Mandragora's Chain - "Retribution" [2012]

Artist: Mandragora's Chain

Title: Retribution

Genre: Noise, Dark Ambient, Industrial

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2012

Track List: 

1. Prologue: Happy?
2. Do not look back
3. Touch
4. Retribution
5. Love
6. Interlude Trust No One
7. Kill
8. United in slavery
9. Information War
10. New world order
11. Obey
12. Destroy your nation
13. Epilogue No More

Another obscure noise project from Kiev, started in 2008 initially as a pure "anarchist power electronics/noise" project, but later incorporated elements from various other post-industrial genres. The guy behind the project was active in the electronic music scene at least until 2013 under the moniker of Sitreus Ramirez, but in the early 2010s he became much more interested in deep techno, IDM and downtempo, and decided to focus on his solo works and his IDM band Sound Wave Pressure. However, I find his early noise/industrial works much more interesting in terms of both sound and message:

Старый Киев - "Белый шум" [2015]

Artist: Старый Киев

Title: Белый шум

Genre: Black Metal/Noise

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2015

Track List: 

1. Шперрунг
2. Скалярное произведение векторов
3. Аксиома шума
4. Битва за пустоту
5. Гибель Сатурна

This very obscure Kiev-based project was started in 2013 by the members of no less obscure depressive black metal band *Dog* , initially as an attempt to start a new wave of raw black metal. While their early demos have gone mostly unnoticed, their last 2015 demo does deserve attention - but if you like noise more than black metal. While it's still based in raw black metal, it's aptly called "While Noise", and shows that the aesthetics of early post-USSR noise projects were still alive in the mid-2010s.

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Dibrowa - "Lvivchumamiskrembudmekhanizatsiya 1761" [2020]

Artist: Dibrowa

Title: Lvivchumamiskrembudmekhanizatsiya 1761

Genre: Dark Ambient/Drone

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2020

Track List:

1. Station 1 - "Autosvit" store
2. Station 2 - OJSC Concern-Electron
3. Station 3 - “Otex” LLC
4. Station 4 - "Under the Cherry" restaurant
5. Station 5 - SE "Electronpotubprilad" Plant 

As I said several times before, I receive demos from various bedroom noise projects on a regular basis, and for the most part they're just plain boring. But this time, while checking my old mail, I found a message from a female-fronted project from Western Ukraine that promised to be "not the next boring typical drone-ambient-bla-bla-bla". Well, let's see...

"Dibrowa is a pagan priests settlement, which was seized by King Danylo Halytsky to present it to his son Lev. Now it is the territory of the forgotten temples of Znesinnia Park.
This is a Project by Liana Mytsko from Lviv. The history of the city and its dark abandoned corners diluted with the noise of experimental music"

 "Lvivchumamiskrembudmekhanizatsiya 1761" is a concept album inspired by the urban exploration of those "dark abandoned corners", and was said to guarantee a good trip, even without "chemistry":

"In Lviv, at 251 Zelena Street, almost out of the city, surrounded by garbage, on the territory of the Lvivmiskrembudmekhanizatsiya Enterprise, there is an abandoned plague cemetery of the 1761 year with the figure of Jesus Christ the Sorrowful standing on the top of the column.
Currently, at this address are illegal scrapyard of Electronbutprylad Plant, Concern Electron, Otex Ltd, restaurant" Under the Cherry ", "Autosvit " Store, and gravestone manufacture.
And if these Stations of the Cross in forgotten industrial place scares you, remember:
"It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all.
From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood,
and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." (Gospel of Thomas 1:77)
This is the temple that we deserve"

Mysterya - "Symbiont" [2013]

Artist: Mysterya

Title: Symbiont

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Живи всерьёз
2. Луна
3. Мечта
4. Незнайомець
5. It's Real
6. За всех
7. Цена свободы
8. Гимн
9. Симбіонт
10. Этот мир
11. Колискова
12. Творение

