The Industrial Twilight: October 2026

Saturday, October 10, 2026

Merema - "Eryamon’ Koytneva" [2023]

Artist: Merema

Title: Eryamon’ Koytneva

Genre: Folk, World Music

Country: Russia (Mordovia)

Release date: 2023

Track List:

Kozon' Kazanes' stroyatots'
Lisede Rasket Karshozonok
Mastyan chi, paro chi
Liseda, yalgat, liseda
Kostyan Annyunyas
Adya kiyal mazy repsen
Shyakshata
Vay tyadyanay-avanyay
Greshnay Ulyu
Roz' paksenes'

Now it's time for more traditional folk music, and since I've visited a folk festival in Mordovia just a week ago, let me post some stuff from that region which is connected to my ancestry more than any other. While this band, led by Katerina Modina-Virteva, haven't performed there (I've seen them live only once a few years ago), this album would be a good introduction to most well-known Erzyan and Mokshan folk songs to people without much knowledge of those cultures (which would be most people in the world, I guess):

About this blog

I created this blog mostly because I wanted to practise my English skills, and to showcase the industrial, gothic, punk, metal, neofolk and progressive rock scene of Russia/ex-USSR and Eastern Europe (especially Hungary) in the meanwhile.

As you can see, this blog doesn't take itself seriously enough, but I hope I'm doing good enough with my reviews even if my proficiency in English is limited. Along with the aforementioned stuff from Eastern Europe, I occasionally post some classic and rare albums that aren't to be missed, and generally whatever I want. Other categories of note:

* finno-ugric rarities - various music (including pop) in minor Finno-Ugric languages which I'm interested in because of my heritage. The music from Hungary, Finland and Estonia can be found under the respective categories;

* lo-fi - various poorly recorded demos from before 2000 that are of historical importance. Most of these demos come from the USSR era, so you might want to check out the USSR category as well.

As of now, I try to post only music that has already been made free by the artists themselves, or the rare old releases that are out of print. But if you're an artist and would like me to remove the download links of your work, just contact me using the form below.

Sorry, I don't do reviews by request, I don't have the time. Moreover, I think the bands that feel the need to advertise themselves by sending their demos to as many blogs as possible are usually just plain boring. If you want to contact me for any other reason, use the contact form below.

It should be obvious enough that reviewing anything on here doesn't equals endorsement of artists' personal views. This especially concerns neofolk and martial industrial. It'd be fair enough to say that I have the same approach to the political and religious topics in these genres as Laibach do.

Many of the female musicians featured on my blog are amateur models, and in many cases their modelling work is no less interesting than their music. Right now I'm working on giving it a separate section of the blog (just in case if anyone wants my review to be only about their music and not their looks). The work is in progress, check back later if you're interested.

The title of my blog comes from a song by The Kovenant (album "SETI", 2003).