Фронт - "Металлизация XXV" [2012]

Artist: Фронт

Title: Металлизация XXV

Genre: Industrial Thrash Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2012

Track List:

1. Мы победим!
2. Железный кулак
3. Готовность №1
4. Мрачные стены
5. Колыбельная
6. Ультиматум
7. Решётка
8. Металлизация

Фронт/Front were one of the first thrash metal bands in the USSR, and almost certainly the first to record a full-length thrash metal album there ("Металлизация '1987"). This is a re-recorded version of that historical album, released 25 years after. You may notice that, while still being thrash metal in its core, this album sounds quite "Rammstein-esque". That's because the band became seriously influenced by then-nascent Neue Deutsche Haerte movement during the mid-90s (probably one of the first to do that in Russia as well, in addition to being the pioneers of USSR thrash metal). The original 1987 version of the album can be found here.

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НХЛ - "Антрэпология" [1999]

Artist: НХЛ

Title: Антрэпология

Genre: Aggro-Industrial

Country: Russia

Release date: 1999

Track List:

1. Континенты
2. Идентификация
3. Изнеможение
4. Иммунитет
5. Атрибуты
6. Боже Царя...
7. Ночь
8. Человечество

НХЛ/NHL were formed in my city by Andrey Bugrov (songwriting, vocals, guitar, keyboards, drum programming) and Sergey Katorgin (solo guitar) in late 1994. Initially they played noisy post-punk which was common in Russian underground scene back then, but by late 1990s their sound gradually became more heavier. Unless I'm not aware of something, they were the first aggro-industrial band from my home region (it isn't like there are many of them anyway...) The band themselves described their style as "pseudo-social post-industrial sympho-punk" (whatever it means), and mentioned Ministry, NIN, Rammstein and Lacrimosa among the bands that have inspired them.

NHL split up circa 2002, but Andrey Bugrov released a couple more albums under this name during 2003-2005 (which are nowhere near as good the ones from 1990s, though). This cassette is probably the best release in their discography, although the previous one ("Флаг на щеке" '98) was pretty good too. It was recorded during the time when the members of NHL were getting into rapcore, so the hip-hop influence on the vocal work is quite prominent (hence the name of the release, "AnthRAPology"). It's also said to feature female vocals by Olga Shestaeva, but honestly I can't heard any. The quality of sound on the master tape was quite good, but this only rip I could find on the net is of rather poor quality (but still listenable). My personal favourite is the track #5 ("Attributes"). For those who's interested, the rest of their discography can be found here.

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Рок-Синдром - s/t EP [1987]

Artist: Рок-Синдром

Title: Рок-Синдром '87

Genre: Heavy Metal

Country: USSR

Release date: 1987

Track List:

1. Рок-синдром
2. Чёрная мгла
3. Война

Now here's probably the first metal band from my city. Рок-Синдром / Rock Syndrome were formed in 1986 (the same year I was born) as a 5-pice band, and on 30th October the same year they took part in the 1st official rock festival in the city (where they were the heaviest band). During 1987 they undergone several lineup changes before finally splitting up. Here's a photo of the original 5 members:

In 1998, Sergey Gorbunov (the original vocalist and guitarist) decided to reform the band. Nowadays they reside in Moscow and consist mainly of Sergey Gorbunov (vocals, guitars) and Alena Poltavskaya (fretless bass guitar), as well as some additional live members:

As for this demo EP, I must admit it's only of historical interest nowadays, although the quality of recording isn't that horrible (yet it's still bad, especially when it comes to vocals, but it's understandable given the circumstances). Collectors of rare Motorhead-like metal from the 1980s should pay attention.

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Август - "Концерт в ДК им. Кирова" [1983]

Artist: Август

Title: Концерт в ДК им. Кирова

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock, Hard'n'Heavy

Country: USSR

Release date: 1983

Track List:

1. Instrumental
2. Intro
3. Где ты, детство
4. Австралия
5. Музыка льётся
6. Посвящение другу
7. У моря 
8. Instrumental II
9. Часы
10. Обгоняй
11. Помни
12. Intro II
13. Август
14. Торопись
15. Желаю вам

Август/August were one of the first metal bands in USSR (first played together in 1982, you can guess in which month) and also the first Soviet band to play on an international metal festival (Metalmania-1988 in Katovice, Poland, where they shared the stage with Kreator and Rage). The band still exists today, although none of the initial members have left in their lineup.

Since mid-1980 they started to play melodic heavy metal inspired by Accept (which you probably already have figured out by just looking at their logo ;)) and Whitesnake, but on these early recordings they played melodic hard'n'heavy/progressive rock that a lot of Western bands were playing in mid-1970 (back then, most of Western trends in music usually reached the USSR scene with a 5-7 years lag). Don't know if this recording can be counted as metal, because there aren't too many "heavy" songs and no provocative lyrics whatsoever, but then again, terms like "hard rock" and "heavy metal" are usually viewed as interchangeable if applied to the 1970s' rock scene. Eitherway, this is an interesting rare example of a hard rock/metal recording in pre-1985 USSR, and its quality is fairly good (given it's a live recording made more than 30 years ago). Love the sound of these old analog synthesizers, which even reminds me of "The Martian Chronicles" by Solaris at times.