Another female-fronted synphonic metal band from the post-Soviet space that deserves more recognition outside of their home country, Mysterya were formed in 2007 and led by the beautiful Irina Vasilenko, who's also a lead singer in the Rock Opera Mozart. Worth also noting that her non-metal solo project Eria appeared in the X-Factor Ukraine in 2014 and was nominated for Eurovision in 2014. She loves cats (and animals in general) too:

V/A - "Scaenicae Exploratio" [2007]

Title: Scaenicae Exploratio

Genre: Industrial, Dark Ambient

Country: Russia
Year: 2007

Track List:

1. Mr. Gaus - Detach Session
2. Ices Ov - Cantus Archaicus
3. Spectral Blight - Thanatos Wings Sanctuary
4. Paracore - Ego-Infected
5. Spectral Blight - The Sarcophagi Hall
6. Paracore - Createrased
7. Mr. Gaus - Reborn
8. Liholesie - Zhelten

A compilation of mostly very minimalistic dark ambient projects, released by the legendary NBK Records (Noisebunker) in 2007, during the heyday of undergound music in modern Russia (and also the time when I just started getting into such kind of music). Apart from Liholesie, the projects featured on "Scaenicae Exploratio" are quite obscure, although I personally had contacts with the people behind Paracore (aka aintno and Constantine Knerik; seems like he's still producing music under the moniker Lightning) and Spectral Blight at the time it was released. It's free (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license), so feel free to check it out:

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I Miss My Death - "In Memories" [2014]

Artist: I Miss My Death

Title: In Memories

Genre: Symphonic Gothic/Doom Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. The Last Overture
2. In the Dark Garden of the Vampire
3. In Memories
4. Silence Cries
5. Thirteen Autumns of My Solitude
6. Earl Pale
7. Trail into the Past
8. Silent Existence
9. Flower That Fades
10. The On
11. While You Remember Me
12. Lacrimosa (Mozart)

Since the recent events all over the world (the whole coronavirus situation and the death of several prominent cultural figures, including Genesis P-Orridge, in just few recent days) are quite depressing, it's time for an appropriate kind of music. This time I'll present a gothic death/doom metal band from Kiev with dual male/female vocals that I discovered via their vocalist Elena Krivovyaz, who's also a classical opera singer (interestingly, she followed me on Instagram first). The band name might be not the best choice, but compared to names like I'm In A Coffin, it's not the worst either. The sound, aesthetics and lyrical themes on this album are all fairly standard for the genre (which isn't a bad thing at all, if you love the symphonic metal of 2000s and late 90s):

Check out also their newest single released last year:

Aftermoon - "Phase One" [2016]

Artist: Aftermoon

Title: Phase One

Genre: Symphonic Metal, Alternative Metal

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2016

Track List:

1. In Loving Memory
2. Lumia
3. Deadborn Revolution
4. Cold
5. Losing Me
6. Runaway
7. Somewhere
8. Duality
9. Daemons
10. Time Crisis
11. To You (Bonus Track)

Aftermoon are a new band from Kiev who describe their music as just "melodic metal", and I can't come up with a more precise description either. It's indeed quite melodic, with a lot of electronic elements which are more on the "pop" side of things - yet it's still more "metal" than any release from Amaranthe, or any of the later works of Aftermoon's countrymen Semargl. Either way, "Phase One" is fairly pleasant to the ears (even if the second half of the album is, unfortunately, much less interesting than its first one), and their vocalist Valeri Lahtinen has a quite nice voice.

