Ukrainian modern metallers JINJER have released the official live video for the song “Pit Of Consciousness”from their latest album “Macro”. The clip was filmed by Oleg Rooz (SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, ENTER SHIKARI) during the band’s captivating 2019 performance in Kiev.
Commented bass player Eugene Abdukhanov: “Back when we recorded this show, we were on the tail end of a six-month tour, and somewhere in between all that madness, we managed to write and record ‘Macro’… It was an extremely stressful time. But it was one of the most positive times of our lives.
“Things right now look pretty grim and no one knows what will happen next.
“We want to release this video with the hopes of letting people know that no matter how crazy, confusing and scary things get — BETTER TIMES are on the way.
“Let’s use the time at home in isolation to take a good look inside and learn about our true selves…”
“Macro” was released in October via Napalm Records. Punishing riffs, aggressively blended vocals and astonishingly deep lyrics make “Macro”JINJER‘s most advanced and undeniable album yet — taking the listener on a journey of trauma, power struggle and greed with a progressive groove metal backdrop.
While January 2019’s “Micro” EP proved to be a short exercise in madness and technical brilliance, fans still weren’t prepared for what JINJER had in store with the absolutely unbridled “Macro”. Defying all boundaries, the aptly titled opening track “On The Top” features the band’s eclectic trademarks and obeys one law only — their own. Frontwoman Tatiana Shmaylyuk defines the unique character of the Ukrainian act with menacing whispers, enthralling clean vocals and brutal growls whilst lethally groovy riff cascades melt into twisted songwriting. There is space for a microscopic bit of reggae “Judgement (& Punishment)” in all the heaviness, the double bass is beautifully out of control on “Pausing Death”, and technically superior tracks like “Home Back” defy gravity.
Super Metal World recently conducted an interview with frontwoman Tatiana Shmailyuk of Ukrainian modern metal frontrunners JINJER. You can listen to the entire chat at this location.
On the reaction to their new studio album, “Macro”:
Tatiana: “So far, I haven’t yet heard any negative reactions to the album, so, that’s good. I’m not the one who is surfing the Internet in search of comments and reactions. I don’t care what people think because I have a lot of things to do. I don’t know…so far so good. Again, I haven’t heard shitty responses to the album.”
On the songwriting approach to “Macro”:
Tatiana: “I don’t take part in composing music. Everything I do I’m just writing lyrics and trying to feed them into already-written material. I don’t take part in composing it and they, the rest of the guys, write music at their home and they don’t even ask me about my opinion about the material.”
On whether “Pisces” was the song that broke JINJERinto the mainstream:
Tatiana: “Unfortunately, ‘Pisces’ lost its charm. It became viral, which I don’t like. I don’t like the huge hype that we’re having right now. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This song is very personal and believe me, Pisces are not those people who are begging for our attention. I don’t like this word, ‘mainstream.’ The people made it mainstream; we didn’t. We didn’t really want it to be like this. But nevertheless, on the other hand, it’s really good. It’s really good that this song is so much appreciated.”
On whether she feels “jaded” about JINJER‘s recent popularity:
Tatiana: “The only thing I can say about that, [is] me personally, I feel under the pressure. I feel the pressure a bit, but, I’m sure that people are going to say, ‘Okay, but this is what you wanted, so don’t complain.’ And I will say that when I dreamt about being a singer in a band, I was 11, and believe me, I had no idea that musicians had their own reality to face. I had no idea. And I didn’t read any articles or didn’t watch any interviews because, first of all, I didn’t have any Internet connection on my computer. I imagined it to be a fucking fairytale. [Laughs] Obviously it’s not like that. I didn’t know that I had to do so many interviews. [Laughs] I feel like being a musician in the 21st century is a completely different thing than being a musician in the 20th century in the ’90s, for example, and the ’70s and ’80s. So, I probably cannot compare because I never lived in those times.”
On whether she still gets joy out of being in JINJER:
Tatiana: “Yeah, of course. Of course. Sometimes your exhaustion or your tiredness is so overwhelming that you kind of stop seeing those beautiful things every day. You have to always be focused. I have to be focused all the time on the good which is a really hard thing for me. [Laughs] But I’m trying to be grateful and trying to learn.”
On whether her rough Ukrainian upbringing has any effect on her perspective on the music industry:
Tatiana: “No. I think I was born like this. I believe that, well, a lot of people think that you can shift energies from negative to positive. I think, to my mind, people are born with a certain kind of energy. Someone was born sad and someone was born, I don’t know, very happy and positive and no matter what happens in their life, they are always positive. They don’t even have to make any effort to stay positive. This is genuine energy. And someone is seeing everything in black and white. It’s really hard.”