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(sorry if this file host sucks)

Вой - "Кругами Вечности" [1991]

Artist: Вой

Title: Кругами Вечности

Genre: Funeral Doom Metal

Country: USSR

Release date: 1991

Track List:

1. Симфония “Black”
2. Мой мир
3. Третий круг Ада
4. Формула воззвания
5. Магический круг

Release notes:

"Originally recorded in December 1990, in Moscow. Mediocre sound quality versions were circulating on tapes since early 1991, copied from tape to tape to tape to tape until it was hardly recognizable. Circles of Eternity was NEVER officially released until April 2nd, 2012. Official CD edition is not remastered and keeps this historical recording authentic in the best possible sound quality."

This obscure trio got together in 1988 with an intention of playing more gloomy and experimental kind of metal than the traditional heavy metal bands that dominated the USSR scene at that time, taking inspiration mainly from Venom and Celtic Frost. In a way, their story resembles the story of Bathory: both bands were heavily inspired by Venom at first, and both became one of the pioneering bands in their respective genres by simply playing what they could. The only differences are that Bathory were pioneers of black metal and became an internationally renowned act, while Вой were one of the first funeral doom metal bands and remained almost completely unknown to the general public until recently, when their former frontman Alexey Lapshin gave an interview to the Assault Crew webzine. Shortly after that, their only full-length album was released on CD by Sublimity Records.

There was at least one more release from them, titled "Дети чумы", which was recorded at a bakery in 1989. It was roughly 40 minutes long, and all its copies seem to be lost by now (or maybe the former Вой's members don't want to release it to the public due to the low quality of production, but nobody knows for sure). If it had the same kind of sound as on this album, then it means Вой were unquestionably the first funeral doom metal band in the world. Even this album was released in 1991, same year as Thergothon's first demo "Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth" which is widely regarded as one of seminal releases in funeral doom scene. Samael, whose early demos (1988-89) are also considered to be proto-funeral doom by some people, have visited Moscow around the same time "Кругами Вечности" was recorded, so it's entirely possible that Вой were inspired by Samael too, along with their better known countrymen Celtic Frost. Another Swiss band, Mordor, is also often mentioned as one of the pioneering acts in funeral doom metal, but I doubt the members of Вой have heard their 1991 demo.

"Кругами Вечности" wasn't well received by the public at the time it was released, which is completely not suprising. The band did only 5 or so live performances and then split up. Alexey Lapshin later (in May 1992) went on forming an industrial band called "Crunch". The existence of Вой went almost completely unnoticed back in these times when the whole experimental music scene in former USSR was in decline due to sever economical and societal problems - they were mentioned only a couple of times in metal press in 1992. While the quality of production on "Кругами Вечности" is obviously far from perfect, and the lyrics are mostly centered around the standard occult bullshit, it's still a very interesting artefact of its time, much more interesting that the majority of modern funeral doom albums.

Kauan - "Sorni Nai" [2015]

Artist: Kauan

Title: Sorni Nai

Genre: Atmospheric Doom Metal, Post-Rock

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. akva
2. kit
3. khurum
4. nila
5. at
6. khot
7. sat

To finish with the topic of Finno-Ugric music, here's a recently released album of a band from Urals (Chelyabinsk) named Kauan (just like one of the best Tenhi albums, right). I don't know if the band members have Finno-Ugric ancestry, but at least I don't know any other Russian metal band whose lyrics are entirely in Finnish. However, this particular album is named after a creature in Mansi mythology, and the track names are just their numbers in Mansi language. The music on "Sorni Nai" is post-rock for the most part, but it's still heavy enough to be counted as metal. Many metal review sites have praised this album as a masterpiece, and while I won't call it as such, I still can say that I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you'll do so too.

Second To Sun - "The First Chapter" [2015]

Artist: Second To Sun

Title: The First Chapter

Genre: Progressive/Math Metal, Post-Black Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Spirit Of Kusoto
2. Red Snow
3. Me Or Him
4. Land Of The Fearless Birds
5. The Blood Libel
6. Narčat
7. Virgo Mitt
8. Chokk Kapper (Bonus Track)
9. Narčat (Demo Version, Bonus Track)

A full-length alfum from S2S, following their "Three Fairy Tales" EP which I posted here not long ago. While the cover art betrays the band's "core" roots, and their music still can be considered mathcore/"modern metal", there's a clear influence of atmospheric black metal on "The First Chapter", and Vladimir Klimov-Lehtinen himself insists on calling his music "black metal". As much as I dislike his pretentious and arrogant attitude (which shows up in this discussion, for instance), it's sadly not uncommon among both progressive metal and black metal musicians, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the music itself.

Like the earlier S2S releases, "The First Chapter" is entirely instrumental, but each track is supposed to be based on some story from the history of Finno-Ugric peoples. Not sure if F/U-themed metal is really becoming popular on here, as some people say, but S2S surely made a good contribution to that scene.

Messier - "Rõõmurikkuja" [1998]

Artist: Messier

Title: Rõõmurikkuja

Genre: Neofolk

Country: Estonia

Release date: 1998

Track List:

1. Rõõmurikkuja
2. Hani
3. Keskaja kaitseks
4. Vahepala
5. Enne hommikut
6. Hoge jage
7. Kui nad olid...
8. Lõpu lugu

A really obscure neofolk oddity from the 1990's Estonia. This is a cassette demo which I found in this blog (a very good one, by the way). The music is quite nice to my ears even despite the low production quiality, but I don't even know what to think about these vocals... Anyway, if you're interested, you can find the download links in the blog that I mentioned above.