Sunday, October 27, 2019

Bog-Morok - "Industrialypse" [2014]

Artist: Bog[~]Morok
Title: Industrialypse
Genre: Industrial Metal
Country: Russia
Release date: 2014

Track List:
  1. Industrialypse
  2. Gliese 581d
  3. Не вижу зла (Stadiae III)
  4. Neizbezhnost'
  5. Hellstarter
  6. Shapeshifter
  7. Bloodsucker
  8. Свет в конце тоннеля
  9. Звездопад
  10. IDDQD
  11. Undream
Now here's a band from a town with I did manage to visit this year - Rybinsk. Bog Morok (also stylized as Bog[~]Morok) are one of the few long-running Russian metal bands that started in the second half of the 90s from death/doom metal which was quite popular at the time. Since mid-2000s, they switched their style for industrial metal heavily influenced by Fear Factory (and probably the industrial landscapes at the outskirts of their hometown). While some of their earlier works contain too much alternative/nu-metal influences for my taste, "Industrialypse" is one of their best releases and can be recommended to anyone looking for something resembling the best works by Fear Factory:


Friday, October 11, 2019

Xalynar - "Inner Circle" [2012]

Artist: Xalynar
Title: Inner Circle
Genre: Industrial Death Metal, Modern Metal
Country: Russia
Release date: 2012

Track List:
  1. We Will Run
  2. Follow Me
  3. Time To Cry
  4. Obsession
  5. Fuck Out
  6. Vanity
During my travels this summer I had plans of visiting Rostov-on-Don which didn't come true, but at least I have discovered a release by an interesting obscure band from that city. Xalynar was formed in 2010 from the ashes of a earlier band called Selena, by the guitarist Kirill Shmailo and his sister Elena on vocals. The band existed until December 2012 and has released an EP called "Vanity" in 2011, followed by a full-length (if 25 minutes counts for "full-length") album the next year.

Their music was usually described as "modern metal" or "cyber metal", which are both quite vague terms I prefer to avoid, yet in case of Xalynar they should give you a good idea of what you're going to hear. With all honesty, "Inner Circle" is far from being a masterpiece, but at least one song on there ("Follow Me") is really great, and as a whole, I liked it better than what the better known "modern metal" bands like Illidiance or Digimortal were playing at that time. In short, if you like melodic death metal/metalcore with a lot of electronics and female growls mixed with clean vocals, "Inner Circle" might be your cup of tea.

As of now, most former members of Xalynar seem to be more into bodybuilding rather than music, although Kirill has a rather popular YouTube channel for guitarists called HardSound. No idea what Elena is doing now, but I know she regretted going into music. That's very unfortunate because she was a talented vocalist, but completely understandable because singing in Xalynar required too much effort with too little recognition. There aren't many surviving recordings of their live shows, but this one is pretty good:


And one more, but with a rather poor quality of sound... Well, at least Elena looks great in a short black dress with knee-high boots: