Dark Nazarian - "Аңки Айңам" [2026]

Artist: Dark Nazarian

Title: Аңки Айңам

Genre: Black/Doom Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2026

Track List: 

1. Аңки Айңам
2. Культ зверя
3. Ньөрум вой
4. Долгий путь
5. Бессмертный
6. Куда вела ночь
7. Заклинание 

Another interesting black metal discovery, this time based on the Khanty folklore and folk horror (the music itself isn't folk metal, though, it rather has doom metal overtones). All I know about Dark Nazarian is that it's an one-man project started in 2020, when its founder was around 16 y.o., in Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region), but now the Bandcamp page claims Volgograd as location.

Maria of Copper Mountains - "В чёрны омуты" [2026]

Artist: Maria of Copper Mountains

Title: В чёрны омуты

Genre: Atmospheric Black/Folk Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2026

Track List: 

1. Ой, не кукушечка
2. Святки
3. Белой пташечкой
4. Улетай
5. На той стороне
6. Океан - море синее
7. Колыбельная 

One more release by a one-woman project, this time it's metal (and one of the best black metal albums I've heard recently). Maria of Copper Mountains (which seems to be a reference to the Mistress of the Copper Mountain) is a solo project of Maria Azanova started in 2022 in the Southern Urals, but its sound is pretty far from the typical sound of Urals black metal - it's much more atmospheric, with a lot of doom metal and folk elements (in particular, the 3rd track is a purely folk song with no traces of metal), and overall, it reminds me of Vermilia more than anything else. Since I really liked all 3 albums by Vermilia and was looking for other bands with similar sound, it was especially exciting to discover something similar in the local scene, and if I'd have a chance to see Maria performing live, I surely would try not to miss it.

Nož Nad Lesam - "Масло тебя храни" [2022]

Artist: Nož Nad Lesam

Title: Масло тебя храни

Genre: Minimal Synth, Darkwave, Electro-Industrial

Country: Russia

Release date: 2022

Track List: 

1. Масло тебя храни
2. Оптимизм
3. УМ-1
4. Фон и шум
5. Голова в поводке
6. Мышата
7. Тюрьма (Кооператив Ништяк cover)

I already have mentioned this one-woman industrial project on my blog some time ago, and now I thought her latest full-length release under the moniker Nož Nad Lesam deserves a separate entry. Nož Nad Lesam was started by Natasha Ilminsky in 2014, and changed the name to E-Nitra not long ago (not sure what the former name was supposed to mean - something like "knife over the forest" in Belarusian?) I haven't listened to the full-length album by E-Nitra, which came out around a week ago, yet, but this release surely deserves attention if you like minimal synth and anything that can broadly described as "Russian doomer music" with female vocals. Moreover, I'm tempted to describe some parts of this album as "industrial hip-hop", although that may be far-fetched. And the cover art by @ann_armata is a little masterpiece of industrial/urbex photography.

 

Говнилиум - "II (Всё в дерьме)" [2010]

Artist: Говнилиум

Title: II (Всё в дерьме)

Genre: Heavy/Doom Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2010

Track List: 

1. Пропердуха
2. Брюшко раскрыл я
3. Чёрная тьма дыры
4. Всё в дерьме
5. Золотой дождь
6. Культ говна
7. Резь после мочеиспускания

For those who don't understand the lyrics, this might be just a "normal" metal release, but taking in consideration both the lyrics and the backstory of the guy behind this project, I can post it only as a 1st April joke. The music itself is actually quite good epic heavy/doom metal inspired by Bathory's "Hammerheart" and "Twilight of the Gods", but the lyrics are what you would expect of your typical toilet porngrind release, and are gross and hilarious at the same time (just imagine Quorthon singing about eating shit and drinking piss). Moreover, the author, who later started recording music under the name "Nikita Kapernaumov", became infamous as a mentally ill incel and online weirdo (for those who are interested, here's his quite comprehensive biography). However, if you don't mind the scatological lyrics, the music itself is better than a lot of much better known doom metal musicians have put out, and this album was even released on cassettes and CDs by Mercy Despise & Extinctionist Records.

