain their stead while approaching an impending crescendo. Saienko’s performance is hushed and diaphanous, taking on a delicate affect for an overwhelming majority of the track. The impact when she finally pushes her voice is powerful, but the journey requires considerable patience as most of the track’s twenty minutes sit in a singular compositional space. Additional stillness is invoked by the piece’s monochromatic nature: the electronics maintain an unwavering hum and the vocals use little to no ornamentation until a full twelve minutes in, and even then, Saienko’s projecting melodicism is ephemeral at best. Her voice, like everything else, is swallowed whole by the synthesizers shortly after. “Virga” pushes the limits of Гільдеґарда’s subtlety, coming together as a powerful whole but spinning its wheels a bit too long in places. The comparatively short collaboration between Heinali and Saienko, “Zelenaia Dubrovonka”, exemplifies that a similarly powerful effect can be incited in a more concise runtime.

Song duration aside, there is a sobering stillness that is engendered by Гільдеґарда. The two pieces were inspired by the split-second reaction to a missile striking nearby Heinali’s studio in Kyiv. In contrast to cacophonous and maximalist music, which has potential to fill the gaps in our minds and bludgeon any sense of inner exploration, the stripped-down and minimal approach of Гільдеґарда is a mirror held up to the listener. Through its ample room for contemplation, “Spiritus” and “Virga” conspire to necessitate a summoning of one’s inner turmoil. Despite my desire for a more compact runtime, extending these pieces is a necessity to give room for safe exploration of the emotional space the record embodies.

Гільдеґарда is a record of few movements and incremental development, all done with great purpose—its minimalism exists for the listener to fill in the negative space themselves and open up their mind for emotional exploration and healing. The record exists not to coddle but to give a gentle-yet-assertive courage to confront stresses head-on through its patient evolution and rich, ascendant vocal performance. Gaze into the mud of Гільдеґарда—you may be surprised what life you’ll find.

Recommended tracks: O Ignis Spiritus
You may also like: CHVE, Pelt, De Mannen Broeders, 58918012, Širom
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Unsound – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Heinali is:
– Oleh Shpudeiko (keyboards, electronics)
In collaboration with:
– Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko (vocals)

1. Heinali and Saienko penned a third (and considerably shorter) track as part of their collaboration, “Zelenaia Dubrovonka”, but this isn’t considered part of Гільдеґарда. ︎

The post Review: Heinali, Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko – Гільдеґарда (Hildegard) appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive rock, post-rock, folk (clean vocals, Ukrainian lyrics)
Recommended for fans of: Riverside, Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 30 May 2025

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away: How do you offer fair, critical insight into an album by a band from a war-torn nation—especially when the conflict is ongoing and the album is, by all appearances, rife with both overt and metaphorical references to that very struggle? Though I admire a bevy of Russian art and music, and I studied the language for three years in college, I’d like to make one thing crystal clear: Слава Україні. Now that my biases are laid bare, please know that my intention here is not to flatten Obiymy Doschu’s (Обійми Дощу) Vidrada into a one-dimensional token of trauma or resistance. Political reality matters, but so does the music.

And man, the music really tickles my prog fancy. My review history makes no secret that I lean towards the metal side of the spectrum. However, I make it a point to step outside my wheelhouse about once per month, just to avoid missing the forest for the trees. Vidrada fits that bill. It’s built mostly on soft acoustic plucking, dolce string melodies, and mellow, even-keeled vocal lines—practically the polar opposite of my usual fare. I tend to prefer such elements as textures to break up my metal, while Vidrada instead uses metal to break up these textures, and only sparingly at that. For all the ways it might not cater to my kvlt mentality, the LP more than makes up for it by appealing to my prog senses: non-standard time signatures, unconventional voicings, and multi-layered compositions abound.

Take “На відстані” (“At a Distance”) for example. A lurching 7/8 synthesizer melody and haunting vocal line—accompanied by a yearning string section and various distant, arpeggiated guitar touches—make up the bulk of this track. Right before this would all start to feel repetitive, the song deftly transitions—and this is going to sound weird, though I swear it works—into a soft, barely distorted, not downtuned djent outro. When individualized, these descriptors might not sound like the most unorthodox things in the progressive rock space, yet the overall vibe of the song is a tad ominous and delightfully eccentric.

