When asked to consider terms in connection with the Ukraine, I think of an Eastern European country located on the Crimea: a turbulent hotbed of political intrigue in which Mother Russia plays a very large part. But when it comes to music, I consider Eurovision and, therefore, cheese-pop in their own language and probably written in a Cyrillic script. Suffice it to say that I don’t know a lot about it. Then I was introduced to the band Ignea, whose album “The Realms of Fire and Death”, through Kadabra Music, shattered all of these misgivings and, as soon as I saw the term “melodic metal” in the description of their work, I knew I had to be a part of it.
From the band’s press, “Realms” is a concept album with strong story-telling imagery and metaphors. The record is broken into three acts of three songs, with the English-language version of Black Flame as the bonus end-track. From the Ukrainian-language version of Black Flame (Чорна Полумі’я – Chorne Polumia) to the cover of Eivør Pálsdóttir’s Í tokuni, you can make your own judgement on these alone but first, to the backstory and, for that, one has to head over to the band’s Soundcloud site.
My introduction to the band comes in the way of Şeytanu Alkbar from their “The Sign of the Faith” independent 2017 album with Hella Bogdanova’s effortless transition from beautiful clean vocals to angry death-growls, as I experienced a while back when encountering Carmilla fronted by Oksana Blohm Hedlund. But until you have heard Xander Kamyshin and Dmitriy Vinnichenko’s deep bass-and-guitar backbone and backing growls under a balalaika chorus, as featured on Petrichor (“Faith” track 3) with Israeli guitarist Yossi Sassi, you won’t appreciate where these guys are or how far they have travelled through only three releases. Theatre of Denial (track 4) also reminded me of the title track of RAMMSTEIN’s Mutter album, mixed with the Eastern influence which Carmilla still favours with their new front-person Nathalie Astrada. Ignea as the added bonus of a full string section toward the end. And Jahi (track 5) with the powerful duel between Ivan Kolmogorov’s quad-kick and Dmitriy’s guitar shreds, really gets the fervour pumping for this Ukrainian combo!
I’m convinced! And their 2013 debut EP “Sputnik” offers more! A tribute to the first satellite that chunks along with air-raid sirens in the title track taking us back to the Cold War and giving us maybe a suggestion about what it would have been like growing up behind the Iron Curtain. The keyboard/guitar battle during Firebird reminds us why we came here in the first place! Mind The Past maintains the keyboard influence but screams along regardless; and Planet War rounds out this mini-collection with guitars and keys alternating along a theme.
Queen Dies is the opening track of “The Realms of Fire and Death”, continuing in the same vein as that with which we’re become familiar- Dmitriy’s melodic guitars and Ivan and Xander’s driving beats combined with middle-Eastern flavoured tablas, and those vocals! Clean one moment, gutteral growls the next. Hella is simply amazing! Чорна Полумі’я (Chorne Polumia) follows suit more melodically but no less brutally. With added keyboards for depth, those growls lose nothing in Ukrainian! Out Of My Head follows the same influence as the Young Gods on Strangel and combines some scratching along the lines of Slipknot/Linkin Park. And those vocals! I can’t get over them!
Í tokuni pares it back a tad for the second act, with Too Late To Be Born teasing us with an orchestral keyboard into before launching back into the full-on melodic death-themed brutality! What For brings in the balalaikas and tablas with Hella harmonising with herself in a Ukrainian version of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. Don’t give up, though, because the brutality comes back in spades on Gods of Fire; the third and final act of the record, and backed up on Jinslammer. Disenchantment wraps up the band’s latest opus with more Ukranian/Eastern melodic brutality.
Many acts in the Metal genre rely on lengthy oeuvres but Ignea have their craft down to 3-5 minute creations (their longest work to date is Planet War clocking in at 6’36”), so many of these songs are over before you realise. But the way this band gels: the vocal attack, be it clean or guttural, and the rhythmic attack of guitars, drums and bass are something to behold! Their live act would also be great to see with a full bill of melodic metal acts from countries you wouldn’t usually associate with this genre, especially if they combine their own national traditions with the well-worn tropes of the style. A band to watch.