Jinjer – Micro

Ukrainian band Jinjer formed in 2009 and released their first EP the same year. I first heard them in 2013 and loved their albums but was disappointed in my hopes to see them when in 2014 their drummer Yevhen Mantulin fell out of a window and broke his back leading to the cancellation of their tour and first UK dates. In late 2017 they finally made it to the UK and they really impressed a lot of people with their intense high energy performances – so much so that after some European dates with Arch Enemy, they came back in 2018 and performed at Amplified festival. Their live show was so good they’re back in 2019 to headline the main stage at Amplified and are also touring Europe with Amorphis and Soilwork, and I fully expect them to go on to bigger and better things.

Since their last studio album (King of everything) came out in 2016 I was hoping we’d have a new studio album soon, but for the moment we’ll have to make do with this new EP.

If you’ve never listened to Jinjer before then on a first listen you might assume the clean vocals are female and the growls are male, but in fact both are from Tatiana Shmailyuk – she’s got the ability to switch from clean singing to harsh growls in an instant and both vocal styles sound great.

The EP kicks off with “Ape”. It’s fast, it’s heavy and it’s going to sound absolutely immense played live.

The second track is “Dreadful moments”…

Check out the video for “Perennial”..

The final track, “Micro” was a definite surprise – it’s an instrumental. Ok in itself that’s not a huge surprise, but the fact it’s an acoustic guitar based instrumental is a surprise – a shock even.

This EP really does showcase the band’s talents and ranges from the brutally heavy to the soft and melodic. If you get the chance to see them live then do it – no matter how good they are on EP or album, a live show takes it to the next level.

Track listing:

1. Ape
2. Dreadful moments
3. Teacher, Teacher
4. Perennial
5. Micro