“At a Distance” isn’t the only track that takes things in a heavy direction at the end. “Істини” (“Truths”) has an immensely off-beat melody (played over a steady 6/8 time) driven by a piano in its opening moments, and opting  for a mournful tone instead of an ominous one. The choruses bring in a distorted guitar with palm-muted chugs alternating to an anthemic melody, and emphatic strings to give the track a different weight than any other song on Vidrada. What makes the track truly stand out, though, is the death metal growl that comes completely out of left field towards the end. Being the penultimate track, the changeup feels like a world where Opeth had only ever written Damnation-style albums and then threw in a “Ghost of Perdition” intro in the back half of a random song. The switch is so jarring that I don’t think it entirely works, but it certainly gets points for shaking things up.

“Truths” and “At a Distance” stand apart on Vidrada, diverging from the album’s prevailing blend of sweetness, tenderness, and hope. That amalgam is present not just in the gentle melodies and soft instrumentation, but also in the lyrics. While some of the text makes direct reference to the tragic and unjust conflict in Ukraine, the message doesn’t ask for your pity, instead it yearns for the light of a better day. “Після війни” (“After the War”) prays: “After the war we will return to our cities to live as we should; playing with children under clear skies. Breathing in the world with full, open hearts.” These aren’t tunes and words for war drums, they’re lullabies for survival, and I am touched on some level by almost all of them.

Many individual moments on the album really tug at my heartstrings, and most of said moments seem to include a beautiful, driving, staccato string accompaniment. Vidrada’s closer “Не опускати руки” (“Don’t Give Up”) is probably the standout in this regard. The song builds up to its wonderful outro, and releases with emotive strings that add to an anthemic vocal chant and rallying cry. The title track “Відрада” (”Refuge”) has a chorus with strings that punctuate the melody and punch-uate you right in the feels, and it’s yet another track with a bright outro. Other moments, however, lean a bit dull and overstay their welcome. The opening minutes of this album, for example, had me afraid I was going to have to trudge through it. “Діти” (“Children”) starts with a guitar motif that, in contrast to the majority of the album, makes me feel nothing. Thankfully, these moments were rare.

Taken as a whole, Vidrada is a remarkably cohesive and emotionally articulate record. While not devoid of virtuoso pyrotechnics or overt heaviness in the music and lyrics, those aren’t its driving forces. Rather, empathy and optimism carry the melodies and message of this release. It’s not flawless nor pioneering, and some stretches drift a little too far into saccharinity, but even the lulls feel like part of the album’s greater patience and poise.

Слава Україні

Recommended tracks: Refuge, Don’t Give Up, At a Distance, Truths
You may also like: Iamthemorning, Haven of Echoes, Esthesis, Fjieri
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related Links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify

Label: Independent

Obiymy Doschu is:
Volodymyr Agafonkin — vocals, acoustic guitar, music (1, 3–8), lyrics
Mykola Kryvonos — bass guitar, producing
Yaroslav Gladilin — drums
Olena Nesterovska — viola, music (2)
Yevhenii Dubovyk — piano, keyboards
Oleksii Perevodchyk — electric guitars

With guests:
Kateryna Nesterovska — violin I
Anastasiia Shypak — violin II
Artem Zamkov — cello
Karina Sokolovska — back vocals
Mariia Zhytnikova — back vocals (1, 4)
Andriy Tkachenko — extreme vocals (7)
Oleksiy Katruk — contributions to guitar parts

1. Volodymyr Agafonkin — idea, photo
   Viktoria Groholska — watercolor painting
   Kateryna Yefymenko — retouch & editing
   Mariia Agafonkina, Daryna Agafonkina — models ︎

The post Review: Obiymy Doschu – Відрада (Vidrada) appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: groove metal, metalcore, djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Avenged Sevenfold, Spiritbox, Gojira, Lamb of God, Meshuggah
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 7 February 2025

Is groove metal a real genre? Some people make the claim, but I’m not so sure. Google may say it’s a genre defined by chugging, palm muted guitarwork with extensive use of double bass pedals and downtuned guitars, but does that not describe the entirety of modern metal? And if something isn’t groove metal does it mean it can’t be groovy? For something seemingly so ubiquitous, there really is no clear or satisfying definition, and it’s almost certainly easier to just identify groove metal releases as they come up. Thankfully, Jinjer makes it easy for us on their latest release Duél.

For any groove-based genre, a strong rhythm section is paramount. Thankfully, after honing their sound on 2019’s Macro and 2021’s Wallflowers, bassist Eugene Abdukhanov and drummer “Vladi” Ulasevich have delivered what is undoubtedly the best performances of their career on Duél, leaving no doubt that Jinjer has their rhythm section covered. Adventurous slaps and pops that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Job for a Cowboy track accentuate the decidedly tight drumwork in the album’s heavier moments while tasteful bass breaks and intelligent cymbal use highlight the lighter sections on tracks like “Tumbleweed.” The guitarwork courtesy of Roman Ibramkhalilov nestles neatly into the remaining sonic space, rarely adventuring out into the open but leaving its mark when it does during moments like the brief solo of “Green Serpent.”

