Ukrainian modern progressive metalcore leaders Jinjer have just announced their powerful, long-awaited fifth studio record, Duél! Featuring technical grooves and heavy progressive passages, brutally clear vocals and skillful growls by matchless vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk, Duél is set to showcase once again why the band is at the very top of their game. After releasing their breathtaking single “Someone’s Daughter”, which was followed by the heavy-hitting “Rogue” earlier this year, Jinjer now unleash another untamed beast with their new track “Kafka”. Dominated by Tatiana’s remarkably clear vocals, this new single is a heavy and slow tamper, digging deep under one’s skin just to break right through with venomous growls in the end. On “Kafka”, Tatiana Shmayluk comments, “Being an artist is sometimes beautiful but most of the time it’s brutal… as our art is dissected word for word and ripped apart note by note, we‘re expected to be on point all-the-time … and when we aren’t, we are scandalized. A true artist is vulnerable but the crowd is most often plagued with vultures who pick at every single move you make. It’s a slippery slope when music means the world to us but how quickly praise turns into prosecution… We are all Kings and Queens for a day but most of the time it feels like a Kafka novel for a lifetime. It‘s exciting but surreal and absurd at the same time …”.
On Duél, Jinjer continue their long-lasting collaboration with accomplished producer Max Morton, who co-produced, mixed and mastered the record. Featuring cover artwork by Philipp Schuster, this new masterwork lives up to Jinjer’s reputation as metal visionaries, once more showing that the band refuses to follow any set rules in their genre, but choose their own path of creativity. On Duél, Jinjer’s bassist Eugene Abdukhanov comments, “First of all, it‘s hard to believe that we’re about to release our fifth full length album! After all the releases we’ve made, finally having Duél in our hands and ready to be shared with the world, makes us very proud that our band still hasn’t run out of creativity and inspiration. The fact that we still challenge ourselves to release the best music we have ever made with each new release, is what keeps Jinjer moving forward. This upcoming album was the longest songwriting process we’ve ever had and it took almost two years to complete. We worked very hard with every free minute we weren’t on tour, recording demos over and over again and always searching for the perfect sound for guitars, bass and drums. It was also the first time that Tatiana did vocal pre-productions, so it’s safe to say that none of our releases were so well thought out and calculated as this one. It pulverizes the boundaries of the modern progressive metal genre but still remains sophisticated, exciting and extreme all at the same time. We took up the challenge to expand our musical horizons even wider than before in order to cement Duél to be the next step in Jinjer‘s musical growth and hopefully the evolution of metal music in general.”
Duél will be released on Febuary 7th via Napalm Records. Pre-orders are now available here.
Photo credit: Lina Glasir
