Release Date: 7 February 2025
Song Count: 11
Duration: 42 minutes, 53 seconds
Rating: 6.3/10
Description:
Song Count: 11
Duration: 42 minutes, 53 seconds
Rating: 6.3/10
Description:
Riding further along the metal train, we find Jinjer, a Ukrainian progressive metal band with an eventful history since 2008, and their fifth and most recent full-length stop in their musical journey. Attention was drawn to this band on the end of yours truly when I stumbled upon video clips of the lead vocalist, Tatiana Shmayluk, alternating so cleanly between singing and growling that it would lead one into disbelief that both of the sounds came from the vocal chords of the same person. Duél, though less directly focused on this aspect of the band, nevertheless includes fragments of it, along with a full collection of contemporary metal tracks to listen into.
Citing primarily well-known forces in the world of progressive metal music as their inspirations, the band takes a unique approach with their particular flavour of playing things hard as they combine the structures and surface sound of directions like metalcore and djent whilst mixing it up with complex musicality akin to the bands they have claimed to have their sound shaped by. The lyricism alludes vaguely to the themes of local history of the 19th century and onward, but is generally in lesser focus in favour of the singing and the grooves the instrumentation surfs on. A mid-tempo, rhythmic pattern emerges and takes hold of the contents of the album, rarely breaking the mold by playing around with things like time signatures at certain points but mostly holding on to the lulling feel.
While interesting ideas do float around and the general texture of the music in Duél is consistent, it would be untruthful to omit that the spark it has fades fairly rapidly after the opening few tracks at most, leading to a more pure display of skill than something one can directly pick up, listen to and enjoy in full capacity. The naturally more monotone sound that was being aimed for ends up in many of the tracks simply sounding to similar to their peers to truly captivate - a rather less pleasant surprise, given the band's reputation for frequently bringing in influences from other, entirely unrelated corners of music in unique ways in their works. Jinjer is a group full of skilled musicians full of potential, but though an essence of that shines through in this album in particular, to see the true extent of what they are capable of, perhaps elsewhere is to look first.