I first came across Jinjer just over a year ago and was blown away by Tatiana Shmailyuk’s schizophrenic vocals. The clean vocals are as good as any but the way the beauty of her voice flips almost instantaneously to produce the brutal intensity that drives Jinjer’s sound home demands your attention and rightly so. This album is an epic roller coaster of the very best of prog metal today. Although everyone is rightly talking about Tatianna’s amazing performances they are more than matched by the work of Eugene Kostyuk on bass. Possibly one of the best I have seen or heard across any genre. Just close your eyes and listen to the bass and if you get a chance go and see the band and watch him. The backbone he and Vladislav Ulasevish on drums provide has you moving and regardless of resistance.
My personal favourite track is “Pit of Consciousness” as it just resonates with me and is very easy to identify with from a very personal point of view. The riffs Roman Ibramkhalilov provide just lift you up and carry you through a physically exhausting ride with Tatiana’s voice filling me with a sense of mania before combining with Roman to dump you out at the end.
“Retrospective” is another track worthy of singling out the mix of languages works as beautifully as the contrast of Tatiana’s vocals and is musically close to perfect for me. Do not listen to this album in your car. I have nearly been caught speeding a number of times when listening to “The Prophecy” with its power and almost violently beautiful sound fuelling my adrenaline levels before being soothingly haunted by “Lainnerep”. I can’t tell you the journeys I have no memory of because of this combination.
Ultimately Jinjer have a great album and have yet again raised the bar with some truly technically brilliant tracks. Building on the success of the previous EP this album is showing progressive metalcore, groove metal and a plethora of other genres you can throw at Jinjer at its very best and it has me chomping at the bit to see them performed live. Get the album then get to see them live ASAP.
Live dates are coming your way at the end of November as listed below. Support is from The Agonist with openers Khroma and Space of Variations:
- 29.11.19 London / Heaven
- 30.11.19 Birmingham / Asylum
- 01.12.19 Newcastle / University
- 03.12.19 Manchester / Academy 2
- 04.12.19 Bristol / Thekla
Macro is out now
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