JinjerWallflowers

Jinjer’s latest album is heavy with the expectation that a band is about to deliver something special and definitive. Wallflowers does not disappoint such expectations. 

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The deceptively-titled fourth full-length statement from the Ukranian powerhouse is an explosion of lumbering djent grooves and ferocious riffing carving out a relentless, complex miasma of frustration and anger.

From the opening moments of Call Me a Symbol it is already clear the world is dealing with a heavier and far more impassioned Jinjer than already existed on 2019’s Macro. The global events that killed off their last world tour and the continuing political turmoil in their homeland has inspired Jinjer to create a monster, a band overcoming ridiculous odds to unleash their vexatious fury. 

Eugene Abdukhanov’s tricky bass moves add depth and thickness to the crushing riffing from Roman Imbramkhalilov and Shmailyuk’s delivery and range is simply astounding—when the album closes on the glorious and dark Mediator, the only question left is how high will Jinjer go next?  

When Tatiana Shmailyuk opens her mouth, she channels ferocity and clarity like the demonic offspring of early 00’s Angela Gossow and Christina Scabbia, never more astonishing than on the album’s title track, pulling folk and jazz into its swirling darkness, a composite of savagery and a ray of hope. It’s a star turn, but the entire band shines: Vortex is a portrait of tension that builds to a monstrous climax propelled by Vladi Ulasevich’s compelling groove, the sludgy Disclosure is defiant bravado, Sleep of the Righteous is elegance in its Eastern flavoured majesty. Eugene Abdukhanov’s tricky bass moves add depth and thickness to the crushing riffing from Roman Imbramkhalilov and Shmailyuk’s delivery and range is simply astounding—when the album closes on the glorious and dark Mediator, the only question left is how high will Jinjer go next?  

STANDOUT TRACKS: Call Me a Symbol, Sleep of the Righteous, Vortex
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Meshuggah, Lacuna Coil, Gojira