Nekraїna - "Апокалiцтвa" [2002]

Artist: Nekraїna

Title: Апокалiцтвa

Genre: Dark Folk

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2002

Track List:

1. Калiка (He's Disabled)
2. Коти
3. Назавжди
4. Люди
5. Букети
6. TerraMephista
7. Калiюга
8. Апоколискова
9. Сьогодення

Last time I was reviewing George Charsky & Nekraїna's tribute to DI6, and now it's time for their second full-length album which contains mostly original material. It turned out to be much more electronic than their debut, which is unusual for most well-known neofolk bands who started from more or less electronic sound and gradually became more acoustic. According to Charsky, it happened because he couldn't achieve the needed quality of recording acoustic instruments at his home studio. After visiting London to contact the World Serpent Distribution, he admits that Britain had so many innovative and genre-founding artists because they had much better opportunities than his band: almost every of them could afford good instruments and a professional studio recording, as well as getting played on the radio. This album was recorded using the following equipment: Korean made acoustic guitar "Aria", Shure mic, Primax MIDI keyboard, and a Celeron 633 computer with a SBlive sound card and such software as Cubase and FruityLoops3. Not a super professional equipment indeed, but the result turned out to be surprisingly good.

"Апокалiцтвa" was supposed to be a surrealistic musical story of a homeless man who presents himself as a living god. After a night he spent in a subway begging for money, he's getting killed by two "chimeras" (whatever Charsky meant by that). Then the sky is getting covered with clouds in form of cats, the angel of death is coming from the sky and destroys the city where the homeless "god" was killed. Finally, the whole world collapses into the black hole where are no future or past, only the present. Despite the apocalyptic theme of the album, it wasn't inspired by similar themes in Western neofolk - Charsky thinks the Eastern European folklore is fairly apocalyptic by itself. As a staunch atheist, he also wanted to portray the protagonist of the story as completely useless in both of his aspects. Sorry if my attempt of translating his words was too vague, but I hope that the music would speak for itself anyway. A brief translation of several other questions and answers from his interview which I think are worth mentioning:

"Q.: There aren't many atheists among musicians you took inspiration from. Do you prefer to distance yourself from the religious aspects of their works?
A.: How do you know where I take my inspiration from? The influence of humanist and existentialist ideas on most things that I really like is much stronger than the influence of mysticism. I like people who understand that choosing their way of life is up to themselves, not to some esoteric (or, even worse, social) forces.

Q.: What are your political views, and what do you think of your nationalists?
A.: I feel pity for those people who waste their soul energy on completely anachronistic nonsense.

Q.: What do you think about gothic culture and its rules?
A.: I can't speak for the gothic culture as a whole, and the existence of any "rules" there is news for me. I don't like when someone puts an "infernal" image on, and becomes an idol for others, but I do think the gothic aesthetic well suits the people of European culture in general. Too bad that best examples of European gothic art and architecture became nothing more than popular tourist attractions, but I can respect the people who take the "dark" aesthetic more seriously than just an image or some kind of a touristic journey.

Q.: Why do you think there are so few women to create the really "dark" art? Because the creative insanity is against the female nature, or there's some other reason?
A.: This question couldn't be ultimately answered, because there are no one who truly thinks and feels neutral in terms of gender, in order to make an unbiased judgement. All I can say regarding the topic of our interview (music) is that some "dark" masterpieces could be created only by women, and while the "dark" aesthetic usually means aggression for men, it often means defense for women."

The original texts of his interviews can be found here and here, but I'm afraid the automatic translators would translate them even worse than me. In general, I like Charsky's answer, he seems to be a true believer in what he's doing while being completely not pretentious or arrogant. Sadly, nothing is heard from him since 2008, when he released the 3rd and the last album of Nekraїna - which, however, sounds rather like a collection of samples thrown together than this earlier neofolk works. Maybe there's some deep concept behind it, but I don't know. I really liked his first two albums, but I'm not sure what happened later...

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Nekraїna - "Смерть у серпні" [2000]

Artist: Nekraїna

Title: Смерть у серпні

Genre: Dark Folk

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 2000

Track List:

1. Святосмерть
2. Руни Та Чоловіки
3. Янгол vs Бог
4. Випадковий Протеже
5. Терамефіста
6. Рожеві Хмари Знищення
7. Руни Та Німецькі Дівчата
8. Кара Кара Карусель
9. Де Мовчать Вітри
10. Тиша Мов Христя
11. Заповіт

Nekraїna was one of the first neofolk acts to come from the 1990s' Ukraine, founded in April 1996 in Odessa by George Charsky, who was listening to neofolk since the beginning of 90s. As evident from his interviews, the band was standing on atheist and anti-nationalist positions, yet they "flirted" a lot with religious/occult and (to a lesser extent) WWII imagery and themes. Their two full-length albums, both released in early 2000s, are now considered to be classic releases of the post-USSR neofolk scene.