Still, Jinjer remains a decidedly vocal-centric band, and Tatiana Shmayluk remains one of the most dynamic vocalists in the modern metal scene. Spewing catty witticisms left and right, Tatiana’s vocals run the gamut from gentle croons to harsh bellowing lows and searing highs. Romps like “Rogue” and “Fast Draw” get down and dirty with their straight ahead heaviness, while tracks like “Kafka” and “Someone’s Daughter” do well to show off Tatiana’s vocal range with their proggy yet lean song structures. Unfortunately, Duél remains plagued by what is perhaps my biggest pet peeve in regards to Jinjer, and that is the lyrical emphasis. To put it simply, it often sounds like one too many syllables are squeezed into a phrase making the whole thing feel off kilter, especially during the clean vocal sections. Perhaps it’s a symptom of a band writing in their second language, but I can’t always fully jive with the seeming lack of flow in the clean vocal patterns.

Unfortunately, that lack of flow also seeps into the track listing. At an already lean forty-three minutes and with no track exceeding five minutes, Duél is a brisk listen, but I am not so sure that each track earns its fair keep. For every “Green Serpent” or “Fast Draw” on the track list that engages the listener with its dynamic snowballing riffage or vibrant raw intensity, there’s a “Rogue” or “Dark Bile” that gets bogged down in its verse-chorus-verse song structure and overall sameness. In individual chunks, Duél is peachy keen, but the totality is a disjointed album experience full of ups and downs that leaves me satisfied in parts but ultimately miffed by the time the album’s closer rolls around, especially with its goofy false ending.

Jinjer seems to have honed in on their sound on their past few releases, and Duél sets the band’s proggy blend of groove metal and metalcore in stone. Featuring what is undoubtedly the best production treatment that the band has had yet, the album is the product of four amazingly talented musicians operating at the top of their respective craft yet getting lost in the finer details of the album as a whole. I know that Jinjer has a genuine magnum opus somewhere in their future, but it seems as though Duél is just another stepping stone along that path.

Recommended tracks: Green Serpent, Kafka, Someone’s Daughter
You may also like: Dawn of Ouroboros, Vintersea, Rannoch
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Napalm Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Jinjer is:
– Tatiana Shmayluk (vocals)
– Roman Ibramkhalilov (guitars)
– “Vladi” Ulasevich (drums)
– Eugene Abdukhanov (bass)

The post Review: Jinjer – Duél appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: psychedelic folk (mostly instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Natural Snow Buildings, Lula Côrtes, The Gerogerigegege, Paul Konoplenko-Zaporozetz
Country: Ukraine/United States-OR
Release date: 25 October 2024

Over the past decade, Markov Soroka has progressed from a young Ukranian metal prodigy into a multi-project (Tchornobog, Aureole, Slow) titan of strange metal, showing Soroka clearly possesses a beautifully twisted imagination. I was lucky enough to catch Tchornobog at Soroka’s farewell show from his temporary residence in St. Louis, and nothing quite prepared me for the vomit ritual and blindfolded playing¹. They were a paragon of stage presence, and the live painting session—as in Soroka had a local artist create a work as the music played using the paint they vomited up—during the set only added to the genius charm. With that live performance scarred into my brain, I understand why he was commissioned to perform live at Eilish Gormley Art’s exhibit “Magic Mirror Magic Mirror Help! Get Me Out of Here”; Soroka’s aura and dedication to his craft (as well as his synesthesia playing a role in his unique creationary process) is fitting for the high art world even unattached from metal. That live set constitutes the second half of this weighty release, the first “commissioned” to commemorate a friend’s trip through the Balkans. These two commissions are starkly different from Soroka’s other works, so do they stand up to his metal genius?