On whether she’s an introvert:
Tatiana: “Yes. Two-hundred percent introverted. [Laughs] It’s not bad, and again, I analyze myself all the time. Sometimes people make me think I’m kind of retarded or handicapped being an introvert. A lot of people don’t even know that there is a term ‘extrovert’ and ‘introvert.’ They think that those shy people, there is something wrong with them, but hell no, I remember once in my childhood, I was very extroverted, but then something clicked in my head. When I was dancing, like in a circle of our relatives at parties, holidays, then something clicked in my head and I started avoiding people. When our relatives came to celebrate some holiday, I was hiding under my bed because there were very crazy dudes. Like not really my uncle, he’s not my relative, there’s not blood relationships, and he was really loud. [Laughs] And I was hiding from him. I was hiding under my bed so that he didn’t disturb me.”
“Macro” was released on October 25 via Napalm Records. Punishing riffs, aggressively blended vocals and astonishingly deep lyrics make “Macro”JINJER‘s most advanced and undeniable album yet — taking the listener on a journey of trauma, power struggle and greed with a progressive groove metal backdrop.
Written By Braddon S. Williams aka “The Concert Critic”
On this date in history, 10/12/2019, I saw a trio of bands for the first time at a venue I had never visited before. Jinjer, The Browning, and Sumo Cyco performed at Riverfront Live in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Riverfront Live was pretty impressive, with great sound, lights, and overall visibility. It had a friendly atmosphere and provided a high level of intimacy between bands and patrons.
Sumo Cyco kicked things off with a high energy attack full of movement and punk/metal riffs. Led by the dynamic Skye “Sever” Sweetnam. The Canadian band utilized their limited stage space and set time to the fullest extent, opting to get the crowd participating early. Sweetnam went into the crowd several times and at one point got everyone in the pit area to get down on the floor and wait for her cue as the band vamped away on a mosh inducing riff. When she gave them the sign, the eager fans knew what to do and the singer was suddenly back on stage as the circle pit swirled in front of her.
On a critical level I felt that their guitar player had a tinny tone to his amp, but that may not have been his fault. The opening acts are sometimes prone to not getting the full use of the PA. I also got the impression that their stage moves were a little contrived at times, as if they had practiced hard to look spontaneous. At least they were constantly moving…the effort paid off as their crowd response testified.
Next up were The Browning, from Kansas City, Missouri. I had to do a little research on them to see what musical style they were described as playing. They are listed on Wikipedia as Metalcore, Electronicore, Deathcore, and Crunkcore. That’s a lot of cores, but I must admit I hated their sound within the first 20 seconds they were on stage. The EDM stuff just didn’t seem to fit with the metal stuff, and then there was the super annoying visual aspect of the spinning guitar player. I have to hand it to the guy; he had stellar equilibrium without a doubt. But his playing was monotonous and tedious. If he practiced his instrument as much as he practiced his stage moves, perhaps the band’s music would be more interesting. I found the singer’s constant hype attack pretty pointless, too. The crowd was into it, though, and they had some great pit action going.
I’ve been to enough shows to know that when an audience is in the mood they will mosh to Justin Bieber (just kidding…or am I?) so crowd response is not always synonymous with the quality of the music.
Speaking of quality music, Jinjer saved the night with an electrifying, outstanding display of talent, confidence, and inspired song craft. Jinjer hails from Donetsk, Ukraine, and features a blend of many different styles, making their music both progressive and unpredictable. Front woman Tatiana Shmailyuk possesses a set of seemingly indestructible vocal chords, and uses them to alternately sing beautiful melodies and switch to demonic gutturals in nearly the same breath. Jinjer’s musicians (guitarist, bassist, and drummer) all provide enormous amounts of dexterity on their respective instruments, weaving emotional landscapes that change in subtle and sometimes jarring combinations to suit Tatiana’s flights of vocal fancy.
From the opening blast of Teacher, Teacher to the final chords of Cloud Factory, Jinjer had the place bouncing.
They played a song called On The Top for the first time live and from the sounds of the response, it will become a regular fixture on their play list. Several other songs that really impressed me were Judgement (And Punishment), I Speak Astronomy, Retrospection, and Outlander. Jinjer returned for an encore, playing Pisces and Captain Clock, leaving the stage to a huge and well deserved ovation. Like the time I recently saw Avatar for the first time, I left this show feeling like I had just witnessed a band on the verge of blowing wide open.
Jinjer is poised on the brink of some huge success…mark my words!
VinylLair.com 