Ukrainian alt/progressive metal band JINJER is set to release their fifth studio album, titled “Duél”, on February 7, 2025, through Napalm Records.
With their technical grooves, heavy progressive elements, and the dynamic blend of clean vocals and powerful growls from the incomparable Tatiana Shmayluk, JINJER has earned millions of streams and views across various platforms. The band has achieved widespread acclaim from both fans and critics. Their journey has been marked by relentless touring and highly successful album releases, including their chart-topping 2021 album, Wallflowers. Duél represents JINJER at their peak, setting yet another unmatched benchmark in the realm of modern metal.
Following the release of their stunning single and video “Someone’s Daughter” and the hard-hitting track “Rogue” earlier this year, JINJER now unleash another untamed force with their latest single, “Kafka”. The track is led by Tatiana’s strikingly clear vocals, delivering a heavy, slow-burn intensity that creeps under the listener’s skin, only to erupt with venomous growls by the song’s powerful conclusion.
Shmayluk on “Kafka”: “Being an artist is sometimes beautiful but most of the time it’s brutal… as our art is dissected word for word and ripped apart note by note. We’re expected to be on point all the time … and when we aren’t, we are scandalized. A true artist is vulnerable but the crowd is most often plagued with vultures who pick at every single move you make. It’s a slippery slope when music means the world to us but how quickly praise turns into prosecution… We are all Kings and Queens for a day but most of the time it feels like a Kafka novel for a lifetime. It’s exciting but surreal and absurd at the same time.”
While JINJER’s previous album Wallflowers leaned towards a more melodic approach, featuring a noticeable increase in clean vocals, Duél takes a decidedly more aggressive direction. Tracks like “Rogue”, “Green Serpent”, and “Dark Bile” showcase the band’s ferocity with crushing breakdowns and unrelenting intensity. Fans of Tatiana Shmayluk’s clean vocals will still find moments to appreciate, particularly in the opener “Tantrum”, where her exceptional vocal range is on full display. Overall, Duél is a much harsher offering, with JINJER at their most vicious. “Fast Draw” stands out as a fierce death metal assault, driven by Vlad Ulasevich’s grooving drums, Roman Ibramkhalilov’s distinctive riffs, and Eugene Abdukhanov’s signature bass mastery—demonstrating the band’s unparalleled skill in delivering cutting-edge modern metal.
On Duél, JINJER maintain their long-standing partnership with renowned producer Max Morton, who co-produced, mixed, and mastered the album. This latest masterpiece upholds the band’s status as metal innovators, once again proving that JINJER defies genre conventions, forging their own path of creativity and originality.
Eugene Abdukhanov, JINJER bassist, states about the new album: “First of all, it‘s hard to believe that we’re about to release our fifth full-length album! After all the releases we’ve made, finally having ‘Duél’ in our hands and ready to be shared with the world makes us very proud that our band still hasn’t run out of creativity and inspiration. The fact that we still challenge ourselves to release the best music we have ever made with each new release is what keeps JINJER moving forward.
“This upcoming album was the longest songwriting process we’ve ever had and it took almost two years to complete. We worked very hard with every free minute we weren’t on tour, recording demos over and over again and always searching for the perfect sound for guitars, bass and drums. It was also the first time that Tatiana did vocal pre-productions, so it’s safe to say that none of our releases were so well thought out and calculated as this one. It pulverizes the boundaries of the modern progressive metal genre but still remains sophisticated, exciting and extreme all at the same time. We took up the challenge to expand our musical horizons even wider than before in order to cement Duél to be the next step in JINJER’s musical growth and hopefully the evolution of metal music in general.”
Track listing:
01. Tantrum
02. Hedonist
03. Rogue
04. Tumbleweed
05. Green Serpent
06. Kafka
07. Dark Bile
08. Fast Draw
09. Someone’s Daughter
10. A Tongue So Sly
11. Duél
photo by Lina Glasir
