Originally formed in 2008, things really started moving for Ukraine’s Jinjer when singer Tatiana Shmayluk joined the following year. Since then it has been a career characterised by triumph and tragedy, most recently being ambassadors for a nation at war. Throughout all the turmoil Jinjer have released a series of albums which have pushed at musical boundaries and reinvented what heavy music can be. Duél is long player number five and continues the bands upwards trajectory, standing proud as one of the their best.
Evidencing a sense of energy, opening track ‘Tantrum’ doesn’t mess around. Like a surprise uppercut from a heavyweight boxer it appears from nowhere, and is all the more powerful for it. It’s a bullet between the eyebrows and it explodes as such, with skull-shattering velocity it causes a blood red flash in the cranium, and then the band are off, doing what they do best and laying down the foundations for a modern metal masterpiece. Drummer Vlad Ulasevich mixes up rhythms to great effect, he becomes the powerhouse laying down ferocious blastbeats alongside groove laden sections and ensures that the mosh parts swing with wrecking ball force. Bass players can often get lost in the maelstrom of a metalcore band, but Eugene Abdukhanov steps up to the fore and ensures that every note hits the listener right in the solar plexus. Guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov delivers some seriously caustic riffs and the three musicans combine to make a dynamic unit. It means that when they shift gears and get all doomy on ‘Tumbleweed’ it’s a change of pace that flows seamlessly. ‘Tumbleweed’ is a bruiser that could easily swing with Black Sabbath (and possibly win) and could teach the young pretenders a thing or two.
All of Jinjer’s albums have scored highly on those aggregator websites with 2016’s King Of Everything being considered the band’s best. However, Duél tops that effort by dint of the experience they bring to this project. This is an album that’s built for the long haul and Jinjer use older heads to ensure it ululates as such. The band refuse to be boxed into a musical corner, and this album is a multi-headed hydra with each song inhabiting its own sonic space. That’s partly due to vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk who uses her voice like an instrument, flitting between gruff and clean vocals as and when required. Like wheels with wheels, ‘Kafka’ begins life as a kind of ballad before it evolves into a metal monster and this is indicative of Duél as a whole, revolving and evolving and it’s never knowing in what guise the band will appear that makes it such an intriguing listen.
It is the no-holds-barred title track that brings the album to a crushing conclusion and one that suggests there’s much more to come from this crew.
- Duél is released via Napalm Records on 7th February 2025.
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Track List:
1. Tantrum
2. Hedonist
3. Rogue
4. Tumbleweed
5. Green Serpent
6. Kafka
7. Dark Bile
8. Fast Draw
9. Someone’s Daughter
10. A Tongue So Sly
11. Duel