The first half of the album, Kobza Bizarre’s Travel Loops of Static Broken Dialogues, guards the border of consciousness and unconsciousness. In its liminality, one can feel Soroka’s questing to reach his friend, trying to bypass boundaries of space and time. Each of the four tracks crests eleven minutes and once it finds its groove, never relents its pulsating, hypnotic grip. These are palates of musical texture for timbre and form more than traditional “songs,” unfurling contemplatively in order to allow the mind to explore vast internal soundscapes—seeking melodic or rhythmic variation would distract from the quest of stepping beyond temporal borders to the metaphorical Balkans. The long tracks will be frustratingly repetitive to most, but their unhurried dreaminess is gorgeous. To create these textures, Soroka focuses on a few instruments and tries to unlock the potential in what their simple repetitions can do: percussive bells, synths, and Ukrainian folk instruments like the double necked kobza and 55-string bandura. To get accustomed to the minimalist folk of twenty minute opener “NoClipping Sleepdreams of Abandoned Monastaries with Lovers’ Mothwings” is difficult and will require from most listeners a desire to achieve a meditative state, an openness to the flexibility of form which most music (even for prog metal fans) doesn’t challenge, yet its shamanic buildup is well worth it to the patient listener. The pulse is altered by backing synth melodies, occasionally the kobza and bandura pluck between the overwhelming onslaught of rhythm, and clipped voices take on hints of melody throughout. The other three tracks are similarly hypnotic and repetitive—although not identical in style as “Savehouse Spokiy Overlooks our Dreamsleep of Healthpoints” plays much more with a plodding dungeon synth-y backing—but the polyptych flows as one meditation in a satisfyingly brilliant manner.

What makes Soroka so unlike most other artists is surely informed by his monochromatic synesthesia: listening to music forms grandiose architectures and narratives in his mind. If you’ve followed along with the concepts of his Tchornobog and Aureole projects, this is an unsurprising revelation, but for those of you less familiar with his work: it is intensely story-driven and often more focused on texture than melody. This double LP pushes that to the extreme, though, and the lack of, well, anything except for hazy musical textures is confusing and difficult to grapple with, particularly for such an extended time. I’m sure Soroka’s amazing mind crafts a stunning artistic backdrop for this release, but me and my non-synesthete-ness get lost in the work far too easily. I still find it easy to drift away, but the piece is surely lacking the power it could have had I an extra sense. 

The side commissioned by Eilish Gormley’s, The Tzerkalocvyt Bandura of Kosmos, functions similarly to Kobza Bizarre’s Travel Loops of Static Broken Dialogues, albeit more actively. There’s a darker hue to the dreaminess, more sinister percussion (hear the second half of “Tzerkalocvyt I – Mountaintop Wind of Vaporware Downloads”). These tracks draw from a wider range of influence—particularly 90s PC game music and some gothic-ness—but I hear doom-y dungeon synth like Bakt and even some of the eerie folk music of Nishaiar infiltrate. The Tzerkalocvyt Bandura of Kosmos is as relaxing, beautiful, and strange as the first half.

Of course, paired together this release is over two hours of very repetitive psychedelic folk music, and it’s simply too much to stomach. It’s a lovely project to experience, letting the colors and forms and textures of the music wash over you, but it grows tedious quickly in nearly every listening context. While I appreciate tracks like “Tzerkalocvyt III – Narodivsya, 1995 Irregular Linedef” for the way it expands on themes in the previous Tzerkalocvyt movements, it wouldn’t exactly be great listening without a remarkably long attention span or with the genetic gift of synesthesia. Both his friend and Gormley undoubtedly hired the right person for the job, and Soroka is brilliant here, but it’s simply not a friendly album to listen to more than once in a blue moon.

Recommended tracks: The Tzerkalocvyt Bandura of Kosmos
You may also like: Nishaiar, Esoctrilihum, Bakt
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: independent

Markovsoroka is:
– Markov Soroka (everything)

1.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcQUBlkXyo this is not the same performance, but Soroka does this live to start many Tchornobog concerts ︎

The post Review: Markovsoroka – Kobza Bizarre’s Travel Loops of Static Broken Dialogues & The Tzerkalocvyt Bandura of Kosmos appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Strapping Young Lad, Soilwork, Dark Tranquility
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 19 April 2024

Some artists are insanely prolific. About once a week on average, Andy will announce to all of us that a new Kosm album has just dropped—for some reason he endures every release from a man who puts out something like fifty albums per year. Deha is another insanely prolific artist, and both make King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard look like Tool. Fortunately, I don’t know any bands like that, and I can’t imagine wanting any artist to put out that much music. Diminium’s debut, Dissonant, dropped on November 30th last year—and Dimi Rich, the man behind the band, has been busy these past five months working on new EP Dominant. That’s fast compared to most artists, and as long as he doesn’t start releasing an album a week, I’m happy. 

Dissonant was a nice little surprise when it dropped, a record clearly influenced by Devin Townsend’s erstwhile outlet Strapping Young Lad, brimming with anger and energy, but Rich managed to utilise that sound to his own end, pouring much of the frustration and heartbreak of the war in his country into his music. Dissonant is a quick twenty-one minute EP with five tracks that sees Rich infuse his sound with black metal flavours. 