"Смерть у серпні" ("Death in August") is a tribute album to Death In June and Nekraїna's full-length release. There were two EPs released earlier in the late 90s, but they consist mostly of the same material that's presented on this album (anyway, you can get them here, if you're interested). The album contains 11 tracks, of which 2 are original (interlude and outro), one is a Current 93 cover, and the rest are Death In June covers - some of which are quite faithful to the original, some are pretty far from the original. Overall, it's a great work of "re-thinking" the neofolk classics which definitely shouldn't be missed, and some of these covers sound better than the original songs (IMO). In case if you're unsure which songs were covered:

1. Heilige Tod
2. Runes and Men
3. Angel vs God (interlude)
4. Accidental Protégé
5. Terra Mephista (She Said Destroy)
6. Rose Clouds of Holocaust
7. Runes and Men ("Runes and German Girls" - female voice & German lyrics)
8. Giddy Giddy Carousel
9. Fall Apart
10. Silence as Christine
11. Last Will (outro)

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Арніка - live bootleg [1975]

Artist: Арніка

Title: (N/A)

Genre: Pop-Rock, Folk-Rock

Country: Ukrainian SSR

Release date: 1975

Track List:

1. Вступ
2. Весна
3. Весняні варіації
4. Лиш тільки раз цвіте любов
5. Колиска вітру
6. Sugar Baby Love (The Rubettes)
7. Як заридала моя гітара
8. Чия то верба
9. Мила моя, мила
10. Прощай
11. О, панно Інно
12. Осінь
13. Ballroom Blitz
14. Sticks and Stones

Арніка/Arnica wasn't an underground band (they released an official vinyl LP in 1974, as well as several singles/EPs, while the underground Soviet rock bands released only demo tapes at that time), but this live bootleg is interesting and rare, so I decided to post it here. It was originally posted on this blog, and I just re-uploaded it to a better file host without changing anything.

This is their only known live recording, made with a portable tape recorder on their live show somewhere in Lviv region (possibly Truskavets) in 1975. Unfortunately the tape was in a very bad state when it was discovered, so the quality of sound remained very poor even after the restoration. It's still listenable, though, and I hope you'll enjoy the awesome voice of Victoria Vradij. It's hard to believe that she was only 14 years old when these songs were recorded! Later (circa 1985) she lived on my city for some time, and later moved to USA in July 1993. She won the title of Miss Rock Europe in January 1992.

The tracks with male vocals are quite enjoyable too, including The Rubettes cover. In general, it's a good example of mid-70s Soviet pop rock which was very popular back then. Amateur bands of this kind, mostly inspired by The Beatles, started to appear in numbers since the second half of 1960s, but very few of them did any recordings (here's some of the earliest known ones, made in 1969 - see the MP3 links in the right column). A lot of people who played in such bands became professional musicians later. During the first half of 1970s, more serious rock bands start to appear (the earliest known recordings of Soviet psychedelic rock pioneers - Yuri Morozov and Aquarium - were made in 1972-73), but the lack of adequate recording equipment was still a problem. Only very few of them were lucky to have access to good equipment until late 70s (roughly 1977 in Moscow), when good semi-professional tape recorders became more or less available, and the independent Soviet rock scene finally became a thing.

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Edenian - "Confide In Me" [2014]

Artist: Edenian

Title: Confide In Me (single)

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2014

One more female fronted gothic/doom band that's from Ukraine (this time from its eastern part), and has a name similar to "Draconian". Edenian were formed in 2010 as "Eternia", and underwent a lot of line-up changes since then. Their current vocalist, Valery Chudentsova, sings on this single and their latest full-length, "Rise of the Nephilim". I personally didn't like the full-length that much - it's quite professionally recorded and composed, yet it's a bit too lengthy and boring. Moreover, I don't think their label would be OK with "Rise of the Nephilim" posted here, so I'd rather post their newest single (which is definitely free for download).

