JINJER by Veronika Gusieva
Out from the depths of our black, industrious hearts seeps the painstaking cry of our souls, this sound eloquently manifested in the guttural echoing screams of singer Tatiana Shmailyuk and the music of her band, Jinjer. Hailing from Donetsk, Ukraine, Jinjer drag their hauntingly somber heavy metal ensemble all over the globe. With seething industrial theatrics, their live show is like watching a glorified, gut-wrenching goth opera give birth to itself in mesmerizing real time.
With a dichotomic and unassuming allure, Shmailyk stands at the forefront of the stage, head bowed in seeming meditation, waiting eerily for her cue. At the break of a symbol, she opens her eyes and mouth in tandem and out pours not the voice of a meek, fragile young woman, but a thousand voices likened to the Yuki-onna demon of Japan or the Succubus herself. From here, her bafflingly impressive range can switch on a dime to a voice fit for the Broadway stage.
Already a unit for two decades, Jinjer took an old-school approach to their evolution, especially where recording is concerned. Even in this age of overtly accessible production means, the band didn’t produce their first studio album, “Inhale, Don’t Breathe,” until 2012, three years after their formation. Up to that point pouring themselves into their music, constantly writing, practicing, and playing gigs around the Ukraine metal circuit. Following their first cult classic came two subsequent studio albums, “Cloud Factory” (2014) and “King of Everything” (2016), plus two solid EPs, “Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” (2010) and this year’s “Micro.”
In a harmonious complement to their sound, Jinjer will be joined on tour by thrash metal group The Browning, out of Kansas City, Missouri. Over the course of their evolving tenure together, The Browning have evolved from their rap/metal roots to an extremely fast-paced electronic death-metal tone melding various subgenres.
This show promises to dig brutally deep, down to the netherworld of your mortal soul, rearrange some stuff you’d rather not realize was in there, and leave you proverbially bleeding your sins out on the dirty, sweat and beer soaked venue floor.
Jinjer perform 7pm Wednesday September 25 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. jinjer-metal.com ~ Freddie Zandt
