Around the World: Ukraina (Україна)

 

CLICK FOR POLISH VERSION 

When analyzing each country in regards to what was going on during the "trvest ov timez", I realized how crucial to my understanding was the historical context and geographical situation. Not many countries exemplify it stronger than Ukraine.

Tumultous history and numerous tragedies stormed through this country - holodomor, Volhynia genocide, explosion of Chernobyl's reactor, and constant wars and pogroms. Such brutal events just had to put their mark on the national psyche, maybe that's why the Ukrainian music feels so possessed, as if it was a sound of wraiths and ghouls.

Another important aspect, is a pretty clear division of the scene. I will not surprise anyone if I say that it divides between the East and West, as they differ in prefered genres, albeit they do have some common threads. Mainly, both regions play with severe brutality and without a compromise, while also managing to be original creations.

West is represented through Kharkiv Oblast and globally known Black Metal scene with a controversial nationalistic touch. Suffice to mention such legends as Nokturnal Mortum, Dub Buk, Drudkh, or my personal fave, Hate Forest. It is characterized by huge amount of Folk and experimental approach, trying to widen the possible usage of instruments. It's not that far stylistically from what are Belarussians doing, or Lithuanians, with the difference that Ukrainians prefer morbidity and completely darkness.

East on the other hand prefers Brutal Death Metal, with some Deathcore flavor, for a better groove. Examples would be Mental Demise, and Datura - interestingly enough these bands originated in the areas currenctly (as of 2025) occupied by Russia, namely Donetsk, and Luhansk. Donieck i Ługańsk. Another thing is that these band remind me of Russian Slam Death Metal, with one crucial difference - Ukrainians prefer to play orderly and don't forget about choruses, while Russians prefer going into schizoidal experiments and they gladly cross the border (this time of extremity limit).

Of course, not all that is East is Death, or that is West is Black, as things are interchangeable. Fleshgore from Kiyv is exaclty such modern brutality, but with extra catchiness. And lest we forget, initially the West side was the cradle of classic Death Metal, like Tessaract, Euphoria, Flying, or extremely important Infected, or my personal favorite, Crasher (yeah, they're spelled like that), about whom I probably should write someday, or veterans from Reactor, who started as this delightfully sick and rotten Death / Thrash, afterwards they gradually moved onto (brutal of course) Industrial.

In regards to other genres, I should mention Thrash, and this time I would pick Adem as an example - I don't have to say that they play some pretty agressive and venomous type of Thrash, do I? Another curio is underrated Phantasmagory, who play like Atheist, but with more freeform and jamming. It's quite a weird band enough, that I could easily confuse them with Czechia, as they remind me of Vuvr. Another distinction goes to almost Funeral Doom Metal, Mournful Gust, but such style is a rarity there. Some people might remember Semargl, who once upon the time raised controversies with their "Satanic Pop Metal" album. The cherry on top belongs to Castrum, who named their music "Medieval Metal", which is actually just Melodic Death.

While slowly reaching the end of this post, I must mention important Ukrainian labels, and among them Moon Records, who were the main company important, as well as releasing local stuff. Like many Eastern European labels from the '90s, their imports could be considered "bootlegs". But what I really liked about them, were the genre descriptions on the covers of their tapes, like this one:

 

"New Nuclear Metal Wave Death Doom Industrial" - maybe it's an over-the-top tag, but pretty unique and memorable. And if I'm not wrong, Moon Records is the only label in the history of Metal so far, who released polish "Violent Dirge - Craving" on CD. Maybe someone will finally do it officially. And if we talk about elite labels, I also have to mention Archivist, The Devil's Elixir, Propaganda, but you can read more about them if you click them.

And that's all folks. I'm going to play some Stalker tonight for sure.