“Oblivion” makes that influence instantly apparent with its steadfast blast beat rhythms, and some tremolo-picked riffs later on, techniques which resurface over the course of the EP. “Vortex” opens more like a System of a Down track and feints with a filthy noughties metal groove before then turning back to the blackened tremolo, adding spacey chorus effects and, buried ominously behind the other instruments, eerie chants, all reminiscent of Dodheimsgard. Rich’s influences are found all over the place—Dominant isn’t a black metal EP, it just borrows judiciously from the genre—but he manages to weave them into a consistent tapestry. If one idea doesn’t sit so comfortably, the next one will. A lot of that comes down to Rich’s versatile vocal range; he modulates his harshes between death metal growls and higher, harsher black metal screams, each section feeling dominated and defined by the vocal performance. 

“Ordeal” opens with eerie flamenco and bursts of distortion, and again marries black metal influences to an almost nu-metal sense of groove. Having recently reviewed an album that suffered from a lacklustre rhythm section, Rich’s mastery of rhythm is all the more apparent. He has a great ear for grooves, which can only be achieved through an understanding of how drums and guitar must interplay. That’s also apparent on “Shifts”, a punchier track that sees Rich take on some belting heavy metal cleans (how about that new Judas Priest record everyone?) and pushes into an uncompromisingly ballsy breakdown. Dominant closes out with an instrumental version of “Avoid a Void” from Dissonant which is thrown in as a bit of a bonus track. I’m not wild about instrumental versions of vocal-led tracks and Rich doesn’t really do anything new with it, but, y’know, it’s fine. 

It shouldn’t be any surprise to hear that Rich is an award winning sound engineer. Dissonant sounded fantastic and so does Dominant. Indeed, there’s very little to criticise across the board, but Rich never quite blows me away. He’s a tight composer but I want some more pushing the envelope, more of that prog ambition. What would a ten minute Diminium track sounds like? What would more genre experimentation look like? Weaving in blackened influences is a promising start, and there’s no doubt that Rich has plenty more to offer.

Dimi’s rich ideas [Sam berated me for not doing any “rich” puns, so I did this incredibly weak one] continues to impress, demonstrating an understanding of black metal and incorporating it seamlessly into his established sound, and while Dominant is short but sweet, it shows huge potential for the future. I’d love to see Diminium keep experimenting with different genre influences, as well as explore more progressive structures, but Dominant proves that Rich is a consistent and entertaining songwriter with a hell of a lot of potential. 

Recommended tracks: Oblivion, Vortex, also it’s not on the EP but go check the cover of Dua Lipa’s “Training Season”
You may also like: Mean Messiah, Opsimath
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Diminium is:
– Dimi Rich (everything)

The post Review: Diminium – Dominant appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Atmospheric Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Early Ulver, Uada, Later Agalloch, Spectral Wound
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 23 February 2024

I am famous for being egregiously late to consuming movies and TV shows. Just a few weeks ago, I finally decided to watch The Wicker Man (the 1970s Christopher Lee one, not the Nicholas Cage one, but that will come soon enough), which introduced me to the genre of folk horror. There is something so enticing and disturbing in its normality: there are few special effects, no beings borne from curves and angles not native to this plane, just people following the logical conclusion of a string of tragedies and misfortunes. There is fear in the knowledge that these were once regular people who have been driven to atrocities by their circumstances.

Black metal artists are no stranger to folk horror inspiration, whether it be Agalloch’s The White EP or Raphael Weinroth-Browne side project The Visit’s Through Darkness Into Light. Inspired by Dark Ages folk horror, They Came From Visions sit comfortably between atmospheric black metal and melodic black metal: they add touches of melodicism to an atmospheric base and package it into varied tracks that occasionally veer into dissonance. While The Twilight Robes is no vast deviation from the debut Cloak of Darkness, Dagger of Night, the production has been appreciably augmented and the songwriting has also seen improvement, showing that They Came From Visions are talented at creating memorable moments from music that is typically designed to be textural. Very rarely does a black metal riff qualify as an earworm, but the riffs on “Equinox Ablaze,” “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws,” and “Twilight Robes” border on infectiousness while refusing to compromise on ominous atmosphere.