V/A - "Crimean Cult of Rawness vol.1" [2025]

Title: Crimean Cult of Rawness vol.1

Genre: Black Metal, Dungeon/Keller Synth

Country: Russia

Release date: 2025

Track List: 

1. Kurgaan - В тихом омуте
2. Захряпа - Чох, полаз и птичий грай
3. Захряпа - Гугай
4. Doros - There Was Life in The Mansion
5. Doros - The Countess's Lament
6. Slahar - Среди извечных ветров
7. Slahar - Заброшенный дом на отшибе
8. Noire Petre - Никому не нужный хлам прошлого 

"Crimean Cult of Rawness vol.1" is a mini compliation by TemnoRecords, a small underground label rum by a person known as Bisavrük from Krasnodar. Yes, the region isn't the most "trve & kvlt", but Bisavrük's main band Kurgaan surely is. Describing themselves as "steppe black metal", Kurgaan is one of the most interesting new Russian BM projects, inspired by the ancient history and nature of the Pontic steppes. The other projects on the compilation also feature Bisavrük and his friends, and play mostly dark ambient/dungeon synth with black metal overtones. Bisavrük also has several post-punk/goth rock and folk rock projects (, which I haven't checked out yet, but based on what I heard from Kurgaan, I have pretty high expectations for them too.

 

 

Dismal Gateways - "Astral Forge of Supreme Evil" [2026]

Artist: Dismal Gateways

Title: Astral Forge of Supreme Evil

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2026

Here's the first interesting discovery of 2026 - sympho black metal that feels and sounds like The Kovenant/Covenant or Arcturus on their classic reseases of the second part of the 90s, but it's from mid-2020s Moscow. "Astral Forge of Supreme Evil" is only an 11 minutes long maxi single, but I'm already eager to hear something bigger from Dismal Gateways, since it's cosmic black metal made the way I like it, and it's quite different from most bedroom black metal releases of the last decade:

"Cosmic landscapes appear before us in dreams and myths. Astral planes and stardust castles are our abode. We build our empire from kaleidoscopic fragments of the Black Grail, where we find inspiration. The dark gates by which the Path lies are the myriad stars in the firmament.

He who follows this Path leaves far below him the pitiful chatter of politics and the egoism of nations. He indifferently steps over dreams of glory and recognition. Without debating the usefulness of truth, he boldly enters the realm of the ultimate cold of cosmic space in search of forgotten knowledge and ancient ways. Beyond the North lie ice and death."

Shamans From Red Forest - "Дикость" [2025]

Artist: Shamans From Red Forest

Title: Дикость

Genre: Industrial Rock, Breakbeat

Country: Russia

Release date: 2025

Track List: 

1. Дикость
2. Дикость (Industrial mix) 
3. Дикость (Breakbeat mix) 

I decided to check out this Halloween single by a Moscow-based trio, featuring the title track along with two heavier sounding remixes, mostly due to the band name and the cover art, which are both 10/10. My feelings about the music itself, however, are much more mixed: while it's nice to see that industrial rock is still a living genre, something definitely should be done about the vocals... Anyway, if you wish to check it out too, pick your platform.

Ködzid Goo - "Дотла (split w/ Kojoohar)" [2021]

Artist: Ködzid Goo

Title: Дотла (split w/ Kojoohar)

Genre: Industrial Hip-Hop

Country: Russia (Komi)

Release date: 2021

Track List: 

1. Сулема
2. Гарь
3. Плоть
4. Полынь 

Another interesting discovery from Komi, this time it's hip-hop but "for people who don't like hip-hop" (originally, it was said about dälek, but it'd strongly recommend Ködzid Goo to anyone looking for something like dälek but with lyrics in Russian). Not much is known about the project except it's from northern Komi and is inspired by other experimental musicians from that region, including Saraf. The style is described as "real шуштӧм (gloomy) shit", which I think is fairly accurate. Those tracks were released on Ant-Zen as a part of split album w/ Kojoohar (kudos to them for being released on a well-known industrial label):

Pheromone - "Unsaid" [2017]

Artist: Pheromone

Title: Unsaid

Genre: Industrial Rock/Metal, Dark Electro

Country: Russia (Mordovia)

