Jinjer - Micro

The Ukrainian band has seen the gradual build of a fair amount of viral hype over the past few years. Their skilled and varied blend of ambient elements into a proggy form of djenty metalcore is certainly interesting enough on its own to set them above the average, generic practitioners of downtuned metalcore, but even so, the subgenre has become so expansive and diverse that even a blend of musical styles such as Jinjer’s is not enough to really separate them all too distinctly from the crowd they’re in. What has really turned so many eyes toward Jinjer as of late is the similarly skilled, juxtaposed handling of harsh growls and angelic clean vocals by frontwoman Tatiana Shmailyuk.

The dual wielding of cleans and growls is certainly nothing new in metalcore; in fact it’s pretty much standard in the semi-proggy niche Jinjer occupy, but the slightly different timbre of Shmailyuk’s growls and the elegance of her clean singing (an element not too common in metalcore), combined with the rest of the band’s technical and thoughtful approach to their style, has shown to be the recipe for just the degree of uniqueness they needed to get some traction in their field. They’re not the first to be doing any one thing that they do, but they have become one of the most prominent in their niche lately due to the way they seem to have lined up all their musical elements in the right place at the right time.

I have enjoyed the songs I’ve heard from the band, but in what I’ve heard from them, their writing has often been based more heavily on the arrangement of the different musical styles they incorporate and less on specific musical ideas and motifs, which is fine; not everything has to be riff-centric. I love plenty of albums whose appeals are not based at all on riffage. But when it comes to Jinjer’s style of prog metal/metalcore, the symphony of styles can come across as meandering or simply leaving something memorable to be desired due to the frequent deficiency in interesting instrumental motifs. So with the band’s new EP this year, I was hoping they would step up that aspect of their game and inject some of what seems to have been missing from their music over the course of the few songs on this project.

At just 20 minutes with its five tracks, Micro is the baby-step in the right direction I had hoped for from the band, focusing on making their music about more than just their sound and their blend of musical styles. The first song, “Ape” wastes no time and kicks things off quickly with an allegro, djenty groove-fest, which, despite it not being super memorable, is still rather infectious and mobilizing. Shmailyuk’s vibratos on the track alternate between haunting and ethereal and do well to bring the needed dynamic to the song.

The second track, “Dreadful Moments”, loses a bit of the opening track’s momentum in its mid-paced djent-fest, but Shmailyuk’s cleans temporarily lead the song into the kind of menacing territory the band thrive in. Overall though, the song jumps around kind of aimlessly more out of a lack of its being able to conjure the kind of grooves or atmosphere it seems to be trying to.

The record’s longest song, “Teacher, Teacher!”, takes aim at religious indoctrination as the band go for a more alt-rock-oriented sound, losing a bit of their metalcore intensity along the way. Shmailyuk gives off some Otep vibes during her delivery of the staccato cleans, but only slightly. It’s a little different for them, but it’s not quite bold enough to be the kind of number it seems to be designed to be.

The album’s crown jewel is the effervescent “Perenial”, which finds the band hitting the sweet spot they need to aim for more often. With a tasty djent groove leading the way to a climactically clean-sung bridge made all the more lingering by the band’s more post-metal approach at the right time, this song is a fine example of Jinjer at their most potent.

The EP ends with the short, titular acoustic outro, which really doesn’t do anything for or against the album, but it’s a decent bow-out. There is definitely some good progress to take away from this short release, as well as a reinforcing of where Jinjer need to continue to direct their energy in the future. Hopefully the band use this project to gauge where to put that work in on their next album and strengthen their attack.