Deflowering Brain - "Mundus Bellum" [2013]

Artist: Deflowering Brain

Title: Mundus Bellum

Genre: MDM, Grindcore

Country: Russia
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Mundus Bellum
2. Pulchra Res Homo Est, Si Homo Est
3. Amicus Humani Generis
4. Errare Humanum Est
5. Noctem Bellatores
6. De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
7. Terra Incognita
8. Deffuncti Injuria Ne Afficiantur
9. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
10. Divisio "Galactic"

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!

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Dark Lunacy - "The Diarist" [2006]

Artist: Dark Lunacy

Title: The Diarist

Genre: MDM, Symphonic Metal

Country: Italy
Year: 2006

Track List:

1. Aurora
2. Play Dead
3. Pulkovo Meridian
4. The Diarist
5. Snowdrifts
6. Now Is Forever
7. On Memory's White Sleigh
8. Heart of Leningrad
9. Prospekt
10. Motherland
11. The Farewell Song

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:

March Of Heroes / Phragments / Across The Rubicon - "Scontrum Act VIII" [2008]

Artist: March Of Heroes / Phragments / Across The Rubicon

Title: Scontrum Act VIII

Genre: Martial Industrial

Country: France / Slovakia / Poland
Year: 2008

Track List:

1. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 1
2. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 2
3. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 3
4. Phragments - Utopia
5. Phragments - Eruption
6. Phragments - Tragedy
7. Across The Rubicon - A Soldier
8. Across The Rubicon - Survivors
9. 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 ;))

Vladimir Harkonnen - "Siegesstimme" [2005]

Artist: Vladimir Harkonnen

Title: Siegesstimme

Genre: EBM, Dark Electro

Country: Russia
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Salz der Erde
2. Re-Format
3. Siegesstimme
4. Radioaktivität [Hiroshima]
5. Lichtende
6. Siegesstimme [Neuro Remix]

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).

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(in case if something happens with the download link above, here's an alternate free download link)

Silent Woo Goore - "Toleźe" [2012]

Artist: Silent Woo Goore

Title: Toleźe

Genre: Folk-Rock, Progressive Rock

Country: Russia (Udmurtia)
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. Kyrdźasa leźom ali
2. Toleźe
3. Gureź örjos
4. Emeźe
5. Kyźy meda lyktidy
6. Töl
7. Sirotа kyrdźan (Сиротская)
8. A-i
9. Alama ujvöt
10. Chagyr dydyke
11. Silent Woo Goore

To my knowledge, Silent Woo Goore, formed in mid-2008 in Izhevsk, are the only folk-rock band singing in Udmurt language. While the first word in their name is obviously English, "Woo Goore" is in Udmurt and (according to the band) means "song of water". So, "Silent Woo Goore" = "Silent Song of Water".

When I stumbled upon this album for the first time, it was tagged as "indie", so I initially assumed it to be some hipster garbage. It, however, turned out to be quite interesting and well played folk-rock with female vocals. "Toleźe", meaning "My Moon" is their first and only album up to date. It was recorded in August 2011 in Finland (except for the track "Töl", recorded one month earlier in Izhevsk). The digital version of "Toleźe" (including mp3s, album covers and song lyrics) is completely free to download.

After "Toleźe", SWG haven't released anything new so far, although their vocalist Svetlana Ruchkina has a solo project called Ladi Sveti. However, SWG actively perform live in their home region - just search for "Silent Woo Goore" on Youtube. Here's, for example, a video of them performing with a symphonic orchestra of Udmurtia:

They also have participated in the Liet International 2011 festival. As I already said in my entry about Marina Sadova, Liet Int. is an annual festival for the artists singining in minority languages. By the way, there was another Udmurt band (called IB&4CP) at Liet Int. 2012.

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VÖR - "Kudym Osh" [2014]

Artist: VÖR

Title: Kudym Osh

Genre: Atmospheric Black/Pagan Metal

Country: Russia (Komi-Permyak Region)
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. Kudym Osh I
2. Kudym Osh II
3. Kudym Osh III
4. Kudym Osh IV
5. Kudym Osh V
6. Kudym Osh VI
7. Kudym Osh VII
8. Kudym Osh VIII

VÖR is an one-man project started by Egor "Nordhagen" with an intention of being the first black/pagan metal project with lyrics based on the Komi mythology. The music is based on atmospheric black metal, with addition of some folk elements.

The production isn't crystal clear for sure, but it's suprisingly good for a self-produced underground black metal album. The lyrics are in Russian, and Egor's vocals are pretty decipherable for the most part. I'm not sure if it's a good thing, though, especially taking in consideration that Egor apparently can speak Komi fluently. There already are enough Russophone black and pagan metal bands, why not have one singing in Komi for a change?..

The music isn't bad at all, especially for the debut release of an obscure one-man project, and the atmosphere of "epicness" is certainly present on this album, but apart from the lyrical matter (Komi mythology), it doesn't particularly stand out from numerous other releases of this kind. If you want something similar, but more folk metal-based and with lyrics in a Finno-Ugric language, check out Zergeyth.

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Pairem - demo singles

Artist: Pairem

Title: demo tracks

Genre: Folk Metal, Symphonic Metal

Country: Russia (Mari El)

Track List:

1. Сола вуйыштет
2. Олык воктен
3. Какшан воктен
4. Мари калыкем
5. Эн лишыл айдеме

Finally, after listening to a lot of Mari pop-folk, I found something that can be called Mari folk metal. Pairem seem to be an extremely obscure band, yet I managed to find some info about them (but not much).

Pairem was formed in 2008 by the members of a non-metal band "Brodyagi" and the vocalist Elvira Kuray with an intention to play folk rock/metal with lyrics in Mari language. They took part in a folk music festival IFUSCO in Helsinki (Finland) in May 2008, and recorded at least 5 demo tracks in late 2000s. By now, the band don't seem to be active.

The tracks which I could find mostly sound as generic female fronted symphonic metal with some folk elements. Sounds nice but nothing special, although I should give them a credit for being the first metal band to sing in Mari.

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Risha - "Птаха" [2011]

Artist: Risha

Title: Птаха

Genre: Industrial Folk Metal

Country: Russia
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Голубка
2. Масленица
3. Птаха

Risha is an industrial folk project of Irina "RishaFox" Lvova, who played bass and cello in several bands that are well-known locally, including Deform, Tracktor Bowling and Arkona. With all honesty, most of her other bands are playing not very interesting nu-metal, and I'm not a big fan of bands like Arkona either (even though I've seen them live a few years ago, and it wasn't bad at all). Risha, however, is a quite interesting project, being a rare combination of industrial/modern metal and traditional folk. They also were one of the first to combine folk with drum'n'bass (along with Нейромонах Феофан). Irina's voice is a bit too low-pitched for my taste, but she isn't a bad singer at all.

Here's, in my opinion, the best their song, featuring Lousine "Lou" Gevorkyan (Tracktor Bowling, Louna) as a second vocalist:

It's from their full-length album which also came out in 2011. While their full-length is copyrighted and better be bought, this single is released under the terms of CC BY-NC-ND license, and therefore completely free:

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