Release date: 2017

Track List: 

1. Opening Side A
2. Bleed the Demons
3. Back in the Day
4. Promises
5. Even Closer
6. Limbo
7. Schizm (I Wanna Be Where You Are)
8. Opening Side B
9. Erase Your Hopes
10. Synthetic Angel
11. A Matter of Indifference
12. True Colors
13. No Regrets 

The only industrial band from Mordovia that I know of, Pheromone were formed in 2009 in Saransk (later they've moved to St. Petersburg, AFAIK) and released 4 full-length albums during 2011-2017. Their early stuff sounded mostly like typical dark electro that was popular at the time, but "Unsaid", their latest album up to date, is more varied and features "heavier" sound that's closer to industrial metal. Haven't heard anything from Pheromone since 2019, but their discography is pretty impressive for a band from a region where underground music in general was never big (and they were performing live pretty actively too), even if most of their stuff isn't particularly innovative or outstanding.

  

Потьма - "Dubrawlag" [2021]

Artist: Потьма

Title: Dubrawlag

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Russia (Mordovia)

Release date: 2021

Track List: 

1. Yavas // Явас
2. Thong // Плеть
3. Windrey // Виндрей
4. Dubravlag // Дубравлаг
5. Inewed // Иневедь
6. Partsa // Парца

I've already written a lot about music from Mordovia, but not much about metal, let alone black metal. This band is a very interesting discovery coming from that very non-metal region, and plays straightforward black metal with a healthy dose of punk (as they have described their sound: "an amalgam of classic black metal riffs and crust punk rhythms in epic compositions with a shifted center of gravity", whatever it supposed to mean). The lyrics draw inspiration from both the local mythology (and I can't think of any other metal band who does so) and the history of the prison system in the foresty northwestern parts of Mordovia which is still operational today:

"Potma was born inspired by the wealth of opposites in the forests of the Mordovian Gulag. After spending several weeks among prisons, impassable forests and swamps, the engineer for the maintenance of distance education systems for prisoners returned home spirited beyond belief. It is hard to say whether it was a conspiracy of Mordovian pagans, stories of prison officials, or the age-old repressive apparatus that had influenced so much on the young man's mind, but he devoted the next few years of his life to giving shape to those visions that had appeared to him on the spur-track of Dubravlag.

So the black-metal spirit is already born, it embodies the metaphysical abyss in the Russian consciousness, filled with the echo of the repressive apparatus in the forest of Zubova-Polyana. We all contribute to this. We will all go through it, going beyond the Edge"

The vocals are surprisingly intelligible (for the standards of black metal at least), and there are some backing female vocals as well. Overall, this EP is easily one of the best black metal releases I've heard recently, and a breath of fresh air in a genre that's currently overcrowded by low-effort bedroom projects. Potma also are reported to be a great live band, so I hope to enjoy seeing them live at some point in the future.

Kirpiklass / Eschato-Logic - "Чудские были" [2021]

Artist: Kirpiklass / Eschato-Logic

Title: Чудские были

Genre: Ritual Ambient / Folk / Spoken Word

Country: Russia

Release date: 2021

Track List: 

1. Kirpiklass - Консыг-Ойка
2. Eschato Logic - Вакуль-Эква у водяной мельницы
3. Eschato Logic - Камлание Ёмы
4. Kirpiklass - Логово Яг-Морта 

Kirpiklass is another rather well-known project that mixes dark ambient, ritual industrial and traditional folk which has escaped my attention until recently. This split w/ Eschato-Logic is probably not the best release to start getting into their discography but, conceptually, it's pretty close to that album by Saraf I've posted recently. It's based on Permic (Komi) and Ugric folklore and folk horror, and the alphabet on the cover seems to be anbur (first time I see it being used in modern times). As a whole, it's best described as "shamanic ambient", with Eschato-Logic tracks being mostly spoken word (probably not everyone's cup of tea, I admit).