Despite the all-around improvement to the sound, what truly gives The Twilight Robes status as a conceptually complete and immersive black metal album is the full embrace of folk horror in the lyrical content. Across its runtime, a series of vignettes paint a world as it is overcome by misery and darkness caused by figures known as The Twilight Robes. In the beginning moments, the desperation of this world’s inhabitants reveals itself and by the end, the entire world is enveloped in shadows and anguish, shown through characters who are not bad at their core but are strong-armed into capitulation by the grim and dire world they inhabit. For example, “Equinox Ablaze” tells the story of a village that burns citizens alive to try and appease their harvest gods, Wicker Man-style, later being consumed by shame and regret for their actions, and “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” describes a person who encounters a werewolf and is enraptured with temptation to become one themselves, despite werewolves’ reputation as “an ancient horror unleashed upon the world”. Across these songs, you can feel the fear and desperation in these characters, making for a convincing horror experience.

There are moments where even the choice of timbre in the instruments complements the narrative: “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” centers around a uniquely high-pitched riff that can only be described as “howling”, remarkably fitting for a song about turning into a werewolf; on “The Sign of Damnation,” the narrator becomes engulfed in anguish and madness, reflected in the instrumentation by the introduction of dissonance and bone-chilling screams halfway through the track; and the main character of “Petrified Immortality” gives themselves away to lethargy and stillness as their body is turned to stone during one of the coldest and gloomiest riffs on the album, as if the riff itself is calcifying. They Came From Visions have a crystal clear idea of the world they want to create and they do not miss a single opportunity to articulate their no-pun-intended “vision”, manifested in a nearly flawless marriage of lyricism and instrumentation.

I mention nearly flawless here because, unfortunately, there are elements of The Twilight Robes that detract from its awe-inspiring and terrifying beauty. Though the production has improved from the debut, the drums could benefit from being slightly higher in the mix, as there are a few instances where I have to really focus to hear the drums well. Moreover, “The Blissful Defeat” introduces a slight slump and loss in momentum: it gets the unfortunate privilege of following up the absolutely crushing assault of “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” and has the weakest connection thematically to the folk horror aesthetic. It is by no means a bad song, though, and the cohesive and varied song structures prevent even the weaker tracks on The Twilight Robes from slipping into monotony.

They Came From Visions have set an effigy ablaze on The Twilight Robes, demanding the attention of those who can bear to observe its twisted branches. Combining folk horror lyricism with chilling and thematically appropriate instrumentation, the series of vignettes presented on The Twilight Robes paint a picture of what there is to be afraid of – not what is in the darkest corners of space or deep in the forest, but what emerges from our most desperate selves.

Recommended tracks: Burning Eyes Blackened Claws, Equinox Ablaze, Twilight Robes
You may also like: Stormkeep, Valdrin, Ars Moriendi, Winterhorde
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RateYourMusic page | Metal-Archives page

Label: Eisenwald – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

They Came From Visions is:
– Voice of Misery (vocals)
– Voice of the Deep (bass)
– Voice of Gloom (guitars, drums)

The post Review: They Came From Visions – The Twilight Robes appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Metal, Groove Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Strapping Young Lad, Gojira, early Devin Townsend
Review by: Christopher
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 30 November, 2023

Without wanting to get too cynically McLuhanesque, in the age of social media a war is only as important as its entertainment value. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which began in February 2022, brought an onslaught of militarised horror to global media, and outpourings of support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. And then, after a while, we forgot. We have a new war to go insane about now until that, too, bores us, and some new geopolitical drama comes to occupy our collective attention. But for those living amid the fray, these wars and their degradation remain an ever present reality: loved ones killed, neighbourhoods destroyed, and the constant threat of death and destruction looming overhead. 

No wonder Dimi Rich sounds so pissed off. Diminium is his brainchild where he composes and performs all instruments, and was conceived as an outlet for his anger and disgust regarding the war in his native Ukraine, as Russian shells were fired into his homeland and blackouts sunk him into darkness. Clearly influenced by such groovy, heavy luminaries as Strapping Young Lad and Gojira, that same sense of distilled aggression dominates on debut album Dissonant; rageful vocal performances, intense riffs, and frenetic soloing all adding up to a record best summed up as “heavy fucking metal”. 

Strapping Young Lad is the primary influence here, and a plethora of the riffs sound like they could be ripped straight from a lost SYL record, “Alert!” and “Survive” being prime examples. While Rich often lurks in the realms of homage, his own compositional acumen keeps Dissonant from ever feeling merely derivative. There are flourishes of real creativity, exemplified by “The Great Escape” which feels like Rich’s most original track, from its softer sections, the guest vocals of Exaltation, and some deeply satisfying shredding. “Розділені Кордонами”, meanwhile, is sung all in Ukrainian and opts for a more lamentory and sincere tone, though its invective and heaviness remain untrammelled. 