"Confide In Me" is a metal cover of a well-known song by Kylie Minogue. It isn't the first gothic metal version of this song: Angtoria's cover is probably the most well-known, but the members of Edenian don't like it and didn't want their version to sound similar to it. This cover was recorded on a different studio than "Rise of the Nephilim", and the band members themselves are very satisfied with the result. It's indeed quite good, and I hope they'll continue in this direction.

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And the non-metal (yet no less beautiful) side of Valery:

Symphonian - "Incarnation of Reality" [2011]

Artist: Symphonian

Title: Incarnation of Reality

Genre: Gothic Doom Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Forbidden (Der Apfel aus Gold)
2. Betrayal
3. Last Words
4. Path of a Soul
5. Silver Streams
6. Withered
7. Depressed (Lithiated)

While searching for more bands that sound like Synful Ira (but more heavy), I stumbled upon this one from western Ukraine. Their name is obviously reminiscent of Draconian, as well as their sound (symphonic gothic/doom metal with "beauty & the beast"-style of vocals), but in my opinion they're more similar to The Sins Of Thy Beloved. "Incarnation of Reality" isn't a masterpiece, yet it's a quality release even by world's standards, and I don't think there are many bands of that level in Ukraine.

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Infinite Tales - "Generation Of The Last" [2014]

Artist: Infinite Tales

Title: Generation Of The Last

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. Generation Of The Last
2. 667
3. Pandemic Of Anger
4. The First Rainy Day Of Your Last Summer
5. Infection
6. Breaking The System
7. Dethmarch
8. Revolution
9. The Final Act Of Freedom
10. Before Our Last Stand
11. Killing The Kindness In Ourselves
12. Funeral Theme

Again, thanks to the guy behind Cracked Core for pointing me to one another excellent band. Right before I started listening to "Generation Of The Last", I was highly skeptical about the possibility of finding a interesting, non-cliché MDM band in the post-Soviet space. However, after the listening I was pleasantly surprised how good it turned out to be. The quality of recording is very good, as well as the song composition and musicianship. The vocals are dual - male and female (but mostly female).

After telling some of my Kiev-based friends about Infinite Tales, I found out that at least two of them know the band members in person. The world is small, indeed :) Like many Ukrainian bands, Infinite Tales have complained about the lack of support from the fans, but I think posting this album for free download would be OK - because the band themselves are giving their whole discography out for free here.

And regarding the recent events in Kiev - seems like the lyrics for one of their early songs ("No War For This Century") are starting to be prophetic:

"The flame is on the town,
The fire wall burns the streets..."

I've spent the whole last night watching a live video stream from the streets of Kiev, and it was looking completely surreal. Huge walls of fire from burning tires in the night, large crowds of angry people (some of them armed with swords, bows and shields, and if this declaration reflects their views - they honestly think of themselves as some kind of modern day crusaders) - it all looks more like a scene from a noir sci-fi movie than something from the real life. And the sound of chaotic drumming strongly reminded me of early industrial like Test Dept, further adding to the "otherworldly" atmosphere. Moreover, one of my friends from Kiev who stayed at home during the protests, also had hard time believing that it all happens not only on the same planet, but in the very same city she lives in. Indeed, the reality can be scarier than any fiction...

As for me - half of my relatives live in Ukraine (far from Kiev, though), so you can guess what I'm feeling about the perspective for Ukraine to turn into second Syria. By the way, Zoltán Farkas (the vocalist of Infinite Tales) has probably the most sane opinion about these events, but who's going to listen to him?.. We can only hope that the lyrics of "No War For This Century" (quite naive in its anti-war message, but nevertheless very actual) won't turn out in reality.