Saraf - "Marla Murash" [2021]

Artist: Saraf

Title: Marla Murash

Genre: Ritual Ambient / Noise

Country: Russia

Release date: 2021

Saraf is an experimental solo project of Serafima Okuneva, the bassist of St. Petersburg doom metal band Prophecy of Sheva. Surprisingly, I haven't heard about her until very recently (thanks to this interview), even if she's called the "first lady of ritual black noise" and the idea behind Saraf is relevant to my interest. Although Serafima grew up in Komi, her father is Northwestern Mari, and most of her solo works are based on Mari culture or folklore in one way or another. 

This particular album is dedicated to the summer solstice, as well as to "Mari people,their deep culture and their strong faith" (release notes). It consists of one long track that mixes up experimental noise, folk and some elements of black metal, and I'd say it's more accessible than her debut album "Azyren" that was released two years before and has the same themes. She has also made several collaborations with various metal and experimental musicians, and started another solo project called Ovda mostly focused on dungeon synth. Anyway it's nice to find out about another industrial, experimental, or metal project with Finno-Ugric themes, as there isn't much music in minority FU languages apart from pop and traditional folk, and hopefully I'd be able to travel to Mari El and hear some Mari music live this summer.

 

Воргашор - "Прощание с Печорой" [2025]

Artist: Воргашор

Title: Прощание с Печорой

Genre: Dark Ambient / Atmospheric Black Metal

Country: Russia (Komi)

Release date: 2025

Track List: 

1. Чужан му
2. Туй вылын
3. Ме некор ог лок бöр
4. Мунöм
5. Кулӧм и помтӧмлун
6. Прощайте

Another interesting discovery from the north of Komi Republic, this time it's mostly dark ambient with a healthy dose of atmospheric black metal influence (well, that's exactly what I expected of a project inspired by the nature of that region anyway). Surely recommended if you like the aesthetics of "Russian doomer music" but wan't something based less in post-punk and more in BM/dark ambient.

Named after one of suburbs of Vorkuta, Vorgashor actually comes from Pechora (which isn't as far to the north as Vorkuta), and have released 4 albums to this day. This album contains "6 songs of unrequited love for the motherland", as described by the project, and it's the first one with all track names (except for the last one) in Komi language. All tracks are instrumental but contain samples of a Komi folk song, an old Soviet song by Mark Bernes, and a lecture by an occult writer and philosopher Evgeny Golovin. Along with the rest of Vorgashor discography, it was released on cassettes by a St. Peterburg-based post-industrial label Aphotic Gaze.

P.S. There apparently was a problem with the contact form on my blog, due to which I haven't received any messages during the time I wasn't posting on here. It's fixed now.

Севериада - "Миян туй" [2024]

Artist: Севериада

Title: Миян туй

Genre: Folk Rock/Metal

Country: Russia (Komi)

Release date: 2024

Track List: 

1. Инасьтӧм лов
2. Тундра
3. Енэж улын
4. Гортӧ
5. Кӧсъя бӧр
6. Кад
7. Лӧз ю
8. Варыш
9. Гым-чард
10. Гажтӧм рыт
11. Ыджыд тыш
12. Ёма 

The long-awaited full length album titled "Miyan Tui" ("Our Way") from the Komi folk-rock band Severiada is finally out a month ago! They're the only folk rock band with lyrics in Komi that I know of, and they have a pretty long history of performing live, but haven't released any recordings until recently. Don't know if it was released physically or on any major digital platforms apart from VK, but anyway it's a very good album that definitely make it into my personal top of Finno-Ugric folk-rock albums (or maybe even folk metal? I think it's heavy enough for the most part):

Zoster - "Waxen Face" [1991]

Artist: Zoster

Title: Waxen Face

Genre: Old School Death Metal/Grindcore

Country: USSR

Release date: 1991

Track List:

1. Intro
2. Fantastic Epilepsy
3. Vomit
4. Cursed
5. Inquiries
6. Lethargic Sleep
7. In the Deepest Ooze
8. Zoster
9. Slaves of Libido
10. Friable Brain
11. Interpretation of Schizophrenia
12. Irretrievable Emotions of Pseudoyouth
13. What For?
14. Beg to Die
15. Waxen Face
16. Dumb Show
17. Timbre of Silence
18. Losing Coordination
19. Logical Sequel of Absurdity
20. Logical Sequel of Absurdity (First Version)