Part of the key to this compositional prowess is in Rich’s vocal performances: his harsh vocals recall both Joe Duplantier of Gojira, and a young Devin Townsend (particularly in his SYL days), while his cleans run solid ground too, the big vocal harmonies on “Havoc” recalling Stefan de Graef of Psychonaut and Hippotraktor. Additionally, he often swerves into a more theatrical delivery, more akin to Rob Halford or even Geoff Tate, as on “Light Up the Sky”, “Empowered” and “The Great Escape”. Rich’s sheer versatility allows Dissonant to temper its core sound with a lot of different musical flavours, the journey through angry metal stomp, chaotic thrashiness, and epic melodies of “Endless River” being a case in point.  

The core Strapping Young Lad inspired sound is punchy and enjoyable—such as the Devy-esque sweep solo on “Avoid A Void”, and “Alert!” which sounds like an SYL medley (I definitely hear shades of “Force Fed” and “Wrong Side”)—but Dissonant is at its best when setting itself apart, which, fortunately, is most of the time. Usually artists find themselves unable to step outside the shadow of their influences on their debut, but Rich does much to define his own sound here. Not every experiment works—the sudden funk groove with horns closing “Avoid A Void” is somewhat superfluous, and I’m not wholly convinced by “Empowered” despite its intriguing use of sax (contributed by guest saxophonist, Sam… just Sam)—but Rich dares to take risks and, most of the time, they pay off. 

DIminium’s influences are undeniably easy to tease out, but the genuine passion, rage, and compositional talent suffusing Dissonant, fuelled by a palpable sense of ire and grief, make it a surprisingly compelling listen. Certainly, if you miss the balls-to-the-wall, no-fucks-given headbang-inducing madness of Strapping Young Lad, you’ll find plenty to enjoy here, and there’s more beneath the surface that testifies to Rich’s future potential. 

Recommended tracks: Havoc, Розділені Кордонами, The Great Escape
You may also like: Ramage Inc., Monolith Zero, Hippotraktor
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Diminium is:
– Dimi Rich (vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards)

The post Review: Diminium – Dissonant appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Death metal, Progressive Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Cynic, Obscura
Review by: Francesco
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 22 July, 2022

Already three albums in, Dusk Chapel once more draws from the esoteric progressive metal world on this newest album to bring a unique vitality into their brand of punishing death metal, a stitching of influence from track to track with the result of having created a veritable Frankenstein’s monster. A unified force, Astrophysics And Abnormal Activities surges with energy barely contained in the complex fretwork, clockwork drumming, and harrowing vocals.

The album begins with an atmosphere building haunting piano and synth passage to open the first track “Parallel Lives”, a great representation of the whole album as it contains much of the progressive style the band will come to be known for throughout this release. Dusk Chapel incorporates synth, start-stop off-beat riffing, and haunting dissonant legato chords to build and build on pieces with laser focus. However, owing to the nature of the death metal genre, the pieces eschew an overabundance of prog metal convolution in favour of an aggressive ferocity and frenetic pacing that hearkens Death more than Opeth especially in regards to the vocalist Demether. There is no clean singing to be found on this album, and his mixed high screaming and low growl vocal style imbues the track listing with a certain visceral malevolence and extreme urgency.

Guitar player (and primary songwriter) Artyom weaves into his riffs a fluidity that carries each movement to the end without ever feeling disjointed; the riffs never sound out of place and facilitate the mood changes expertly. This is best exemplified in passages like the opening of the track “Noosphere”, where the song’s uptempo intro features tremolo picked riffing that gives way to a half-time melodic arpeggiated verse in a single beat, before shifting gear right back into the pre-established velocity and intensity of the piece. And that’s not to speak of his lead work, which contains harmonised melodies that would make any Gothenburg-area band blush. In truth there is more than a little melodic death metal influence in his work, as can be heard in the riffing on tracks like “Martyrs of Evolution” and “Hypergiant”.

The standout moment on this album for me comes about halfway through with one track called “Pleiades”, a beautifully played classical guitar piece that evokes a melancholy summer evening on a Mediterranean coast. It can be a staple of progressive death metal bands to include clean, ethereal, melodic atmospheric passages in the middle of intense tracks, and I was glad that Dusk Chapel skillfully avoided this pitfall by giving it a space of its own to flourish and alleviate the tension. In particular this provided a welcome stillness and calm in an album that, for all its merits, is still a death metal album.

To my surprise, the drumming was programmed by keyboardist Sergey, and I thought that even if it rarely endeavoured to stray outside of established genre boundaries, it was never boring. In fact, I’d venture to say Sergey’s keyboard work and drum programming was instrumental in the success of all the various moods and changes of expression on this release, keeping time and changing the feel halfway through measures while the riffs marched along. For me the only low point of this album was the bass playing, of which I can say little and less; guitarist Ayrtom doubles responsibility here and even the times when it’s audible I didn’t feel added much to the songs. It seems nitpicky, but with an album of this quality I felt I had to reach for criticism.

