Date: 2019
Total time: 41:14
Label: Napalm
Coming from Donetsk, Ukraine and having released 3 albums in the past few years and 1 EP this year (“Micro”), JINJER are releasing this 4th macroscopic work (after releasing their previous microscopic one). This album has received generally good reviews and reactions from fans of this genre.
What genre is this? I’m sure you want to know. Well, JINJER moves between Progressive, Death Metal, Metalcore, and from what they say, their influences range from PANTERA, SLAYER, GOJIRA, OPETH, KARNIVOOL, to CYPRESS HILL, HOUSE OF PAIN and various other Souls, R&B , Jazz, Reggae bands (not to mention this by accident). This creates an extreme Metal mixer, which is kind of experimental and definitely not boring.
The album starts dynamically and grabs you by the face. We can hear fast, clever riffs, heavy drumming, pure core / djent tracks, brutal, but also clear vocals, repetitive beautiful melodies that make you want to hit the repeat button (“Retrospection” – this is written in their language), groovy, mid tempo tracks (“Noah”), extreme and aggressive ones (“Pausing Death”, “The prophecy”). In the midst of all this, non-metal experiments are definitely there. In “Home Back” JINJER produce a jazz metal track and in “Judgement & Punishment”, a..reggae one. Those elements are due to their influences we mentioned before. Them existing in the album is more than welcomed, as they give a different note to the whole endeavor. The album ends with “LainnereP”, which is essentially an reverse version of “Perrenial” (a track from this year’s EP, “Micro”). Don’t look for weird “Hotel California” messages here, as the reverse thing is just in the name. The track has a completely outworldy, spooky, psychedelic character, contains no vocals (just some spooky whispers) and reminds you of a soundtrack in a videogame, whose character is roaming around a haunted town. It is the perfect closure to an interesting disc, with some shiny moments. The production is modern, flawless in almost everything/ I can’t mention the snare tin sound in “Macro”, reminiscent of “St. Anger” in tracks like “Noah”, “On The Top”, and others. But that can also be a detail.
“Macro” is experimental, it shows the evolution of the JINJER, they show us that they take risks, but they do so from their souls at the same time. The album is Heavy, it’s Progressive, it’s Extreme Modern Metal, it’s Djent. Unfortunately a little more than it should be. It’s not that bad to play that kind of genre. It’s just that the tracks are just above average, except for some shiny flashes (‘Noah’, ‘Prophecy’ and of course ‘LainnereP’). Isn’t it weird when your best track is a non-metal orchestrical outro?
Rating: 6/10
(Rating for the outro: 10/10)
Editor: George Κ.
Related Link: Jinjer – Official Page