I've started this year with Ingush post-punk, and let's continue with a band from a neighbouring region of North Ossetia. Turned out there's a pretty big rock scene compared to other places in the North Caucasus, which is not particularly surprising - when I visited Vladikavkaz in 2023, it left an impression of a much less conservative and more hipster-ish city than anything I've seen in surrounding Muslim regions, and while I've seen a lot Christian iconography, the actual beliefs of people were more pagan than anything else (say, like in the neighbouring Georgia, there's a cult of St. George, but rather as a pagan god of war than a Christian saint). And if there was death metal in Dagestan in 1996 and Armenia in 1994, it could be in North Ossetia in 1991 too.

This particular band suprised me by being one of the first to play deathgrind in the USSR, when it was very rare even in the much bigger and cosmopolitan cities like Moscow and Leningrad. They started in 1988 as a project of the members of a hard'n'heavy band Исповеди and thrash metal band Orgy, and released their only tape album in 1991. While I expected a really poor quality of production before listening to it, it turned out to be a lot better than I thought, and the music itself is a lot more interested and varied than what you'd hear on a typical grindcore demo from the 90s. Unfortunately, it was released right before "Nevermind" by Nirvana came out, so next year they had to switch their style to grunge because no one was interested in their metal stuff anymore. Not much is known about their futher history except that they've finally split up in 1996 (yes, that was a tough time for everyone and for metal bands in particular), and their vocalist died in September 2001. If I'm not mistaken, no one in the band was ethnic Ossetian, everyone in the lineup had Russian and Armenian names.

Senmuth - "Neocortex" [2009]

Artist: Senmuth

Title: Neocortex

Genre: Industrial/Oriental Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2009

Track List: 

1. New Zodiacal Circle
2. Мой катарсис
3. Сколы и узоры
4. Полёты в себя
5. Камни Аравии
6. Авторитарность
7. Догматы и знания
8. Горящий ворон
9. Сын камня
10. Разрушение иллюзий
11. Work like an Egyptian (Bangles cover)
12. Come to the Sabbath (Mercyful Fate cover)
13. Via Combusta [Сожжённый путь]

Regular readers of my blog already are familiar with Senmuth, the "Indiana Jones from the world of music". He can boast one of the biggest discographies among metal artists (almost 270 full-length albums up to this day), mostly inspired by the history and culture of Ancient Egypt and Middle East in general. He went on a 1.5 years long hiatus in 2019 due to poor health, but now he's back with 6 new full-lengths released through 2020. However, today I'll post not his newest ethno/tribal ambient stuff, but one of his classic industrial metal albums.

While "Neocortex" indeed well represents the sound of his albums released in late 2000s, it's very different from his other classics like "Kemet High Tech". Most Senmuth's albums are instrumental, while this one (except for the instrumental intro and outro tracks) features a lot of rather weird sounding vocals (and a lot of unconventional vocal effects. The lyrics, as expected, deal with the topics of ancient history, space, introspection, and at times, anti-dogmatic and anti-authoritarian themes. The music is industrial metal with less gothic/doom metal influences than on other Senmuth's albums from that time, and of course, there's a lot of oriental motives. How about a lezginka in the 9th track (the best one on the whole album)? An industrial metal track based on the Northwest Caucasian (most likely Ossetian) folklore... well, now I truly have heard everything.

Download

Анж Ёлганя - "Тон ды мон" (Erzyan pop/rock)

As you know, I'm constantly looking for any obscure music in the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia - even it's just pop, it often feels much more "underground" than many metal releases. You also know that I have a specific interest in the music of Mordovia, as I live not so far from there, and almost certainly have at least some Erzyan ancestry.

So, not long ago I found this nice pop/rock with lyrics in Erzyan language (the title means "You & Me") by a singer whose stage name I never heard before. After some research, I found out that it was performed by no one else than Ezhevika, who's one of the few musicians I still have a close contact with, yet I don't remember her ever mentioning this project. Apparently she has recorded a whole album of Erzyan songs sometime in the 2000s, but it's extremely hard to find any info about it. Some of her early songs were posted here, but they were uploaded to an audio hosting service that's dead for at least 5 years, and I coudn't find those songs anywhere else (apart from one song called "Kargon' Ki" / "Milky Way") - so that album definitely takes the cake for being one of the hardest to find releases on my wishlist.