Nevertheless, I find that with Astrophysics And Abnormal Activities, Dusk Chapel carves their name into the thickest stone. If these guys had any English-language internet presence to speak of I’d look forward to following the rest of their career with great interest. In the interim I’ll keep my ear to the ground and hope they solidify the lineup with a dedicated rhythm section who might be able to help them take their music further, perhaps even onstage. Their take on the genre may not be a wholly original approach but never did it strike me as utterly derivative. The production is tight and definitely a notch above the previous albums. The songs flow well between one another, the arrangements play expertly with tension and release, the band builds on pieces where movements end and reprise seamlessly, and their experimentation with electronic soundscapes was a distinctive touch that I really enjoyed. A powerful release, this may be their biggest and best work yet: technical, precise, purposeful, and wasting not a single note.

Recommended tracks: Parallel Lives, Hypergiant, Secret Face
You may also like: Coexistence, Quo Vadis, Anciients
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Metal-Archives page

Label: Soundage Productions | Website | Facebook

Dusk Chapel is:
– Artyom Yemelianenko (guitars, songwriting)
– Sergey “Chaos” Pestov (keyboards, programming)
– Demether Grail (vocals)

The post Review: Dusk Chapel – Astrophysics And Abnormal Activities appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive/Post (heavy vocals)
Review by: Tyler
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 14-08-2020

I have a feeling that Europe knows something that we over here in world’s asshole don’t. The music that pours out of that place is typically on a different level. There is just a sense of honesty that they can tap into that we really don’t get too often. I often feel that metal can feel too manufactured and processed, that it’s heavy for heavy’s sake and not heavy because that’s what feels appropriate. Somehow, Nug missed that memo because even though they are singing in gosh darn Ukranian, I feel more listening to Alter Ego than I do with most albums stateside.

I will say that sonically, this album isn’t a totally original opus, we’ve heard this brand of progressive post metal before. One European band comes to mind that I won’t mention by name, but golly does this painting of an ocean scene great. Almost like the real thing! I’m not saying that they are copying that sound totally, I would say Nug has a more raw and less polished sludge-ish way about them. Also, I think the vocals here fit the sound perfectly. Mixing elements of post metal and black metal pretty seamlessly when the time calls. The song “Beast” makes for a good example. The first lines heard are almost barked by the beast itself, and later during the more grooved and laid back portions being a bit more depressed, even adding some clean vocals over the top.

As for the other performance, I felt the emotion from the instrumentalists as much as the vocalist. The parts aren’t terribly complex by any means, but with music like this, it would just be distracting. The riffs absolutely destroy here. They are heavy and brooding, and mixed with drums that are just a little muffled and the desperation in the vocals, this is heavier than any of those ‘heavy for the sake of it guys’.  It’s definitely one of those instances where the end product is greater than the sum of its parts, and I really appreciate that as the album progresses, synthesis becomes a much bigger player, especially the erie “Shores”, which is arguably the peak of the album. The way the tone is set for the first minute, and then introducing an ethereal guitar over some down right spanky riffs hit me different.

My one criticism with Alter Ego is my problem with a lot of bands in a similar style, and that’s song length. I could feel at least a couple songs parts that could have been shorter. I never want to have my attention grabbed away from the music, but some parts dragged a bit. This is something that isn’t nearly offensive here than I’ve heard on other albums, but some of the parts like the intro of Eleven for example could have made a totally different impact, one more urgent and would have made it stand out a bit more than other spots, with some brevity. This is of course a nitpick, and not one that should take away from the otherwise stellar showing of songwriting.

I’ll admit that I picked this album because the band’s name made me chuckle for a hot minute (I was unaware of the Lovecraftian origin), I wasn’t expecting to feel so moved by a band that I can’t even understand lyrically. I ended up listening to this one quite a bit and kind of fell in love with how sincere it is. I can listen to a bonkers band like Zilf a million times, but sometimes, nothing beats music that means something.

Recommended tracks: Beast, Shore, Radiance
Recommended for fans of: Neurosis, The Ocean, ISIS
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | VKontake | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page

Nug is:
–  Юрій Дубровський (vocals)
– Євген Тарасенко (drums)
– Богдан Калинець (bass)
– Віталій Рисаков (guitars)
– Юрій Попов (guitars)

The post Review: Nug – Alter Ego appeared first on The Progressive Subway.