The Industrial Twilight: Mordens - "Songs of Brides" [2019]

Saturday, October 31, 2026

Mordens - "Songs of Brides" [2019]

Artist: Mordens

Title: Songs of Brides

Genre: Folk, World Music

Country: Russia (Mordovia)

Release date: 2019

Track List:

Songs of Brides
Sacred Tree
Field of Meetings
Summer Day
Spins the Thread
Balalay
Vyarde Panikht'
Pebbles
Rav River
In Search of the Bride

Named after the first historically known name for Mordvinic peoples (mentioned by Jordanes in 6th century AD), Mordens are an art-folk band formed in Saransk by Yuri Buyankin, who initially played music akin to Soviet "VIA" pop-rock but became interested in his Erzyan heritage after getting acquainted with another well-known Mordovian folk band Torama.They're known for their live performances involving stage theatrics, including the very first Mordvinic ethno-rock opera "Mordens: Maryams Liyaks".

Musically, they're fairly similar to Torama, Merema and other Erzyan and Mokshan folk bands already mentioned on my blog, and this particular album consists primarily of modern interpretations of traditional bridal ritual songs. Same goes for their stage outfits as modern interpretations of traditional Erzyan and Mokshan costumes (I guess they're worth mentioning since today's 31st of October, and I wanted to show you something more original compared to the usual Halloween costumes and also inspired by the culture that I personally have a close connection to):

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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).