Genre: Industrial Folk Metal, Alternative Rock, Folk-Rock
Country: Belarus Year: 2008
Track List:
Крынiчанька
Ульяна
Крынiчанька (mix by Kemlivae sontsa)
UNIA are a folk rock/metal band formed in Minsk in late 2006. The initial lineup consisted of 9 (!) musicians, but the latest known lineup consists only of 7 - including a male vocalist and two female ones. They have recorded two full-length albums so far and gained a limited recognition in their home region (but unfortunately, not much outside it). I couldn't find any news from them past 2012, and their official site wasn't updated since the end of 2008 - but I still hope they haven't split up, because I really liked both of their albums and would be happy to hear more from them.
Here's their free internet single "Крынiчанька", released in 2008 shortly before their debut full-length album ("Долам"). The title track is probably the best song they've recorded so far - a very organic mix of traditional folk music and alternative/industrial rock, reminds me of Risha. The single also contains an alternate (electronic) version of that track, and a more traditional folk-sounding song. Live performances of these songs (the quality of sound is quite bad, I must admit):
Senmuth - Guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, programming, album cover art
Naakhum - Vocals, lyrics, didgeridoo, ethnic instruments, tapping solo
Finally, it happened - those two very similar artists made a collaboration single! Those who read my blog on a regular basis most likely know what to expect from both Naakhm and Senmuth - exactly what is featured on this single named "Змајевски Језик" ("The Draconian Tongue", if I understood the title correctly). However it was a surprise for me to find out that Naakhum has relocated from Igualada (somewhere near Barcelona) to Belgrade...
Until last Saturday, it was hard for me to remember when I've been to a concert last time. Even if I'm living in a city with over 1.2 million inhabitants, really interesting gigs are pretty rare here. They aren't that rare in Moscow, but I can't afford travelling there too often (in fact, I went there to see Ayria live in 2006 and L'ame Immortelle - in 2008, but it was long ago). Two years ago I had a chance to see Fear Factory in Prem!o Centre here in NN, but unfortunately I didn't go. This time, though, I didn't miss the chance to see Нейромонах Феофан live in the same venue (Prem!o), and it was awesome.
Before I discovered НФ, I never thought I'd ever attend a drum & bass event, let alone enjoying it. However, НФ has his own brand of "drum & folk" which is aesthetically closer to folk metal than to any commercial electronic music. I'd say the atmosphere at his performance was comparable to that of Arkona's gig which I attended roughly 7 years ago :) The public mostly looked pretty casual, though (me including). There weren't many interesting costumes, although I definitely liked the looks of this couple:
The show itself was great too, with a dancing "bear" on stage (just like the one in the video):
And, finally, a fan-made video:
The lyrics of this song start with: "My life is ascetic...", which is pretty applicable for me too. However, despite my rather reclusive lifestyle and distaste of being in large groups of people, I enjoyed НФ's gig a lot. Hope for more new songs from him in the near future.
"Coatlicue..." is not the only collaborative release in Senmuth's vast discography. This one, titled "Semrük-Bürküt" and released in 2012, is even better. The idea of this recording was brought up by Serkan "Ordog" Falay, an Istanbul-based musician which is primarily known for his band Aegnor. On "Semrük-Bürküt" he plays oud and some other exotic instruments, while Senmuth, as always, is responsible for the guitars & programming.
"Semrük-Bürküt" is freely available on archive.org under the terms of Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license, along with a detailed review which is certainly better than my one:
Here's one of two singles which are the result of a recent collaboration between Senmuth and Lyuba Kolesnik, the vocalist of Nakka. It also contains the instrumental version of the title track, and intro/outro (both are instrumental too). The music generally reminds me of Tenochtitlan rather than of Senmuth's solo works. Like in case with "Tezcatl" by Tenochtitlan, "Coatlicue..." is a concept work inspired by the Aztec mythology.
Like Deflowering Brain, Nakka falls into the category of "comedy grind", yet they're far more talented and creative than the majority of bands which work in this niche. The key distinguishing feature of Nakka is their extensive use of industrial aesthetics, while their music itself is more or less straightforward death/grind of the Czechoslovak school. The only thing "industrial" about their sound is the extensive use of voice samples from various sources (mainly from the old soviet movies); that said, it's very well played and recorded. The vocals are female, although it doesn't make them sounding any less brutal :3
Their lyrics and imagery are a different matter though. The lyrics are mostly about the everyday life of industrial workers and the blurring of lines between humanity and machinery - both metaphorically (as in "working hard all your life, like a cog in a machine") and literally (as in Shinya Tsukamoto's cult movie "Tetsuo: The Iron Man"). Nakka's approach to these matters is entirely humorous, though, as opposed to the early industrial death metal bands such as Dead World.