 

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Sad Alice Said - "Clock Of Eternity" [2011]

Artist: Sad Alice Said

Title: Clock Of Eternity

Genre: Gothic Rock/Metal

Country: Ukraine
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Clock Of Eternity
2. Tomb-Like Silence
3. The Son Of Nightmare And Pain
4. Door In Autumn
5. Open Your Eyes

A female-fronted gothic rock/metal band with better quality of production than Cold Sight, but less heavy. Sad Alice Said is a project of Alisa Shakor from Zhytomir, Ukraine. Initially it was thought to be an all-female band, but now their lineup is 50/50 male/female. Alisa's voice is very nice, but their music is hardly metal for the most part. They also made a quite beautiful video for the song "Open Your Eyes":

I've read their interview where they were asked to describe the metal scene of Ukraine:

"- One word: bad.
- Really?
- No, there are talented young bands, but we don't have sufficient infrastructure, and enough support from the fans. Everybody downloads music and nobody buys CDs, nobody goes to concerts.
- Well, we understand, here in Russia it's very hard to get promotion too. And how easy is it for an young band from Ukraine?
- Again, just one word: hard."

However, I'll post here their first EP in hope to help giving them more publicity. I understand they aren't from a rich country and any financial support is important for them, so visit their Amazon and iTunes pages if you want to support them.

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War-Whore - "Surveillance" [1996]

Artist: War-Whore

Title: Surveillance

Genre: Raw Industrial Grindcore

Country: Ukraine

Release date: 1996

Track List:

1. Intro: Space Assembly
2. Optimism
3. Military Mind
4. Things
5. School
6. Parallelism
7. Try To Contemplate
8. Offuck
9. Words
10. Captor's Defeat
11. Sordid Unreason
12. Military Minds (Fix)
13. Outro: Space Assembly

Another rare cassette release from the 90s that now has reached a cult status in the underground. War-Whore was one of the many projects by T.Sosiskin (funny surname... though I'm sure it was a pseudonym) from Kiev. First I found out about "Surveillance" after reading a review in a now defunct webzine "Resistance by Sound", but couldn't find it anywhere back then (mid-2000s, ~7-8 years ago). The .mp3 rip of the cassette started to circulate since ~2010 and finally reached me. It's sci-fi themed industrial grindcore, obviously influenced by Napalm Death, Godflesh (and maybe Dead World and other early industrial metal bands), with weird vocals (which someone described as "screams from a mental asylum"). The quality of production is of course quite poor, but it was expected from one of the first industrial metal/punk releases of the ex-USSR underground scene.

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Love-in-a-Mist - demo [2005]

Artist: Love-in-a-Mist

Title: Love-in-a-Mist (demo)
Genre: Gothic/Alternative Rock
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 2005

Track List:

1. Taste of Blood
2. Gone
3. Back Home

One more female-fronted Ukrainian rock band, and just like Rockland Ladies, they seem to be split up for now. There's almost no information about Love-in-a-Mist (whose name obviously refers to a sort of flower), except for a forum which wasn't updated since 2006. Anyway, Love-in-a-Mist was a female duo musically quite similar to a Finnish band Lab - not quite "gothic rock", more like alternative rock... These 3 tracks are fine for a demo, sadly it's unlikely if this demo would be re-released in better quality. Anyway, the melodies are catchy, and I like such kind of vocals.

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Rockland Ladies - "Introducing The Rockland Ladies" [1999]

Artist: The Rockland Ladies

Title: Introducing The Rockland Ladies
Genre: Rockabilly
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 1999

Track List:

1. C'mon Everybody
2. Sigh Now, Cry Now
3. Be-Bop-A-Lula
4. Dancing Therapy
5. Train
6. Now Or Never
7. Summertime
8. Honey Don't
9. Rocking Demons
10. Werewolves

The first all-female psychobilly band from Eastern Europe? Wow, I'm already interested. Wait, they're from Ukraine? Honestly I even couldn't think that Ukrainian rock scene had something like this in 1990s. The music is a bit generic and forgettable, but the very fact of existence of such band is interesting.

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