Well, let's appreciate what we have, and this song is quite good. While it's not as original in terms of sound as Ezhevika's later folk recordings, she surely can sing well, and judging from her photo I used for the cover (it was taken around the same time this song was recorded), she always had an awesome figure. That ethnic-themed miniskirt looks nice on her, and she always was saying that she loves her long Erzyan legs :) Some people compare her to Natalia Vodianova (who's from my city and also has some Erzyan roots), and she definitely could do a model/actress career, but preferred music and culture/language activism (which, of course, is a noble choice). She's still doing quite beautiful amateur photo shoots in varied styles (including ethno style):

I'd post much more, but let's stop here. And if you're interested what she's doing now - well, this year she, like many other musicians, has lost a lot of her income from live performances due to the coronavirus lockdowns, but things got better by now. There were plans to release an acoustic album under the name "quarantine", but it isn't out yet. Earlier this year, she released a collaborative single "Adai-Adai" with some Malaysian musician, which is quite different from the rest of her works, with its sound based in oriental folk music (interestingly, it reminds me of "Hizbollah" by Ministry, and some tracks off "Erotic Terrorism" by Fun-Da-Mental).

Emerald Mind - "Almagest" [2020]

Artist: Emerald Mind

Title: Almagest

Genre: Symphonic Prog/Power Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2020

Emerald Mind have released only two full-length albums during 12 years of their existence (and 5 more if we count their early years under the name Diadema). The last one was released 5 years ago, and I'm not sure when the next one will come out. According to the band members themselves: "Like Blizzard Entertainment loves to say: it'll be done when it's done". Well, as we all know, Blizzard prefer quality over quantity - "we release not that many games, but all of them are masterpieces". As for Emerald Mind, they occasionally release new singles, and this one is the latest to this day. Just as expected from them, it feautes quality symphonic metal with the beautiful female vocals by Svetlana Vysotskaya (who's also an opera singer nowadays):

 

One more thing from Emerald Mind that's worth mentioning is their new music video called "Genetic Paradise". While it's quite minimalistic and doesn't show much beyond the vocalist and guitarist (the only two original members left), it's a good match for the song with lyrics of the utopian/transhumanist kind. Svetlana is apparently playing the role of a "hot scientist" from bad Hollywood movies, and she's good at it :) At least it's nice to see her wearing a short lab uniform, and we can agree that she has a perfect figure, right?

Cold Sight - "My Pompeii" [2019]

Artist: Cold Sight

Title: My Pompeii

Genre: Symphonic/Modern Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2019

Track List:

1. My Pompeii
2. Stranger's Tale

Much like Neuroheart, Cold Sight were started as a typical female-fronted symphonic metal band, but after several years of hiatus and significant lineup changes, their sound became closer to so-called "modern metal" in the vein of Amaranthe, which is evident on this 2-track EP. 

Cold Sight were formed in Bryansk in the late 2000s and released their debut album "A/H1N1" in 2013 (honestly, the A/H1N1 epidemic was a rather weird choice for an album theme, given its genre - but it looks prophetic now, during those COVID-19 times). 6 years later, with the only two original members remaining - the frontwoman Natalia Zolotova and the bassist and backing vocalist Alex "Quitty" Chernov" - they've recorded this EP, this time with lyrics in English. Just like "A/H1N1", it was produced by Dmitry Eliseev (Fferyllt, Iahsari), but this time the quality of recording is much better, and the sound is more "modern", electronic-infused. The band describes "My Pompeii" as "a symbol of self-liberation and transcending the boundaries".

By the way, Natalia definitely is one of the girls I was talking about in my previous entry, and while she never was a professional model, she has done quite a lot of beautiful photoshoots. She loves cats too, and owns several (this one is half Maine Coon, half Siberian):

Amplifix Records · Cold Sight - My Pompeii

Amplifix Records · Cold Sight - Stranger's Tale