I'd translate the title of this album (which is Nakka's first full-length release) as "Human Factory". You can listen to it on Bandcamp, or even buy it for a symbolic price of 1$. Be sure to also check their music videos, which are pure insanity created with a very limited budget:
Just today I've read a review of some old grindcore demo, which ended with such words:
"You wonder why I don't
review grindcore all that often? This is why. The genre is mostly
full of shitty talentless bands who put absolutely no effort into
anything..."
Couldn't agree more, especially when it comes to all these "comedy grind" bands which completely dominate the ex-USSR grindcore scene. This particular album, however, is another case. I couldn't find much information about Deflowering Brain, except for their place of origin (Moscow), but their music isn't bad at all. While they still are a "comedy grind" band, their lyrical themes are post-apocalypse / sci-fi (this album is about a world war against alien invaders, for example), which is surely more original and interesting than the usual porn/copro/gore nonsense that most grindcore bands are writing songs about. There's also a nice melodic death metal vibe to it, mostly dur to use of old Soviet/WWII melodies. Heroic grindcore FTW!
Wait, this album wasn't on my blog yet? It surely should be, because it's an excellent release - one of the best of 2006, as far as my taste is concerned.
Dark Lunacy is one of two bands I know whose style has been dubbed "dramatic metal" (the other one being Blackthorn) - mainly for the extensive use of violins, which, according to the band's former guitarist, "give a touch of dramatic and nostalgic to everything". This album, however, doesn't feature violins (only piano/keyboards) - which doesn't make it any less "dramatic", though. The music actually would be quite close to the melodic death metal of the Scandinavian school, if not for this "dramatic"/symphonic component. The vocals are mostly male growling, although there's also some clean female vocals on "Snowdrifts" or "On Memory's White Sleigh" (the two best tracks on the whole album, in my opinion, and their attempts to sing in Russian on the latter track aren't bad at all). There's also a couple of "skits" (not sure if this word is applicable to non-rap music, though) and samples of WWII music here and there, as "The Diarist" is a concept album dedicated to the siege of Leningrad:
Too bad they probably won't release anything else like this, as almost all of the original band members have left Dark Lunacy after the release of "The Diarist". The subsequent album "Weaver Of Forgotten" turned out to be quite weak, and the last one up to date, "The Day Of Victory", is similiar to "The Diarist" but definitely doesn't come any close to its level. Well, at least we still have a nice photo of them on the Red Square in Moscow, similar to the ones which Metallica, Pantera, Rise Against and The Real McKenzies did there. No idea when it was taken, but probably about the same time "The Diarist" was released:
Artist: March Of Heroes / Phragments / Across The Rubicon
Title: Scontrum Act VIII
Genre: Martial Industrial
Country: France / Slovakia / Poland Year: 2008
Track List:
March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 1
March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 2
March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 3
Phragments - Utopia
Phragments - Eruption
Phragments - Tragedy
Across The Rubicon - A Soldier
Across The Rubicon - Survivors
Across The Rubicon - A Ghost
"Scontrum Act VIII" is the 8th installation in the "Scontrum" series of (mostly) 3-way splits released by a Poland-based label War Office Propaganda. This particular split features March Of Heroes, Phragments and Across The Rubicon - from France, Slovakia and Poland respectively. "Act VIII" stands out of other martial industrial compilations because its participants aren't only making good music but also certainly aren't Nazi Germany sympathizers which are too commonly found in martial industrial and neofolk scene. Well, at least March of Heroes and Phragment certainly aren't. I don't know much about Across the Rubicon, but their part of the split is the most interesting music wise. As for the download link, try this Chinese site (it isn't hard to locate the download button there ;))
Here's some military EBM which I think is relevant to post today (especially the title track, "Siegesstimme"). Vladimir Harkonnen is an industrial/electronic musician from Tomsk (Western Siberia) who was the founding member of an industrial metal/NDH band Panzertank, which was one of the best local Rammstein-style bands back in the middle of 2000s. If I'm not mistaken, he has German and Korean heritage. The moniker "Vladimir Harkonnen" is of course taken from Frank Herbert's Dune, although Vladimir might very well be his real name.
"Siegesstimme" is his debut EP which he recorded solo shortly before starting Panzertank. The sound on there might be a bit "naive" for nowadays' standards, but back then it was fairly good military EBM with a slight "8-bit" touch. The title track is certainly the best, yet there's a lot of other interesting material on this EP, including a cover of "Radioaktivität" by Kraftwerk. All the tracks are instrumental (not taking in account some voice samples here and there).
